Campaign Promises

Other/Miscellaneous -> Appointments -> General
Item	Appointments
General		Grade
AP-10	The Promise: "...in an Obama-Biden administration, every official will have to rise to the standard of proven excellence in the agency's mission." When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan for America "Blueprint for Change" dated 10/09/08 Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html Status:The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) falls under the purview of the Secretary of the Treasury. Upon his nomination for that post, it was learned that Timothy Geithner had evaded paying $26,000 in taxes since the 2001-2002 timeframe, an amount he quickly paid. In this instance, Mr. Geithner had failed to "rise to the standard of proven excellence" in the mission of the department he was nominated and later confirmed to lead. Another example: Ms. Elizabeth Birnbaum was appointed as Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the Department of the Interior on 07/15/09. She apparently did not meet the "standard of proven excellence" demanded by her job in the aftermath of the oil spill of 04/20/10 in the Gulf of Mexico. By some accounts she was fired by President Obama on 05/27/10; by other accounts she resigned after criticism over her lax oversight of oil drilling in general and alleged coziness with the industry she was hired to oversee. To replace Ms. Birnbaum, President Obama selected Mr. Michael Bromwich (a litigation partner at the Fried Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson law firm when selected) to head the MMS, since rebranded as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Mr. Bromwich had no experience with oil and gas issues and thus had no "proven excellence" in his appointed mission. On 06/30/11, General David Petraeus was unanimously confirmed as the Director of the CIA by the Senate. During his relatively short tenure as CIA Director, General Petraeus was discovered to be having an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. General Patraeus resigned as CIA Director on 11/09/12 and later pleaded guilty to one count of having shared classified CIA information with Ms. Broadwell. The CIA's mission was potentially compromised. These are but a few examples where this promise was not fulfilled.	0.00