By Michael J.W. Stickings
It is expected that Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack will be tapped by Obama to be agriculture secretary. I've never been all that fond of Vilsack -- he gets more attention than he deserves because Iowa holds the first Democratic caucuses and therefore because he gets pandered to -- and I think Ezra Klein is right that he's just too close to the corn (ethanol) industry: "Appointing him to head the agency is like appointing the governor of a petrostate to head the Department of Energy." Still, as Steve Benen notes, "the news may not be that bad." Vilsack, after all, does seem to be something of a conservationist -- perhaps too much of one for Big Ag, which would be a good thing.
So, as with some of Obama's other questionable appointees -- Gates, Salazar, Jones -- we'll see. I'm still willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, but I'm certainly not as generous with it as I used to be.
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