Hope! Change! Forward Into The Past!
Clintonistas! Notice the media spin? The only people ready to “hit the ground running” are experienced Clintonistas! Former insiders to the Clinton mob are the only people capable of governing. None of that hopey-changey riffraff need apply.
Obama’s victory in the general election produced what his primary campaign couldn’t: A swift merger of the Clinton Wing of the Democratic Party with the Illinois Senator’s self-styled insurgency. The merger began, during the campaign, in the policy apparatus — which is now rapidly becoming the governing apparatus.
The absorption of the Clinton government in waiting represents Obama’s choice not to repeat what he and his advisors see as an early mistake made by the last two presidents: Attempting to wield power in Washington through an insular campaign apparatus new to town.
Obama’s first major appointments have been Democrats who worked for President Clinton and did not endorse him in the primary: Transition chief John Podesta and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who will be White House chief of staff, stayed neutral, and Ron Klain, who will be Joe Biden’s chief of staff, backed Biden. Obama, advisers told Politico, may even be weighing offering Hillary Rodham Clinton herself the Cabinet plum of Secretary of State.
Everything old is new again. The same, tired names are being floated. The same names who have been around for nearly twenty years now.
Hope? Change?
Really?
One has to point out the obvious here. How did those experienced hands get their experience? Why, by being new to the job and learning.
Maybe one should be asking this question: Is their experience still relevant? The world has changed a bit since they left their Clinton administration positions.
Hillary Clinton would be crazy to take a subservient position in the Obama administration, frankly.
Is this the change Obama’s true believers were hoping for? Heck, is this the change the candidate was hoping for? Saddled with the same, old names who once served his rival?
By Sam L., November 15, 2008 @ 9:15 am
Nope, not the hopey-change the hopey-changers were lookng for, but for those of us not blinded by the light of the OMessiah…
By martian, November 15, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
The candidate of change has become the President Elect of the Clinton Administration. So much for change.
By Bill Franklin, November 15, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
What role did Chuck Hagel play in the Clinton Administration?