Everybody Wants a Piece of Him

Written by: Michael Kuykendall on Nov 16, 2008 12:25 PM EST

The new President has been selected, and all the disparate, pissed-off members of the "anti-Bush League" are lining up to voice their particular issues- why everyone should step back, take a breath, and let the man try and do his job.

As I guess could have been expected, considering the enemies George W. Bush made over the last 8 years, now that Obama has won the presidency everyone is lining up to try and take a bite out of the man. Take this for instance from the NY Times;

With the possibility of a position for Senator Clinton as well as Mr. Obama’s choice of Ms. Jarrett as a close adviser, Politico’s Lisa Lerer hears concerns among women’s groups that the Obama White House will be male-dominated, as was the upper echelon of his campaign brain trust. Here’s more:

Women’s rights advocates acknowledge it’s still early in the transition process, but they say early staff picks and the lists of rumored Cabinet nominees send the wrong signal.

“It’s appropriate that Obama’s vetting Clinton, but she’s one women,” said Amy Siskind, co-founder of The New Agenda, a nonpartisan women’s rights group founded by former Clinton supporters. “We want to see parity in the representation of women in the Cabinet.”

That's laudable, of course. Who wouldn't want to see women's rights increase, especially when there's a parity of sexes in the Cabinet? Or how about this perfectly appropriate request from Newsweek

Here's a radical suggestion: Barack Obama should pick the smartest people he can find for his cabinet. Brilliance has sometimes been a criterion in presidential appointments, of course, but seldom the major one. It usually takes a back seat to rewarding supporters, playing congressional politics, seeking diversity and appeasing interest groups. Presidents always place a high premium on personal loyalty. Obama can't avoid such considerations. But it makes sense for him to give greater weight to intellectual acumen and subject-specific knowledge than his recent predecessors have, both because of the depth of the problems he faces and because of his own style as a thinker and a decision maker.

Well of course let's pick the smart folks. After nearly a decade of ineptitude and idiocy in the White House, I'm sure all Americans want the smart folks manning the controls this time around. Here's my problem with all these requests; after everyone gets done taking a bite out of the President-elect, what will be left of the original change agent that a majority of Americans voted for? We all needed something new, a fresh perspective and an issues-oriented, serious kind of guy to try and right the United States' dangerously waylaid course. Now that he's here, it seems everyone who had a hand in it, everyone who suffered for the last 8 years has to have some kind of reward. Here's my thinking- let the man try and do his job already! He hasn't even got to the White House yet and it seems everyone who Bush pissed off has their hands out. Let's quit trying to remind the guy we chose what's important to our limited groups and associations; he knows whats important, remember? He had to appeal to all of us, kiss all of our collective asses to get the nomination. Even I had my doubts about the guy to start with, but he kept going and won me over. How about we all step back, take a lovely, Bush-free breath, and allow President-elect Obama the breathing room he'll need to tackle the huge challenges our nations faces. After a two year campaign for the job, and an overwhelming victory, I think he's earned the right to the benefit of the doubt!

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