CNN panel to Obama: Appoint Romney as 'secretary of business'

A CNN panel of journalists and other experts on Wednesday called on President Barack Obama to appoint former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as the "secretary of business."

CNN host Wolf Blitzer noted that Obama would need to name new cabinet members after being re-elected and it would be "a pretty good idea" to choose some Republicans.

"Look at what the president did last night in his speech," Republican strategist Alex Castellanos remarked. "He said he was going to call Mitt Romney and talk about how to move forward together. That was incredibly generous and also incredibly smart politically."

Blitzer suggested that Obama could "go bold" and pick someone like Romney as the secretary of Treasury.

"As soon as the president talked about Mitt Romney and calling him up, the social media was abuzz with the idea, what about appointing Mitt Romney as the secretary of Commerce," senior political analyst David Gergen observed. "Wouldn't that be an interesting thing? I think it's probably a non-starter, but it does emphasize, he does need a CEO business person."

"The president suggested the other day maybe creating a new secretary of business," Blitzer agreed.

"What if Mitt Romney was in that cabinet?" host Suzanne Malveaux specualted. "I mean, he brought Hillary Clinton, kept her close to him, by his side. So, you never know. It could be part of the strategy."

During an interview that aired on MSNBC last week, Obama had floated the idea of "one secretary of business, instead of nine different departments that are dealing with things like giving loans to SBA or helping companies with exports."

But Romney immediately slammed the idea as just "another bureaucrat."

"I don't think adding a new chair in his cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street," the Republican candidate told a crowd of supporters in Virginia. "His solution to everything is to add another bureaucrat."

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Nov. 7, 2012.