Obama brings on Clinton policy director
Posted: Friday, June 27, 2008 3:04 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The unity continues... Obama has incorporated former Clinton policy director Neera Tanden into the campaign. Tanden "will help coordinate the domestic policy process under Heather Higginbottom, the campaign's Policy Director," according to an Obama campaign release.
VIDEO: Joining Hillary Clinton at a rally in Unity, N.H., Barack Obama says, "I've admired her as a leader; I've learned from her as a candidate. She rocks." Watch his entire speech.
Also joining the campaign is Melody Barnes, who currently serves as the executive vice president at the progressive group, Center for American Progress. Barnes will have the title of Senior Domestic Policy Advisor.
"Barnes also served as Chief Counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee," the campaign notes in its release. "In that role, she helped to fight for civil rights, women’s health and reproductive rights, shape commercial law and religious liberties laws, and review executive branch and judicial appointments."
*** UPDATE *** From a March memo penned by Tanden on Obama's economic plan: "The contrast could not be clearer -- on Monday, Senator Clinton announced a detailed, specific plan to address the housing and credit crisis. On Tuesday, Senator McCain announced that he had no plan. And today, Senator Obama offered just words.” Added at the bottom of the memo, research on how much money Obama has taken from various finance groups.
And, of course, there was health care: “By choosing to forgo a mandate, it’s not universal,” said Neera Tanden, Clinton’s policy director. “It will leave 15 million Americans uninsured. Even with a generous subsidy, millions of Americans will not get health insurance.”
