Issue: Clinton’s Cabinet : Throughout his campaign for the White House, candidate Bill Clinton told audiences that “if you vote for me, I will give you an Administration that looks like America.” Do you think that the President-elect has lived up to his promise?

Annette Flores-Gamboa, Third-grade teacher

I think Clinton has selected the best people to represent the Cabinet. I feel confident because Clinton is so thorough. I’m sure he did his homework. And I’m sure he has checked their backgrounds out thoroughly and these were the top people for the positions, regardless of who they are. His reputation is riding on them. My husband and I are supporters of Clinton.

During the Bush and Reagan (years) there wasn’t a lot of diversity and that’s not fair. Hopefully, Clinton will make a difference. I see that Clinton is trying to show the public that he is going to try other nationalities. He is going to try the women. He’s going to see if they can help out or that they will make a difference. And hopefully they will. I’m sure they will. I have a lot of confidence in them.

Laurence Davis, Electrician

I think it’s important to have more women. I think we’re going to get a lot of feedback from that, from the fact that there are women in his Cabinet. We’ll find out what this is going to do. I’m just going to wait and see what happens. I think it makes Clinton look good going into his presidency. We’ll see what happens.

Eloisa Isip, Los Angeles city employee

I was for the Republicans (and) for Bush. Bush has got women too on his Cabinet--Lynn Martin and Elizabeth Dole who just resigned. So it’s not really that much of a change. I guess people are tired of the hardships we had (during the Bush Administration). So much unemployment and the economy was so bad.

But in terms of representing women (and minorities), I do not think Clinton is really any different than Bush was. I think he picked these women to make a change, so he could make a difference. But I don’t really know them. I’ve never heard of them. Let’s see what’s going to happen.

Teddy Mesfin, College student

What Clinton is doing is excellent. He is taking people from the different races, so not only white people are running the country or only black people are running the country. It’s a mixture of different colors. You have black (advisers) who know more about blacks. You have Latinos who know more about Latinos.

He is the perfect example for future Presidents. Now there’s a mixture of races and of men and women. Let’s say that after Clinton somebody else is running the country and (has) only white males or only black males (in the Cabinet). That will put him in the position where people will say, “Didn’t you learn some kind of example from the previous government?”