The National Interest: Gabriel Debenedetti

The Gentle Generalists A Biden style of government is emerging: lowest drama possible.

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THERE WAS NEVER REALLY any question whether Pete Buttigieg would get some sort of job in Joe Biden’s administration—just where, exactly, he would be a good fit. For a while, the thinking was that the 38-year-old might make an exciting ambassador to the United Nations, but that never actually made much sense—Biden is determined to reassert American influence abroad using experienced diplomats—no matter how many languages Buttigieg speaks. And when some people close to Biden floated the idea of the former presidential candidate relocating to Beijing as the ambassador to China, it was swiftly shot down as unrealistic and maybe a little offensive. But Transportation secretary? Now there was a job for an infrastructure obsessive! Who could possibly object to that far-from-the-headlines posting?

When many criticized the pick, however, it resurfaced a nagging question: How, precisely, is Biden making all these decisions? It’s not just Buttigieg. What qualified Susan Rice, a famous foreign-policy expert, to run the domestic policy council? Or California attorney general Xavier Becerra to be a pandemic-era secretary of Health and Human Services?