I tend not to get too worked up over the more center-right appointments that Obama makes; I think it’s smart for him to surround himself with people he has reasonable disagreements with instead of Condi Rice-style sycophants (it’s almost like he’s a assembling a team of … what was the name of that book again?).
Still, Dylan is absolutely right that what’s going on in the future State Department is fucking stupid. I’m all for ideological diversity in the cabinet, but at the same time I don’t see the percentage in rewarding people for being horribly, horribly wrong about the worst foreign policy fuckup in American history. Hillary Clinton’s breathtaking genius for international politics isn’t exactly worth these kinds of concessions.
Besides, as Dylan points out, there are plenty of people who actually know their shit who have been waiting patiently in line. Samantha Power deserves a really nice corner office in a place of prominence, regardless of how awkward it might get when she and Clinton bump into each other in the corridors of power.
