Commonwealth Policy Center

Neera Tanden is the first of President Biden’s cabinet picks to fail confirmation. Tanden was nominated to the Office of Management & Budget but her social media posts attacking legislators led to her withdrawing her nomination. Even though Tanden deleted over 1000 Tweets, it didn’t help. Which is a lesson to us. Once you post something online, it’s there forever. Tanden should have known better. She led the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and was in the public spotlight. Every high-level leader knows that your words must be measured and that getting ugly with your political opponents may come back to haunt you someday, especially if a future job hinges on approval from those same politicians.