Obama's "Change" of Insider's

It's not a surprise, given the Obamamania euphoria sweeping the land, that despite campaigning on "Change" and as an alternative to a "third Clinton Administration", his installation of a basically a "third Clinton Administration" sans Hillary, is being met with huzzahs and hooray's, instead of disappointment and cynicism.  

The cheering and amazement is most prevalent among the Liberal elite, the Main Street Media, and RINO's (Republicans In Name Only).  If we were discussing set theory, the conjunction of these would almost be a union of all sets.  One of the most ardent RINO's, David Brooks - the NY Times and NPR's house Conservative, couldn't contain himself in his Op-Ed column in today's NY Times.  He gushed, figuratively raising his back, swishing his tail and weaving up against Obama's legs like a cat waiting to be scratched, as he praised Obama's selection of candidates who were not only all alumni of the Clinton team, but.....even better for an elitist like Brooks....genuine, mortar-board wearing Ivy-Leaguers!  OMG!


The list, starting withBarack Obama (Columbia, Harvard Law)  and his wife Michelle (Princeton, Harvard Law), goes forward with: perhaps Hillary Clinton (Wellesley, Yale Law), Jim Steinberg (Harvard, Yale Law), Susan Rice (Stanford, Oxford D. Phil.), Jason Furman (Harvard, Harvard Ph.D.), Austan Goolsbee (Yale, M.I.T. Ph.D.), Blair Levin (Yale, Yale Law), Peter Orszag (Princeton, London School of Economics Ph.D.) and, of course, the White House Counsel Greg Craig (Harvard, Yale Law).


Brooks' admiration for the President-Elect is hard to subdue:

One may not agree with them on everything or even most things, but a few things are indisputably true.  First, these are open-minded individuals who are persuadable by evidence.  Second, they are admired professionals. Third, they are not excessively partisan.

Finally, there are many people on this team with practical creativity. Any think tanker can come up with broad doctrines, but it is rare to find people who can give the president a list of concrete steps he can do day by day to advance American interests.

Believe me, I’m trying not to join in the vast, heaving O-phoria now sweeping the coastal haut-bourgeoisie. But the personnel decisions have been superb.   The events of the past two weeks should be reassuring to anybody who feared that Obama would veer to the left or would suffer self-inflicted wounds because of his inexperience. He’s off to a start that nearly justifies the hype.

I'm not sure how Brooks justifies his numbered appraisals, usually they are made based on observed performance.  And, it seems to me that the comments made about then President-Elect Bush's appointments were more in the line of "retreads from his father's team".  Ah, but that was understandable....most of them weren't Ivy Leaguers (some were, including George Bush, but despite that, they were always characterized as rubes).


What does stand out for me, however, is the preponderance of lawyers.  This does not bode well for our nation in a time of when we have to come to grips with many significant short, and long term, economic issues.  I'd prefer to see a few more people who've made their fortunes by building successful businesses.  But that's difficult to pull off....those type of people usually have too much self-respect than to consort with politicians and lawyers.  And, probably didn't attend an Ivy-League school.