Well, now that we're done ripping apart John McCain and Sarah Palin, what is it we shall occupy our time with? I suspect we may once again devolve to ripping each other apart, although the opposing spectrum of the blogosphere is not short of targets. Hopefully, what we really do now, is get down to thoughtful spirited back and forth on policy.
Yes, policy. That thing that the last eight years and the McCain campaign lacked more than anything else. Thoughtfully developed, implemented and integrated policy.
Budget policy. Foreign policy. Spending policy. The list will go on and on.
Of course, before President-elect Barack Obama can develop said policies, he needs to create his team.
Person number one would appear to be his Chief of Staff. Current rumors have it that this will be Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL).
We shall see. I think this would be a good pick. I think that I would prefer former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. But that probably just makes me an old fogey! (And I'm still on the sunny side of 40!)
Emanual would keep the White House running smoothly, would retain as much influence as anybody making a switch from the Hill to the White House, and would bring an interesting level of political savvy into the office. That last part is important because I don't think you are really going to see anything quite at the level of Karl Rove in the Obama White House. That's right, David Axelrod will not have his own private entrance to the Oval Office. And, yes, much as I like David, that is a good thing.
That idea of Karl Rove, "The permanent campaign," will now die it's justly deserved death. To be fair, it wasn't really Rove's creation. Dick Morris can probably be credited with creating it during Clinton's years. We've seen how good that wound up too. (Plus, not for nothing, Karl Rove and Dick Morris. Think about that. Anything they agree on can't be good.)
Anyway, I'm rambling. Rahm it probably will be. The other major announcement I expect before the end of the week is the Secretary of the Treasury. State might be, and usually would be, coming as well. But, given the current state of the economy, putting together his economic team will have a very high priority for President-elect Barack Obama. (Nope, still not tired of saying it.)
I'll have a separate post about possibilities for Treasury. I'll also post later, a little more, on how things shook out in the election.
Comments welcome,
Pat McGovern
It's got electoral votes. It's what politicians crave.
