Is Obama Appointing the Right Wrong People?

Many years ago I managed the Menswear Department at a large clothing store in Houston, Texas.  I occasionally socialized with the store's general manager, a woman named Nancy Coble.  I remember there was an opening for a supervisory position in Ladies Lingerie, and two equally talented employees were vying for the promotion:  Mary, who got along famously with everyone in the store from department heads to custodial help; and Claire, who was efficient but overly opinionated.  Claire seldom missed an opportunity to point out the missteps of others.  She even cornered me in the elevator once and launched into tirade about one of my part-time workers.  The woman was not popular.  So when it was announced that Claire had been awarded the manager's position the entire store was stunned.  That evening after work I met Coble for cocktails, and I asked her why she had passed over Mary and given the job to such an unlikable person.  Coble laughed and said, "Claire will keep the rest of you on your toes.  Hell, she'll even keep me on my toes.  It should be entertaining."

Albert R. Hunt writes a fascinating piece for Bloomberg.com about some of President-elect Obama's eyebrow-raising cabinet choices:  The lesson is not to avoid strong-minded people with different views; it is to appreciate that this works only with a strong-minded, temperamentally secure president who thrives on intellectual combat.  The inspiration for Obama is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals,” a riveting and much-acclaimed account of how Lincoln recruited for his Cabinet former political opponents who initially thought themselves superior to the man who went on to become America’s greatest president.

Conflicting personalities aside, Obama's appointments are not finding favor with everyone...  (More after the jump.)

Joseph Williams at the Boston Globe reports progressives are upset "that Obama so far has gone too far in one direction, bringing in too many of the same Washington insiders and undermining his own message of change.  Obama, they complain, hasn't given a top Cabinet job to a true liberal, and grumble about the expected appointments of rival Hillary Clinton - a centrist Democrat - as Obama's secretary of state an of Robert M. Gates, a Republican appointed by President Bush, to stay on as defense secretary for at least a year."

The Wall Street Journal, predictably, offers sarcasm:  The names floated for Barack Obama's national security team "are drawn exclusively from conservative, centrist and pro-military circles without even a single -- yes, not one! -- chosen to represent the antiwar wing of the Democratic party."  In his plaintive post this week on the Nation magazine's Web site, Robert Dreyfuss indulges in the political left's wonderful talent for overstatement.  But who are we to interfere with his despair?

So far, not so good.  After all, Americans voted for change.  Right?  Isn't that what this election thing was about?  We'll be watching to see just how "strong-minded" and "temperamentally secure" (as well as how progressive) our new Commander-in-Chief really is.  Like my ex-boss once said, it should, at the very least, be entertaining.