He promised to bring change to Washington, but so far, Barack Obama’s early administration lineup looks like a Clinton White House class reunion.
Voters were looking for hope, but not Hope, Ark.
But fear not, seekers of change. Sometimes you need experience to effect change.
By surrounding himself with Beltway veterans who know the ins and outs of Washington, it should be easier for Obama to push through his agenda. His first few appointments have more than whiffs of the bygone Clinton years.
His new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was a senior adviser to Bill Clinton. His pick for attorney general, Eric Holder, was the deputy attorney general for Janet Reno during the Clinton years.
And, of course, he’s even considering Hillary Clinton for secretary of state.
We’re guessing there will be more to come. And that wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Clinton’s two terms were largely successful, discounting his finger- wagging declarations over personal peccadilloes that tarnished his legacy.
It makes sense for Obama to pluck top talent from the most recent Democratic administration. His move will prove to be doubly smart if he surrounds himself with some of Clinton’s moderating influences.
After veering too far to the left for the American electorate’s tastes, Clinton mostly governed from the middle, signing welfare reform bills and presiding over balanced budgets with actual surpluses.
When President Carter, an unlikely candidate who campaigned on change, won the presidency in 1976, he brought along chums from Georgia to serve as his White House staff.
The “Georgia mafia,” as they were known, were unversed in the ways of Washington, and that inexperience led to serious disagreements with congressional Democrats.
Of course, President George W. Bush didn’t have much luck when he tapped Washington insiders to round out his Cabinet. He reached back into Gerald Ford’s Cabinet for Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, and then tapped the controversial Sen. John Ashcroft to become attorney general.
Obama is moving quickly to fill the top jobs and is employing one of the most rigorous screening processes ever seen in Washington.
It would seem that he is trying to learn from past mistakes, such as President Clinton’s choice of Zoe Baird for attorney general, a nomination he withdrew after it was revealed she employed two illegal immigrants to care for her child.
Of course, Obama will make a pick that, in retrospect, probably wasn’t the best choice. But for now, it certainly seems most will know their way around the halls of power in Washington.
And just maybe that familiarity will make them best equipped to make good on the far-reaching change that Obama has promised.
