So what do the Obama lemmings here think of Obama's appointment of the Clintons as Sec of State???

So much for change....

Change still likely with familiar faces on Obama's team

SINCE President-elect Barack Obama has been assembling members of his Cabinet and administration, many say it's looking like a third Clinton term.

The familiar faces prompt critics to wonder, "Is this change?"

Well, yes - and no.

Some from the Clinton years are Washington insiders and veterans who will sidle up with outsiders.

That shouldn't surprise anyone. Returning figures does not mean things will be done the same way, which the president-elect promised will not be the case. Anyway, it would not be wise for him to build his administration totally from either of the two Bush and the Reagan administrations. And since Jimmy Carter, the Democratic president before Bill Clinton, was held in low esteem when he left office in 1981, there was no place for this new president to go but to former Clintonites.

So far, there are experienced Washington insiders and new people. Here's a look at a likely Obama administration.

Secretary of State: U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, former Democratic presidential candidate and former first lady.

Attorney General: Eric Holder, former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.

Treasury Secretary: Timothy Geithner, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Health and Human Services Secretary: Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

Homeland Security Secretary: Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat and a Washington outsider.

Commerce Secretary: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a U.S. representative from 1983 to 1997; 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, and U.N. ambassador and energy secretary in the Clinton administration.

Defense Secretary: Robert Gates may remain as Defense Secretary for about a year.

Several persons are being considered for the other Cabinet and administration posts. Though most are Democrats, an exception is Colin Powell, a Republican on the list to be Education Secretary. The former secretary of state in George W. Bush's first term was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the George H.W. Bush administration.

While Mr. Obama is also bringing in new faces, the makeup of his economic team is what's on Americans' minds right now.

Lawrence Summers joins that effort as head the National Economic Council. Some will recall that while president at Harvard University he said in a speech that men's innate abilities explain why there are more of them than women in science and engineering.

Though that was not smart, Mr. Summers' background explains why Mr. Obama obviously forgave such thinking: both Mr. Summers' parents are economists, two uncles are Nobel laureates in economics, he has a bachelor's in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he holds a doctorate from Harvard.

Joining Mr. Geithner and Mr. Summers is Christina Romer, professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Ms. Romer, whose credentials are described as "impeccable," will lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The president-elect's communications team includes two people in similar posts on his campaign staff. The face of the Obama administration will be Robert Gibbs as press secretary. CNN.com says he worked for Sen. Fritz Hollings, the Democratic Senatorial Committee, and for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign.

Dan Pfeiffer will be deputy communications director to newcomer Ellen Moran, executive director of Emily's List, which helps get Democratic women elected.

Americans want people in Washington who know what they are doing always, and especially now. Nobody wants a Cabinet member or administrator to pull up to a passerby in Washington to ask: "Would you please tell me which way to Pennsylvania Avenue? I think the address is 1600."

That would not be good, and Mr. Obama is too smart to let anything like that happen just to convince people looking for change in all the wrong places.

The president got a lesson in politics. He doesn't make decisions...the folks with the money make the decisions. That's a very old concept.

The president, as you say, is not the only one making decisions in America. Do not forget the congress and the senate are not just there for nothing. every law and major decision that is made has to pass through the legislature of the country. Another thing you have to know is that decisions are made according to the social political and economic needs of the country's citizens, therefore when you see them benefiting know that the decisions were really good not that those are the people who made the decisions. Obama makes sure his decisions are popular among the majority of citizens in the country unlike Bush and the republicans.

How does he "make sure his decisions are popular with the citizens"? Are most people in favor of the bailouts? Obama never asked my opinion? Do most citizens favor the AIG bonuses? Obama & his ilk sure thought it sounded good.

He does not care what you think he has a plan and you will not get in his way.

Oh, I believe you when you say he does not care what I think, but the point you are missing is that he doesn't care what anyone thinks. He has a grand scheme and he has to line up the lemmings in odfer to pull it off.

You are wrong about this now my friend. The president really cares but he responds to reason and what is good for the majority of the citizens. He does not have to respond to the whims of a few citizens who are un-understanding and ready to oppose everything he has to say or do.

Yea, charox, that is the problem. I feel that far too many people, in this forum and in real life, are way too quick to judge anything Barry O does as negative. They have an innate bias towards anything Obama. Why? I don't know-- but it's clear.

Give the man a chance to lead for at least a year or two before blasting him like this. Trust me, he wants the best for everyone because its in his own interest to be a good leader, too. No one wants to be remembered as a bad leader and I doubt that someone of Obama's intelligence would do anything to make himself a bad leader. Just relax!!

Relaxing is what got him in office.

yes by all means please sit back , have a cold one , watch the boob show and leave the driving of this great Nation down the tubes to them. were screwed and you obama guroos know where this is headed unless he is stopped soon.