Dominated by moderates
In terms of political positions, Obama's cabinet is clearly dominated by moderates.
The only exception may be Solis, who is close to left-wing Democrats.
Three key cabinet posts -- State, Treasury and Defense -- were filled by moderates.
Clinton is a moderate Democrat while Secretary of Treasury nominee Timothy F. Geithner is nonpartisan.
Gates has worked for Republican presidents during most of his career.
Moreover, at least eight of Obama's cabinet choices are close to a moderate Democratic faction known as the Democratic Leadership Council, or DLC.
Vilsack is a former DLC chairman while Ken Salazar, the Secretary of Interior nominee, is a former DLC convention chair.
Richardson and incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel were keynote speakers at the DLC convention.
Obama's choice for U.S. Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, supports free trade, though it upsets some left-wing Democrats.
Another prominent characteristic of Obama's cabinet is ethnic diversification.
Of the 20 cabinet-level posts announced so far, there are nine nonwhites, accounting for 45 percent of the total and making the cabinet the most diversified in U.S. history.
In the cabinets of the past four presidents, namely George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, the ethnic minorities stood for 27 percent, 32 percent, 18 percent and 6 percent of the total cabinet members, respectively.
While diversifying his cabinet, Obama has managed to reach a balance.
"What's struck me about the Obama cabinet is that it is hard to find choices that say, 'He picked her only because she is a woman, or he picked him only because he's black,’" observed Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
"It's tough to get balance and diversity without making it look like you are trying to get balance and diversity. I think Obama has done pretty damn well," he said.
A broader agenda
The sequence of Obama's announcement of cabinet members reflects his priorities.
It's no surprise that he first introduced the economic and the national security teams.
That's because, in Obama's own words, the biggest challenges facing the country, are "two wars" and the "worst financial crisis in a century."
As a result, the president-elect will put much of his emphasis on the economy and Iraq.
However, given current conditions and his choices for economic and national security teams, it is hard to predict a drastic change on those issues.
In fact, Democrats and Republicans, the Obama camp and the Bush administration seem to find a lot of common ground on the economy and Iraq.
