Obama’s Old Broom Sweeps Cleaner

[babylonsister]

Odd title, but high praise.

http://watchingamerica.com/News/13724/obama%E2%80%99s-old-broom-sweeps-better/

Obama’s Old Broom Sweeps Cleaner


By Thomas Klau

The fact that change for the sake of change plays no role in his {Obama's} cabinet selections is good news because it’s all about something else: a real change of substance.

Translated By Ron Argentati
27 November 2008
Edited by Sonia Mladin
Germany - Financial Times - Deutschland - Original Article (German)


Obama’s authority at the outset of his four-year term of office is great and the political weight of his foreign policy team in Israel is powerful. So powerful, in fact, that the chances for a breakthrough in the Middle Eastern conflict are better now than they’ve been in years.

The relatively conservative people Obama chose for his advisory team since his election three weeks ago has resulted in two opposing reactions. Those unhappy with his choices complain that he went back on his campaign promise to effect change led by new faces. But the fact is, he’s using old brooms (no offense, Hillary!) to sweep up the heap of trash that represents eight years of George W. Bush. Others complain that Obama’s team has to take over the helm in the midst of a crisis that doesn’t allow them a grace period. When new financial policies and an entire government philosophy have to be created from scratch, it’s not a good time to experiment with Washington newbies.

A team of Nobel prize suspects

Experience in and of itself is no guarantee of anything, as proven by the ever-faithful Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. But it would be frivolous in the extreme for Obama to start off with a team that had to begin learning Washington’s complicated political machinations from day one. Such flippancy – think Sarah Palin – was the hallmark of John McCain’s entire presidential campaign and it led in no small measure to his defeat on election day. “No-Drama-Obama” thought every situation through and his decision in favor of experience was the right one. Clinton (State), Gates (Defense), Geithner (Treasury) and Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff coupled with former Clinton administration insider and NATO Commander James Jones as National Security Adviser; all of them are experienced hands respected by both sides of the political aisle for their common sense and intelligence. Obama, who didn’t make his own appearance on the national stage until 2004, has put together a team of the best and the brightest available in American politics today.

snip//

Extremely courageous, but also extremely statesmanlike because Obama’s authority at the outset of his four-year term of office is great and the political weight of his foreign policy team in Israel is powerful. So powerful, in fact, that the chances for a breakthrough in the Middle Eastern conflict are better now than they’ve been in years. It’s well known that Obama shares the thesis that solution of the Middle East conflict offers the best possibility for better relations between the Western and Islamic worlds. That thesis is practically consensus in Europe but has always been rejected by the American right wing. We also know – more due to his two books than to any public statements he has made as a politician – that he has considered America’s place in the world, its responsibilities and the consequences of its policies, more thoroughly than any President before him.

As surprising as it may first sound, I think it’s possible that Middle East considerations played a major role in the selection of Hillary Clinton and the rest of his advisory team. The brilliant planning of his primary election strategy, focusing as it did on smaller states, and the ingenious way his team exploited internal Democratic Party rules showed that Obama played the political game like a chess grandmaster, always planning several moves well in advance. A breakthrough in the Middle East conflict at the outset of his administration would endow Obama with enormous moral and political authority and would restore the leadership role that was so dangerously weakened under Bush. Obama knows this and so do the savvy and intelligent band of worldly politicians with whom he surrounds himself.

In making his nominations, Obama didn’t try pulling the trick of publicizing a group photo of unfamiliar faces and calling it political change. The picture he is presenting is designed to sooth his critics; America’s next president isn’t out to manage the status quo. His entire career bears witness to his desire to change conditions. The fact that change for the sake of change plays no role in his cabinet selections is good news because it’s all about something else: a real change of substance.

[IndyOp]

1. There certainly aren't many people - other than Rahm, Hillary & Bill - who I could

imagine leaning over the table to speak to Netanyahu in the starkest of terms.

Godspeed. My hopes are for safety and security for all.

:(

On edit: Clarify

[babylonsister]

2. I think any attempts at diplomacy have got to be better than what

we've witnessed for the past 8 years. Your hopes are my hopes.

[MadMaddie]

5. Well anything in more than nothing right?

Condi sucks at her job! * and Condi horrible failures worst in history.

[babylonsister]

6. I think it will be a lot more than nothing. I have faith! nt

[FrenchieCat]

3. "he went back on his campaign promise to effect change led by new faces. "

I don't recall Obama ever making a specific promise of surrounding himself with "new" faces in order to do "change", hence those who are critical of Obama's choices are basing their discontentment on their own expectation not what Obama ever intimated.

[babylonsister]

4. You're right, that's what some people seemed to expect.

I honestly believe we will see change via his appointments and the final say, his; I'm also glad there's a wealth of knowledge and experience there.

[babylonsister]

7. .