In my Sunday paper, this story — Kansas Governor Accepts Offer as Health Secretary — appears deep deep in the “A” section…on the same page as the obituaries.
Is the NYT making a joke about the HHS being a graveyard for political careers and archly suggesting the same fate awaits Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, or does the Times just think HHS and health care reform is deadly boring?
Yes.
Should have appointed Octomom. Would have made front page.
It could have been a matter of timing. The obituary page (at least back in my day) is one of the last pages closed; it consists basically of the remnant of the news hole. If the Sebellus news came in at the wrong time for that particular edition of the paper, into the obituary page it goes, and out goes somebody’s obituary.
The odds are that the obituary would have been more interesting and would represent a person with more impact on the world than the typical HHS secretary.