Impress

Almost against my will, Obama continues to win me over. I have not one bad thing to say about his cabinet selections to date, except to complain about letting a Republican take over for Napolitano in my former state of Arizona. But even there, from what I've been able to glean, DHS has been so mis-run by Bushism that he needed someone super-competent to clean house, and Napolitano is super-competent. Taking Hillary on as SecState was a slap in the face to the Beltway class, the first time Obama has ever done such a thing that I can remember. And I think he's doing Hillary a big favor in giving her this shot at a role where she can operate without the Washington Babble constantly attacking her. It's a magnanimous gesture, and one I hope a lot of people will remember. My one caveat there is that people ooohed and aaaahed over Bush's cabinet picks, and they turned out to be the most ill-managed, dismal collection of ideologues to inhabit the White House in modern history. I don't think that will happen here, if for no other reason because Obama is half again the man Bush is, but a team of well regarded sub-chiefs does not a success make. But you take an intelligent, thoughtful guy, mix in a strong cabinet, and the willingness to show some sac every once in awhile:



and how can he fail?

The key line is the last: "It is time to act. And as the next President of the United States, I will." My guess is he'd rather avoid making semi-Bushian statements like these, but Bush and the obstructionist Republicans in Congress aren't doing shit while panic is re-asserting itself in the markets, so he had no choice. I think he's committed to going in there and doing whatever it takes to save the economy, the simpering chatter of the Beltway be damned. And that's exactly what it's going to take to get things done. Unfortunately, lacking an equivalent to Fox News and Rush and the gang, a Democratic President needs the Beltway to be at least non-hostile if they're going to get their message out to the public, but the message of a ruined economy speaks a lot louder than Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson and the rest of the dullards.