Obama not looking for the best person, but a diverse candidate!

Here's Politico reporting that Obama is looking for a Woman CEO to replace Larry Summers....He's NOT looking for the best person, but a woman ceo.....If you don't have a problem with that then you don't give a damn about getting this country out of economic recession....This Administration and President doesn't have a clue.


Woman CEO sought for Summers job

By GLENN THRUSH & KENDRA MARR | 9/21/10 9:20 PM EDT

Larry Summers isn’t leaving the White House until the end of the year but President Barack Obama’s team already knows the ideal candidate to replace him on the National Economic Council – a woman CEO.

The pick doesn’t have to fit that bill precisely, but it’s highly likely Obama’s pick will be either a woman or a business leader – and preferably both, said several people familiar with the situation.

Administration officials emphasized there’s no litmus test for the job and they will hire the most qualified person they can find. There’s also no rush – “Nothing’s going to be decided for months,” said one White House aide.

But they are also acutely aware that all of the administration’s big four economic leadership positions – NEC chief, director of the Office of Management and Budget, Treasury secretary and head of the Council of Economic Advisers – are currently filled by white males with virtually no experience running a major business enterprise.

Potential Summers replacements reportedly being initially considered include Rebecca Blank, a Commerce Department official who oversees the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis; Ursula Burns, chairwoman and CEO of the Xerox Corp.; Ann Mulcahy, the company’s former CEO; and veteran economist Laura Tyson, who held the NEC director’s post in the Clinton administration.

Obama is also expected to give a close look to business executives, as well as women candidates currently serving on his Economic Recovery Advisory Board and the President’s Export Council. The president is also known to think highly of Vice President Joe Biden's chief economist Jared Bernstein

The irony that Summers – who once suggested that differences in male and female aptitude may account for the shortage of women in the upper ranks of academia – might be replaced by a woman was lost on no one.

“In this economy — when you think about women making the bulk of consumer decisions and now they are for the first time roughly half the workforce — it does make sense to have a woman’s perspective,” said Lisa Maatz, director of public policy and government relations for the American Association of University Women.

Amy Siskind, the first female managing director of the investment firm Wasserstein Perella, suggested Obama consider her former colleague, Zoe Cruz, the former co-director of Morgan Stanley.

“[Obama] does not seem to understand the need for diversity and gender balance,” said Siskind, who founded The New Agenda, a group focused on the appointment of women to positions of power in business, government and the media.

“We see time and time again in corporate America that companies that have a gender balance perform better.”