Robert Reich – with many years experience in DC – offers interesting insights over at his place.
I like this post:
Obama’s immediate challenge is to fill the leadership vacuum created by a lame-duck president with historically-low approval ratings who seems to have lost interest in his job (at this writing, he’s out of the country) and who’s disappeared from the media, and a Treasury chief who has all but punted on coming up with any workable solution to the crisis. But Obama doesn’t become president until 12 noon eastern standard time on January 20 — and the national economy is imploding right now.
Reich describes Obama’s nominees in terms that I find oddly comforting:
All are pragmatists. Some media have dubbed them “centrists” or “center-right,” but in truth they’re remarkably free of ideological preconception. All have well-earned reputations as hard workers, well-versed in the technical details of public and private finance. They are not visible veterans of the old battles over supply-side economics or deficit reduction, nor are they well-known to the public. They are not visionaries but we don’t need visionaries when the economic perils are clear and immediate. We need competence. Obama could not appoint a more competent group.
I know it sounds modest, but after the last years, simple competence from our government is a major victory, a huge transformation. For years now, the progressive blogosphere has described itself as “reality based” – Atrios has a running joke about reality having a liberal bias. Simple, competent, pragmatism is going to be a good thing.
#1 by Richard Warnick on November 26, 2008 - 11:01 am
I have realized with a shock that I have forgotten what competence at the highest levels of government looks like. Writes Bruce Bartlett:
#2 by Glenden Brown on November 26, 2008 - 11:02 am
scary isn’t it Richard? With Bush, there’s been so little competence that we’ve forgotten we can expect it.
#3 by Becky on November 26, 2008 - 11:31 am
I love seeing our new president speaking to us every day, keeping us informed of his progress in assembling a competent cabinet and staff, and revealing plans to help us through troubled times ahead. It does inspire confidence and hope. A stark contrast to the last eight years.
#4 by Dwight Sheldon Adams on November 26, 2008 - 12:16 pm
I can’t tell if it’s better to see the conservatives upset about Obama selecting a “no-change Clinton cabinet” or to see the fact that Obama doesn’t seem to care what they think about it.
Of course, Grassfire.org has already compiled a list of more than 100,000 people who “resist Obama.” It’s good to know that people are buying guns and locking their doors in a grassroots effort to stop a middle-aged black man with a fancy suit and a lot of positive words from breaking into their house and stealing their property. With the 2 times a year report of elderly Davis County residents to police officers that “there’s a black man walking down the street,” I have to wonder how many reports 911 will receive around the country that “there’s a black man walking down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
I swear, it’s so sad to see how negatively people are responding to him. When Bush was elected the first time, I thought it was a bad idea (I KNEW it was the second time), but I waited until he made a mistake before I “resisted” him, and even then I got crap from Republicans for it.
But I am hopeful. I believe that Obama is choosing his cabinet based on exactly what this post is about: competence. Bush doesn’t have it, so why were people so foolish to expect him to select cabinet members who do? But Obama has his shot now. Let’s hope he’s got good aim. I, for one, think he does.
Dwight Sheldon Adams