I'm talking about brain cells. President-elect Obama has announced his national security team, and there are more than a few such cells to rub together. That’s refreshing.
That’s not to put down everyone that’s on the Bush team, but you can’t accuse Obama of filling positions with old cronies. If you do, well, he has a better class of cronies.
Maybe it’s just that he realizes there are people out there with more experience than he has and he needs their help – his challenge will be to make sure these folks know that he is the decider, to borrow an expression, but he is reassuring us that he’s aware of that.
It doesn’t bother me at all that I don’t feel like I could have a beer with any of these people, much less the President-elect. There are plenty of people I could have a beer with, and maybe some of them could run the country -- but beer-sharing is not a qualification for high office, as far as I’m concerned.
John F. Kennedy had to digest a lot of conflicting opinions as he was deciding how to handle the Cuban missile crisis, and even then, he was taking what most historians now consider a terrible risk, which worked out in his favor. When he took office, he didn’t have all that much more experience than Obama.
Because of what didn’t happen with the Russians and what later happened to President Kennedy, many have elevated him to near sainthood. Obama’s name is often mentioned in the same sentence, or at least the same paragraph, as is the case here. While Kennedy was President, he was a mere mortal, as is Obama. I don’t think Obama is going to be able to walk on water, but I’ll be OK with it if he walks on the rocks for a while.
There, now I've said it.
No comments:
Post a Comment