Best Appointment of this Administration

Maybe a better appointment than Richard Cordray. Damn close, anyway. And as it doesn't require Senate confirmation, I'm going to put it in the (nearly empty) container of evidence that Barack Obama might actually govern more liberally if he had a Democratic Congress.

Anyway, I have been a supporter of Partners in Health for years, and I'm here to tell you that anyone strongly connected with PIH is a Good Egg.

From PIH Founders Paul Farmer & Ophelia Dahl:

It gives us great joy to share the news that our Partners In Health co-founder and dear friend, Dr. Jim Kim, has been selected by President Obama as the United States’ nominee for the Presidency of the World Bank.

Jim is an inspired choice to lead the World Bank. Having seen him work in settings from inner-city Boston to the slums of Peru, from Haiti to Rwanda to the prisons of Siberia, we know that for three decades Jim has committed himself to breaking the cycle of poverty and disease. This has been his goal as a physician, a teacher, a policy maker, and a university president; it was ever his goal as a founder and director of Partners In Health, which now operates in more than a dozen countries.

Click here for more information on Dr. Jim Kim and Partners In Health.

Jim has worked in rural villages and squatter settlements, just as he has worked in the halls of power and privilege. Again and again, we, his friends and colleagues, have seen Jim imagine a better future, one that harnesses new technologies and older but sound notions of justice and equity, and links this vision to much more than talk and reports and studies.

Jim is all about delivery and about delivering on promises often made but too seldom kept. We can think of no one more able to help families, communities, and entire nations break out of poverty.

As poverty continues to claim lives, and as inequality deepens, the Bank -- and other institutions charged with lessening poverty -- need bold and experienced leaders and implementers like Jim Kim. Today is a proud day for us at PIH, and it is a great day for the poor and all who serve them.

Even superb World Bank president candidate Jeffrey Sachs says Kim is the best candidate and backs him 100 percent. This isn't a slam dunk. This is a full-court shot, nothing but net, at the buzzer to win the NCAA championship.