OBAMA'S CHOICES

Posted at 8:56 a.m. ET

Reflecting on President Kennedy yesterday, on the 45th anniversary of his death, I recalled a story told in David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest."  After an early cabinet meeting in the new Kennedy administration, Vice President Lyndon Johnson took a trip up to Capitol Hill to see his old friend, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn.  Johnson expressed amazement at all the Ivy League professors and Ph.D.'s in the Kennedy White House.  Rayburn leaned back, with a look of worry on his face, and replied that, while that was impressive, he wished that just one of them had run for sheriff.

The moral, of course, is that practical experience, experience close to the people, was also important in government.

The Rayburn story has special significance now, in light of the president-elect's recent and rumored appointments.  David Brooks of The New York Times commented:

This truly will be an administration that looks like America, or at least that slice of America that got double 800s on their SATs. Even more than past administrations, this will be a valedictocracy — rule by those who graduate first in their high school classes. If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.

Over-intellectualizing a problem is always a danger.  However, so far, the Obama team does pass muster in the practical experience department.  An economic team with Timothy Geithner at Treasury and Larry Summers at the White House is sound.  Look, Obama is not going to appoint candidates from Newt Gingrich's Rolodex.  But, so far - and we reserve the right to scream loudly - I don't see any nut cases.  From our viewpoint, we're probably getting as good as can be expected. 

Concerns about Eric Holder at Justice, yes.  Concerns about Queen Hillary at State, of course.  But Cindy Sheehan will not be national security adviser and Code Pink will not have an office in the West Wing.  At least that's a cause for relief.

Now the team, and the ones to join it next, must perform.  In this they will need the help of the sub-cabinet and staff officials.  We should look as carefully at those appointments as we do at the ones at the top.  We must also look at those who are not appointed, but are called upon to give the new president advice.  Here I must express concern, as I have before, over the presence of Brent Scowcroft, Bush 41s national-security adviser, and a man Mr. Obama apparently consults fairly often.  An American security policy must always be, to satisfy the demands of this nation, a combination of idealism and realism.  Scowcroft, in my mind, is a bit too much of a realist, and, despite his military background, never seemed to believe much in the unique qualities of his own country.  But those qualities are what make us America, and I hope the new president keeps that critical notion in mind.  We are not France, and we are certainly not Germany.

November 23, 2008.