Cambridge on the Potomac For Harvard, 'change' means a return to power By Drake Bennett | January 18, 2009
OBSERVERS CURIOUS ABOUT the contours of the incoming Obama administration could do worse than scan the pages of the Harvard Crimson. Over the past month and a half, the college paper has treated its readers to a steady diet of stories relaying the news that yet another high-level executive branch job has gone to someone who is, in fund-raising parlance, part of "the Harvard family" - the community of those who, as students or professors or administrators (or in some cases all of the above), have spent time there. Larry Summers, the university's former president, has been named director of the National Economic Council; and Elena Kagan, the law school dean, is Obama's pick for solicitor general. Arne Duncan, a member of the university's Board of Overseers and a graduate of the college, has been selected education secretary; John Holdren, a professor of environmental policy, and Eric Lander, head of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, are key science advisers. Cass Sunstein, one of the biggest names on the law school faculty, will head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and Julius Genachowski, a law school alum, will head the FCC. There is also the lengthening list of alums and faculty members taking on jobs as deputy secretaries, associate attorney generals, ambassadors, and all the other powerful - albeit not always visible - posts whose occupants hash out and enforce the details of policy. That Obama's administration will have a Harvard imprint makes sense. A preternaturally self-confident product of the meritocracy, Obama has a reputation as a seeker of the expertise and intellect that Harvard prides itself on attracting. And while it wasn't something he emphasized - or even much mentioned - on the campaign trail, Obama first made a name for himself in Cambridge, as a standout student at Harvard Law School and the first black president of the school's law review. He remains close to many of his mentors and friends from those days, some of whom are on the long Harvard roster in the administration that assumes power this week. Still, if Washington's new Crimson tint has felt like something of a departure, it's because the Bush years were an era of comparatively slight White House influence for Harvard and its peers. Some Harvard alumni and faculty did serve under Bush, including economics professor Greg Mankiw, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers, as well as college alums John Yoo at the Justice Department and Douglas Feith at the Defense Department, who helped shape the administration's response to terrorism. But the administration's eight years of hiring were shaped by a leeriness of Ivy Leaguers. Bush is vocal in his suspicion of "elites," and the schools that educate and employ them, and his administration tried to create alternative educational feeder systems, looking to institutions like Regent University, a school founded by televangelist Pat Robertson. After this unaccustomed exile, then, many at Harvard can't help savoring a return to the seat of power. ... http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/18/cambridge_on_the_potomac/ *********************************** * POST TO MEDIANEWS@ETSKYWARN.NET * *********************************** Medianews mailing list Medianews@etskywarn.net http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
