by Lee Stranahan
To oppose or compete with...
I like David Sirota but the handwringing over the Obama cabinet as evidenced in his new HuffPost article is becoming a bit much.
Let's take on this graf...
...this meaningless "pragmatic Team of Rivals" horseshit - and it truly is media-created horsehit - is clearly being used as a rationale to pack the incoming administration with Establishment figures. Indeed, the "rivalry" isn't between the "team" of appointees (most of them come from the same team - ie. the center-right team of permanent Washington). The "rivalry" is between the positions/ideology of the appointees and the positions/ideology Obama explicitly campaigned on.
This is wrong on two counts because Obama explicitly campaigned on the idea that he liked the idea of 'a team of rivals' which means it's not a horseshit media creation. At worst, it's a horseshit Obama creation.Further, I wouldn't call most of the appointees 'center-right. Some of them are but that kinda proves that Obama isn't center-right by definition...because those are the rivals. You know, the people with some DIFFERENT ideas from Obama.Contrast Sirota with Doris Kearns Goodwin talking about this idea back in August, talking about why this idea would be difficult to implement.
Certainly, if the next president were to bring former adversaries into his inner circle, in the No. 2 slot or as members of his administration, he would display that rare combination of humility and confidence required to perform wisely at the highest level
Humility and confidence. That's the President-Elect I see.