Change Isn't Jumping Off A Cliff For Heaven's Sake

If the leak circuit is any indication Obama is indeed going to be making a number of key appointments drawn from the enormous pool of qualified people associated with the last Democratic Administration. It is not cynicism but a basic expectation of competence that should have made such an outcome a foregone conclusion. Pundits seem to think it's cute to insinuate that these hires somehow violate the spirit of Obama's Change message. Can it be that the Villagers actually didn't know that by "change" most Americans just meant to indicate the keen craving they all felt permanently to see the backside of the killer clowns of the Bush Administration and Movement Republicanism more generally? While it's true that many of Obama's more progressive supporters (me, included) regarded the corporatist Clinton Administration as too uncomfortably close in its governing philosophy to the senior Bush Administration that preceded it, it is indeed true that legions of competent, qualified, actually progressive folks worked with Clinton in some capacity or other. Obama is more of a true Centrist than I am, and so I don't expect to be thrilled with him all the livelong day -- far from it. But so far I see nothing at all to diminish my sense that he represents Change We (me, included) Can Believe In, as the man said. So far, his choices seem to me enormously smart, pragmatic, and facilitative of (if not exactly equal to) the left wing of the possible. People need to get a grip.