This week Obama named one of his best cabinet picks yet: Dr. Steven Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, former chair of Stanford University's physics department, and Nobel Prize-winning (for research in laser cooling and trapping of atoms) physicist, was named Obama's Energy Secretary. Chu also has been an early and strong supporter of alternative fuels and renewable energy research. THIS is the kind of leadership this country needs!

It should be noted that this is the FIRST Energy Secretary who is genuinely an expert on energy.

Dr. Chu's impressive biography can be found here.

Here's a video of Steve Chu at the Davos Annual Meeting, 2007, talking about Climate Change:

I am so not used to a President picking an ideal cabinet pick that I am not sure how to react! The guy sounds excellent. He's got the smarts. He's got to have organizational skills to have run a physics department, and now to run Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Korean Academy of Sciences and Technology. And, critically to me, he has signed onto the Copenhagen Climate Council. He has even actually collaborated with BP (yes...an oil company) to develop alternative energy options.

For all the high profile posts Obama is making fairly typical political appointments. That's normal. Perhaps not ideal, but normal. Let's face it, many appointments are mostly done for political reasons and the appointees rely on good staff to supply the expertise while they provide the political clout and knowhow. But Obama seems to be picking experts for the more techincal posts, and that is something refreshing to see. I may not agree with all of his choices, but they are all well thought out. When I know someone has put this much thought into things, I have some faith that he knows what he is doing.