Other than today’s widely hailed economic team unveiling, the press recently has been making a big deal over the “establishment” appointments being floated by the Obama transition team. The true liberals and “changents” are upset that a cast of usual suspects starring the Billory Clintons is getting the nod. For those looking for a radically different team, they will be disappointed.
Had PEBO (President-Elect Barack Obama) gone with some lesser-known but decidedly big-government liberal types, the establishment (including the financial markets en masse) may have blasted the inexperience and naivete of #44-elect and predicted the end of modern civilization as we know it.
It’s a classic Catch-22, can’t win, damned if you do… scenario.
By going with some tried and true characters – Clinton, Summers, et al – PEBO has the experience in the team to know how to get things done. By putting a pit bullish Rahm Emanuel in as COS, Obama is demonstrating that he’s going to be a driver and not a passenger (in contrast, W was asleep in the trunk most of the time while Rummy, Wolfy and the Neocons went joy-riding). Nobody knows yet how it will turn out, but I think most of the mainstream in the U.S. and abroad is happy to see some familiar faces in the Cabinet and advisors crowd during this once-in-a-lifetime crisis.
The only thing left to see is if PEBO will be successful in actively molding the presidency in his own, expanded-government conception. That will require some humilty on the part of a group not known for being humble.
Given the “no drama Obama” campaign, and Emanuel’s long whip and knowledge of how to use it, this may turn out to be time to say, in the words of Monty Python, “And now, for something completely different.”
