At the risk of sounding like even more of a dork than I usually do, I think that this past week I’ve been experiencing election withdrawl. The fact that we had so many Senate races take so long to get resolved kind of helped a bit, but there was a certain fascination I had with looking at poll numbers and electoral projections and trying to figure out how the big races would be resolved. Now, with Saxby Chambliss likely to retain his Senate seat in Georgia (I just don’t see Jim Martin getting the turnout he needs to overtake Chambliss, especially without Barack Obama on the ticket this time around), the only real question mark is Minnesota, which is at least providing some interesting numbers to crunch. I also have to admit that in spite of the fact that we’re not exactly on the same page politically, I have a bit of a personal shine to Al Franken and I’d kind of like to see him in the Senate, if only because it would make Bill O’Reilly head explode. I’m still watching that race, but I’m only now really able to put the election behind me.
That being said, as much as I like Barack Obama on a personal level and I want him to succeed, so far his transition is doing nothing to earn my confidence. I’m not sure if I fully buy in to all the Team of Rivals talk when it comes to Obama — so far he’s got fewer Republican appointees named than either Clinton or Bush 43 had in their first cabinets — and the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is particularly troubling. As others have pointed out already, it’s pretty much the worst position for her to take in terms of an Obama cabinet (if she had to be in the cabinet, Health and Human Services would have been a much better fit), and I fear that she’s basically getting the post so she can position herself to succeed Obama in 2016. I realize we’re still early in the process here, but so far the only good appointment I think Obama has made is Rahm Emmanuel for his chief of staff, and that’s only because Emmanuel has the right temperament for an Obama administration, not because of his politics.
To cut to the quick, even if Obama has a number of "rivals" in his cabinet, so far they’ve all been rivals to his right. I understand the strategy of running to the middle of the political spectrum, but ever since Obama gained the Democratic nomination, progressives have had plenty to worry about, from his vote to give criminal immunity to the telecoms for whatever role they played in spying on us for the current administration, to his backing off on previous promises regarding Iraq troop withdrawls and offshore oil drilling. Now it appears that Obama’s definiton of "rivals" is one-sided, and there’s no hope of a Dennis Kucinich or a Carol Moseley-Braun being appointed to his cabinet. I’m not saying that Obama can’t get a lot accomplished with the team he’s choosing, but all the promise and hope that some progressives had in Obama seems to be fading fast.