Meet Melody Barnes.During a press conference earlier today, President-Elect Obama announced that she has been chosen as his Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, a role that entails coordinating the domestic policy-making and –makers for the White House. As Shaker Afroacademic aptly described the role in comments, Barnes will be "the Domestic policy czar leading the Cabinet secretaries of Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Energy, Treasury, Agriculture, Transportation, Interior and Veterans Affairs on a mega-board."
A former Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, Obama introduced her today as "one of the most respected policy experts in America"—and if you check out this interview, it's easy to see why.
This appointment makes her one of the most influential African-American women in the nation.
The current Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council for President Bush is Karl Zinsmeister, not just your run-of-the-mill straight white conservative dude, but a patently unqualified and unethical straight white conservative dude who's contemptuous of the very position he's being paid to fill.
Change I can believe in: An eminently qualified and authentically progressive woman of color managing domestic policy.
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