As much as I am concerned about "how diverse", I'm more concerned with "how good".  From what I know and/or have heard, I'm satisfied so far with the "how good".  That is except for one selection, which I'm taking a wait and see attitude.  That is the selection of Arne Duncan.  It's baffling to me how you can have someone head a major school system or be a principal in a school and they have not been in a classroom.  Obviously, business acumen is important, but it is no more important than "having walked in those shoes".  And, yes, you have to have been there.  You can't know what it's like to be blind even with a blind fold on for a while, unless you have lived it day and night day after day, after day, after day, after day.  It's not even number 1 (business acumen) and number 2 (classroom experience).  It's more like 1a and 1b.  For a number of years, Chicago has only had 1a.  So, let's see what happens.  Every choice is not going to be a good one because nothing is 100% and it won't necessarily have to do with skills.  I hope is not Arne.  At least President Obama knows how important it is to make education concerns a priority.

 As someone who has worked in the diversity moment and a leadership instructor, I am pleased with President Elect Obamma's choices.  You see he is only has good as his team.  He has put together a team that I feel will work for our country.  He cannot do it alone

 I see a number of white males.  Does this mean that there are no qualified African American males or females with the same level of expertise these individuals bring to the table?  What about more Latino Americans or Asian American?

 And Stephanie, I agree with you,as far as the education system is concerned,If what you say is true,I guess sometimes though when you've tried everything else and nothing has worked,or there have been little or no results, you have to make a U-Turn and go in a entirely different direction

 Equal Opportunity emloyment is crucial,as are qualifications.  Let us not loose sight of the qualifications that each of the candidates brings to the table and to this country.  

Is seems that being a white male in the job market is now considered a leper, regardless of how experienced or educated.   

Maria Milillo, RN, MSN

 I think Pres-Elect Obama's cabinet is diverse enough.  What is more important is if they are competent and willing to enact the difficult progressive policy agenda it will take to turn this country around.  You may recall that Pres. Bush has had one of the most diverse cabinets in US history, and look where that got us!

 I would like to add that diversity does not only include, as was stated "race, gender, orientation, level of ability and ideology", but it also includes culture, life experience and world perspective -- true "hidden diversity".

Obama himself and a few of Obama's cabinet and other administrative choices are people identified as "Third Culture Kids" -- people who grew up in countries/cultures other than their passport/citizenship country. This often leads to a truly multicultural life experience and world perspective.  To illustrate -- a white American male who grew up in Tanzania or Japan will not see the world the same way as a white American male who grew up only in the US, and further more he might not even identify with mainstream white America because even though he is racially white, his culture and outlook is a hybrid of American and Tanzanian/Japanese cultures.

Taken from Ruth Van Reken's article "Obama's TCK Team":

"Barack Obama is the first modern American president to have spent some of his formative years outside the United States. It is a trait he shares with several appointees to the new administration: White House advisor Valerie Jarrett was a child in Tehran and London, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was raised in east Africa, India, Thailand, China and Japan as the son of a Ford Foundation executive, and National Security Advisor James L. Jones was raised in Paris."

I think that in the past 8 years, the international image of the US has been extremely tarnished and that the personal ability to think outside of national boundaries and the experience of  building international relationships is a necessity in reshaping American foreign policy and improving America's international image.  

I hope that Obama's administration will also benefit American diversity by highlighting the thousands of "hidden immigrants" in American society -- the "internally multicultural" children of American service men, diplomats, and multinational corporate employees who often find themselves tangled in the web of America's identity politics and may not feel like there is a place for them in the traditional definition of diversity.

 I am dissappointed that the majority of Barack's cabinet members are from Stanford or Harvard.  What about the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)?  They are the foundation of Black achievement and laid the corner stone that produced the Civil Rights leaders who died so that America could experience Barack's sucess.

It a small circle of citizens that manage the affairs of the United States.  

 This group is not diverse at all. They have a one mindset from the same organization and want the same thing. You have to look past the color which has no relavance. The bigger question is which one is not a member of the CFR? That will answer the question about diversity.

 While Pres-Elect Obama has selected many qualified people of diverse backgrounds, the 20 percent of Americans with disabilities remains unrepresented in his cabinet. I sure hope he sticks to the commitment he made to have a qualified person with a disability serve on his Domestic Policy Council.