As more of the incoming Obama Administration takes shape, many are asking, "Where's the change?" With so many Clinton era retreads-including Hillary Clinton herself-tapped for top positions, many want to know whether we are going ahead to the future or back to the 90s. The answer is we are going where Obama said we would be.
An old Washington saw holds that personnel is policy. In this view, appointing a lot of Clintonian centrists means we'll be seeing a lot of centrist and triangulation-generated policy. But in his announcement press conferences Obama has opened the curtain on a different approach. What he wants is to hear spirited debate from smart and experienced people. Then he will make a decision and expect his department heads, the Cabinet Secretaries, to implement it. Paraphrasing Harry Truman, Obama declared, "The buck will stop with me."
What is clear is that we will be seeing a lot less ideology and a good deal more pragmatism than we have become accustomed to in the past eight years. Obama is interested in what works, not in preconceived notions of how things "should" be in a theoretical construct.
We'll see plenty of change, all right. Neoconservative approaches have produced dismal failure. Obama is hinting at a massive New Deal style stimulus program. He sounds serious about energy independence and environmental crisis. He will engage the world rather than pose, bluster and bully. His economic bent is to work from the bottom up rather than the top down.
And along with these generally liberally-oriented perspectives will come an openness that could accomplish much. Speaking to the Republican governors today, Obama told them that if they have workable ideas for how the federal government can help the states solve their problems, they will always find him "with a ready ear."
The change is Obama himself. It is like night and day.
No comments:
Post a Comment