So what if she called Clinton a monster? She's rad. She needs to be brought back into the fold - a team of rivals and all that.

Anyone know a good plumber?

Running a government is not child's play. When Carter and Clinton brought total outsiders into government, the career employees in those agencies simply brushed them off. Nothing was accomplished for a year, and by then it was too late. I'm amazed that people who care so passionately about government seem to know so little about how it works.

So far, with the exception of the constant Clinton leaks, I think the process has been quite good. Once again, Clinton has shown that she is a victim of the idiots who surround her. I believe she will be much better working for an Obama administration than as an independent agent, and I think Obama knows that. If she tries to invent her own variation on his foreign policy, she'll see the road quickly. If she manages her agency well and is a team player (albeit an honest participant in the behind-closed-doors "team of rivals") she'll have a clear path to a presidential run when she is not quite 68, and that's not beyond imagining.

Napolitano, Holder, Emmanuel all seem very appropriate to me. I'm sure that Richardson is being held in the wings for state, and hope that he's inclined to take on Energy--a position for which he is well-suited and which will require an equal amount of International Diplomacy.

Relax! If we can just find Bill Clinton a hobby, all will be well.

Michaela

As President-elect Barack Obama's national security team begins to take shape, there is increasing disquiet among antiwar activists that his appointees and rumored appointees have thus-far, without exception, favored the Iraq invasion and held hawkish foreign policy positions.

The persistent reports that Obama is in talks with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates about keeping his position in the new administration had already prompted loud complaints that keeping him on was not in keeping with his campaign's mantra of change. His apparent preference to make Sen. Hillary Clinton his Secretary of State, despite all the times he publicly trashed her position on the Iraq War during the primaries, has only added to those concerns.

But nowhere in Obama's "Team of Rivals" cabinet is any suggestion of an appointee less-hawkish than himself, meaning his increasingly tenuous claim to being an antiwar politician will serve as the base-line for his administration's foreign policy, with his cabinet pulling it in ever more bellicose directions.

Editorial director of Antiwar.com Justin Raimondo says that "the likely appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state should disabuse even the most brain-dead of Obama's supporters that we won't be seeing much change in American foreign policy. If I were an Iranian, I'd start digging a bomb shelter."

Raimondo rather sees antiwar Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel as a much better fit for a key role, saying "that would be an unmistakable sign from the Obama camp that they really are nonpartisan."

Kelly Dougherty, executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War complains that "Obama ran his campaign around the idea the war was not legitimate, but it sends a very different message when you bring in people who supported the war from the beginning. (link)

That expresses my views on what to expect from Obama's war policy perfectly. And I agree with Raimondo that if Obama wants "bipartisanship", he should choose Chuck Hagel as his SecDef. That would be change I can believe in.

As for the economy, I have not seen Obama have anyone on his team who understands that the era of neoliberalism is over.

As for the rest, I have no major complaints. Overall, despite my low expectations, I have been disappointed by Obama's handling of the transition.

Change we can't believe in. No we can't!

I'm not thrilled with what I've paid for so far.

However, it is worth noting that Obama is reaching out to the Right --  I don't see much evidence of reaching out to the Left.

I'm busy trying to save my library and my rec center.


John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??

BTW, President - elect Obama eyes a certain Governor of Arizona for Homeland Security

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama is considering Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be U.S. Homeland Security secretary, heading a sprawling agency formed to bolster civil defense in the wake of the September 11 attacks, a senior Democrat said.

"She's in the mix. She may be the front-runner," the Democrat told Reuters.

Napolitano, 50, is a former U.S. Attorney for Arizona and state attorney general, giving her law enforcement experience that the current secretary, Michael Chertoff, has said was a key qualification.

Defense and Treasury will tell the tale.

More at Zandar vs. The Stupid.

As to be expected.

You isolate yourself from the consensus center that Obama is building with this foolishness, Booman.

He's going to get things done this way, and you are going to be relegated to the sidelines of history.

So it goes.

I wonder who the next Henry Wallace is going to be.

AG

Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.-Mae West