Team of Rivals?

re: bruce: yes. Obama's been spinning the Team Of Rivals for two years now. he brings it up in public every chance he gets. Public is the key word there--this is a meme for popular consumption only.

if you look at how obama actually ran his campaign and now his transition/presidency, "team of rivals" isn't exactly the way you'd describe it. Obama understands the difference between pop history and real-world executive management. which is why he's POTUS and people like Hillary Clinton and John McCain are not.

From the WashPost 03/06/08: "One of Clinton's favorite books is "Team of Rivals," Doris Kearns Goodwin's account of Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet, and she assembled her own team of advisers knowing their mutual enmity in the belief that good ideas come from vigorous discussion. But while many campaigns are beset by backbiting and power struggles, dozens of interviews indicate that the internal problems endured by the Clinton team have been especially corrosive...

A more explosive example of the stress came a few days later. Phil Singer, the campaign's deputy communications director, emerged from a meeting on Feb. 11 and without explanation started angrily cursing the war room. "[Expletive] all of you," he shouted, according to a witness, then stormed out and did not return for several days... At one point, [Penn] and Ickes, who have been battling each other within the Clinton orbit for a dozen years, lost their tempers during a conference call, according to two participants. "[Expletive] you!" Ickes shouted. "[Expletive] you!" Penn replied. "[Expletive] you!" Ickes shouted again."

Compare this to:
Rolling Stone 07/10/08: "Obama's top advisers outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton's organization with no leaks, no nasty infighting and virtually no public credit for their efforts... Obama's capacity to listen, be decisive and delegate sets a tone that permeates the campaign, much to the relief of staffers who survived the Gore and Kerry campaigns. "People know that when they make their pitch as to what they think the strategy should be, that Plouffe and Axelrod are taking it all in," says one staffer. "There's not this kind of constant sniping attempt to push your agenda through. There's this trust that we all know our pieces. Other campaigns waste so much time on second-guessing and wondering what's really gonna happen ? who's really in charge. There's none of that around here."

"That's because, ultimately, the buck stops with Obama. "Barack has a fine manner of being personally very close to his staff," says Jordan, who managed the Kerry campaign and is close with several members of Obama's inner circle. "But there's always an invisible but real line there. The authority he exerts is so natural and so real and so unmanufactured that nobody ever forgets ? even on the plane late at night when they're feeding each other shit ? who the boss is."

Have a little faith guys. Obama has got this.

It also covers the fact that the candidate of "change" is drawing his cabinet from the ranks of the *experienced* -- this gambit is not really as cover-up as it might be, because the Pres (Obama) is the person who embodies change -- he will be choosing among the alternatives, not simply handing off the policy portfolios.

Former gym rat? I don't think the guy has missed a workout since election day.

How many appointments has he made yet? Hardly any. It's been two weeks since the election. What do you expect, Stephens as Secretary of Energy announced today to satisfy your meme? Yeesh. I'm sure he's in talks with Republicans and even though they might want the position I doubt they're making the media circuit to talk themselves up. Team of Rivals doesn't necessarily mean team of Republicans or antagonistic democrats? There are a lot of complicated problems. If he can get a lot of smart people with different views to butt heads I think that constitutes.

re: bruce: yes. Obama's been spinning the Team Of Rivals for two years now. he brings it up in public every chance he gets. Public is the key word there--this is a meme for popular consumption only.

if you look at how obama actually ran his campaign and now his transition/presidency, "team of rivals" isn't exactly the way you'd describe it. Obama understands the difference between pop history and real-world executive management. which is why he's POTUS and people like Hillary Clinton and John McCain are not.

From the WashPost 03/06/08: "One of Clinton's favorite books is "Team of Rivals," Doris Kearns Goodwin's account of Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet, and she assembled her own team of advisers knowing their mutual enmity in the belief that good ideas come from vigorous discussion. But while many campaigns are beset by backbiting and power struggles, dozens of interviews indicate that the internal problems endured by the Clinton team have been especially corrosive...

A more explosive example of the stress came a few days later. Phil Singer, the campaign's deputy communications director, emerged from a meeting on Feb. 11 and without explanation started angrily cursing the war room. "[Expletive] all of you," he shouted, according to a witness, then stormed out and did not return for several days... At one point, [Penn] and Ickes, who have been battling each other within the Clinton orbit for a dozen years, lost their tempers during a conference call, according to two participants. "[Expletive] you!" Ickes shouted. "[Expletive] you!" Penn replied. "[Expletive] you!" Ickes shouted again."

Compare this to:
Rolling Stone 07/10/08: "Obama's top advisers outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton's organization with no leaks, no nasty infighting and virtually no public credit for their efforts... Obama's capacity to listen, be decisive and delegate sets a tone that permeates the campaign, much to the relief of staffers who survived the Gore and Kerry campaigns. "People know that when they make their pitch as to what they think the strategy should be, that Plouffe and Axelrod are taking it all in," says one staffer. "There's not this kind of constant sniping attempt to push your agenda through. There's this trust that we all know our pieces. Other campaigns waste so much time on second-guessing and wondering what's really gonna happen — who's really in charge. There's none of that around here."

"That's because, ultimately, the buck stops with Obama. "Barack has a fine manner of being personally very close to his staff," says Jordan, who managed the Kerry campaign and is close with several members of Obama's inner circle. "But there's always an invisible but real line there. The authority he exerts is so natural and so real and so unmanufactured that nobody ever forgets — even on the plane late at night when they're feeding each other shit — who the boss is."

Have a little faith guys. Obama has got this.

in the 19th Century cabinet politics was a little more like parliamentary politics in which people often put powerful people in their cabinet

Yes, and specifically, given the American electoral system and the "spoils system," 19th century Cabinets were selected to placate people who had influence in crucial state party organizations (like Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania or William Seward of New York in Lincoln's cabinet). Postmaster General was a key office since it held the keys to most of the federal patronage. Obama's political considerations when choosing a Cabinet are nothing like Lincoln's. To say nothing of the fact that so much Executive policy has been made outside of the Cabinet since the early-to-mid 20th Century. Lincoln's Cabinet, by contrast, was the Executive Branch; in the White House proper, he only had a few private secretaries to work with.

If I was a Historically Elected and First Black President of the United States, I would surround myself with the very best people I could get and really wouldn't care which Party they belonged to as long as they were both trustworthy and superlatively competent....That seems to be what Obama is doing as well as mending fences and preparing for a very tough Presidency!

rath, your quotes suggest that hillary pushed the "team of rivals" idea to slide past all their backbiting, but not that obama did. whatever...

Bruce:
Bingo!! It is used to help sell Kearns Goodwin's book. Obama looks smart so far running with it.

Mr. Drum: You have gotten too much into the habit of being a cheap date for Mr. Obama. The real topic of your post is not that Mr. Obama has done anything particularly intelligent, but that his habitual supporters have again managed to interpret his actions in the most favorable light.

I went over to the comments thread at CNN and discovered to my amazement that the vast majority of posters were turned off by the speech. A lot of them claimed to be independents. I am not too worried about the speech.

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