I’d been meaning to write something about how all the cheering at the supposed brilliance of Obama’s cabinet picks was reminiscent of the huzzahs that greeted George W Bush’s peronnel choices. But Ezra Klein has beaten me to it:
“Isn’t it amazing,” asks Krugman, “just how impressive the people being named to key positions in the Obama administration seem? Bye-bye hacks and cronies, hello people who actually know what they’re doing. For a bunch of people who were written off as a permanent minority four years ago, the Democrats look remarkably like the natural governing party these days, with a deep bench of talent.” That certainly feels true. But the Bush administration started out with a fairly deep bench. Colin Powell as Secretary of State. Paul O’Neill –a former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and a past chairman of the RAND Corporation — as Secretary of the Treasury.
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