Reply #22: For the first time in my life I feel a small sense of ownership in an administration.

[bklyncowgirl]

I've never supported a winner before.

Alright, I did vote for Clinton but that was after supporting everybody but Clinton in the Democratic primaries in 1992 and talking myself out of castng a third party vote. It was a hold your nose moment, really.

I was disappointed in Al Gore's campaign and had to talk myself out of pulling the lever for Ralph Nader. Best electoral decision I ever made.

I would have owned John Kerry--sort of--although I did switch my support to Howard Dean some time around October of 2004.

This go 'round Richardson was my first choice, Obama my second. It's the experience thing. When Richardson dropped out and Obama's campaign was showing signs of a degree of planning and organization that was truly incredible and frankly wiping the floor with the mighty Clinton machine, I was absolutely positively overjoyed to throw my support behind him. If the guy ran the country like he ran the campaign we'd be in very good hands.

Like you I'm not too sure about some of those cabinet picks but I'm going to give the guy the benefit of a doubt. Sure Paul Krugman as Treasury Secretary would be awesome beyond awesome but it was not going to happen. As for Robert Gates, while I'd personally like to see anyone involved with the Bush administration tarred and feathered and ridden out on a rail, Gates was brought in to clean up Rumsfeld's mess and by and large he has done a good job.

One of the reasons that so many of us have hated George W. Bush was the more than sneaking suspicion that we were smarter than the clown that our fellow Americans elected President. That's not the case with Obama. He's smart and he's surrounded himself with smart people. I'll take competence over ideology any day.