Yes We Can!

Perhaps I am getting carried away here, but I just ordered me one of these:


You think I'm kidding? I'm not! I don't know if I'll actually put it to use, but it would be nice to join the legions of cars in the faculty parking lot at work that are proudly adorned with Obama/Biden bumper stickers (whereas I never spotted a single McCain/Palin bumper sticker -- and I looked for one every single day walking to the office).

If Obama had announced his national security team and his economic team while he was running for office, then I'd have voted for him, but he'd have lost. What a curious state of affairs.

People keep referring to Obama's chosen advisors as "centrist," but I'll take centrists like these for his national security team any day:

Obama team tilts right, doves keep faith

By JONATHAN MARTIN | 11/27/08

Leading opponents of the war have mostly been silent as president-elect Barack Obama, who first built his national image on the foundation of his early opposition to the Iraq war, assembles a group of national security hands that is anything but a team of doves.

It's a disorienting moment for the peace wing of the Democratic Party, at once elated America selected a new president opposed to the Iraq war and momentarily disoriented by the imminent removal of a commander-in-chief whose every action they've opposed for the past eight years.
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Still, it’s clearly a team that tilts to the right of Democratic foreign policy thought.
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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton also supported the Iraq war resolution, a vote that Obama framed as a critical failure of judgement during the primary. She's also taken a harder line on Iran than the president-elect—and is in line to be his Secretary of State.

Jim Jones, a retired Marine General who advised Clinton, Obama and John McCain during the campaign and has refused to disclose his partisan leanings, is slated for National Security Adviser. And running the Pentagon? For at least the first year of his administration, it’s virtually certain that the new president will retain Robert Gates—the Secretary of Defense appointed by President Bush.

It makes sense to refer to this team as "centrist" only if you mean "center right."

With regard to Obama's economic team, the term "centrist" seems a bit more applicable, and that's not a bad thing at all. Most important, there is not the slightest hint of left wing ideology among this group of advisors. Investors Business Daily has a sensible take:

A Reassuring Start

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Transition: There could be many reasons for the market's four-session, 20% run-up. But one of the them, we suspect, is a succession of surprisingly nonthreatening appointments by Barack Obama to his leadership team.

Given Obama's public pronouncements and past associations, Americans had every right to worry that his election would signal a great lurch leftward in Washington. And once Congress reconvenes, that may yet happen.

So far, however, most of the signals the president-elect has given suggest he will — as we hoped almost against hope — govern from the center. His appointments, Cabinet and otherwise, look like he's putting effectiveness first and saving ideology for later, if then.
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Hardly a harbinger of change, the New York Fed chief is the current administration's point man on the banking rescue. At Treasury, Geithner should ensure continuity, and his pro-market record, along with the respect he has in Congress, should help smooth the path toward recovery.

Then there's the return of the cerebral Larry Summers, a key member of President Clinton's economic team. At the National Economic Council, he should be a trustworthy voice for fiscal discipline and free trade.

Also welcome is Christina Romer, who will lead research and analysis at the Council of Economic Advisers. Given Obama's support for higher taxes, this is a particularly intriguing choice because she is the author of a major study showing how tax hikes are a drag on economic growth.

We can think of better choices for commerce secretary than New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. But his trips to Latin America and reports that he favors free trade may enable him to correct his party's course on protectionism and help pass pending free-trade pacts with Colombia and Panama.
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All in all, a reassuring start — especially for financial markets that no doubt sold off partly in anticipation of what looked to be the most far-left, pro-government, anti-business administration in memory. Let's hope the market continues to rally in happy affirmation of that old axiom: Appearances can be deceiving.

Appearances can, indeed, be deceiving. In a way, I find this whole turn of events to be somewhat disorienting. I strongly believe that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, yet Obama's past behavior would not lead anyone to predict that he would choose this team of advisors. He did speak a few words about "reaching across the aisle," but I thought he was just paying lip service to the idea. I'm tickled pink that I appear to have been dead wrong about that.