Transition to What?

I am writing this on Friday, November 7th. I am actually in Costa Rica today. However, I am pretty sure of what’s gone on in my absence.

Obama has put in place his transition team. He is choosing his White House Staff and cabinet members. He has tried to avoid the mistakes of Bill’s transition team and has worked hard to emulate Ronald’s. He has placed some people in positions and he is trying to coax others to climb aboard.

This is not an overtly watched process, but who he places in these positions says an awful lot about his positions. Want an example?

Donald Rumsfeld. Was there any question on what Bush was thinking when he placed him in his position? C’mon really? No. The problem was America in general didn’t know how much of a ‘hawk’ he was. Why? Because, we don’t pay attention.

Who the president surrounds himself with is a key indicator of what is coming. But instead of paying attention, we are living our lives, going to work, seeing movies, and spending time with our families. This is the key reason we are not really a democracy. We don’t actively participate in politics, we vote people in to do that for us.

So who is Obama putting in? How far to the right are they? Do you know? How do you find out?
Did he put a Republican in any of the positions? Did he offer any job to a moderate voice? Do you know? How do you find out?

These people will advise him, because he can’t know it all. So we need to pay attention to his choices as well, or we will all end up with another batch of problems that will need to be solved. Oh, yeah there’s that socialism thing again.