Why isn't Obama stacking his administration with people focused on change, as everyone expects (both right and left)?

The thing is that maybe Obama, unlike the last guy, is aware he's spent little time in a major government position (not counting Palin, since she was invited, and didn't actively seek to be on the ticket).

It doesn't matter his goals if he doesn't know how to achieve them properly. If this means spending a couple years confiding in a bunch of people, it doesn't matter if some people (not necessarily here, but elsewhere) think he's somehow letting them run the country.

Then again, most of those people ignored the question of his experience during the election, and now are wondering why things are going this way.

For Obama, this means reaching out to rivals. He's asked McCain to do what he can to help in the Senate. He's even considering Hillary for Sec State (and people still bring how she insulted him during the primaries, but don't really bring up anything specific, making me wonder if they are making that up to make her look bad), and even keeping Robert Gates from the last administration (one of the few from there people thought was actually doing his job).

Given time, Obama could be great for the job, but for now, he needs to learn how to do the job, and unlike the last guy, he seems to be picking teachers more than cronies.

Government business as usual.

People would probably criticize him no matter what he did, so I think it is more important to see if his administration actually works in practice. It will definitely be interesting to see what his Cabinet looks like once all the posts are filled.

The thing is that people expected him to flush out the old DC. At least that's the impression I got from what some people claimed.

I agree that his appointments have been more traditional than I would have expected, but isn't that something that suggests he has listened to his opponents who say he is inexperienced by surrounding himself with competent and experienced people?

(Note: This can be extremely effective in practice, as having people who have a lot of experience in Washington, especially dealing with Congress can make getting your policies translated into actual law much, much easier. Compare President Clinton putting Hillary Clinton and some other small time official on his healthcare agenda, which went down in flames. Obama has appointed an experienced former senator, Daschle, who is extremely knowledgeable on healthcare to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is what you do if you want to get your policies through Congress, get someone who 1) wants the same things you do, and 2) knows how to draft legislation that can get through Congress 3) and that won't incite public outrage since it is so poorly crafted and sold to the public (the Clinton healthcare plan))

On the other hand, if Obama had appointed lesser known people to his Cabinet, people could still claim that his administration is inexperienced and is making a mess of Washington.

So Obama has the option to

1) Appoint traditional yet competent officials to his Cabinet who know the ins and outs of Washington

2) Appoint non-traditional officials who are outside the Washington mainstream.

By doing either of these he opens himself to criticism that:

1) He isn't bringing the change he promised (ironically people claim this before Obama has been in office for even a day and has yet to actually implement any policies)

2) His appointments show he is inexperienced and that his administration is too inexperienced to deal with problems in a modern world like combatting terrorism and dealing with a global economy (which on the practical side, as I already mentioned, would hamper his ability to get his policies through Congress).

So whatever Obama does, people are going to complain. That is the reality of politics, and Obama knows that, so he is taking the pragmatic route with the hope that he can control the people in his Cabinet into not undermining what he wants to get done while also allowing them to help him out with their vast amount of collective experience. Being the President is a big job, and doing it by yourself is an even bigger job.

So essentially, Obama would be open to criticism no matter what he did, so I think people should hold off until Obama starts screwing things up in office and should wait to see if he does actually bring the change he proclaimed in practice. Then, people can complain however much they want.

Why do you think this is implying he wouldn't have gotten criticism otherwise? Seriously. We know people will criticize anything. Look at this site.

I'm not, I'm just saying that what a politician actually ends up doing policy-wise and politics-wise in office is a better thing to criticize than the means through which he acheives those things (assuming of course that the politcian is using ethical means to get things accomplished).

And the Democrats have been the out party for quite awhile (haven't had a majority in Congress since 1994 and haven't held the executive branch since 2000).  So change is definitely coming to Washington, whether it be good or bad change.

The majority in Congress in 2006 was kind of a pseudo-majority, with Lieberman tipping the scale (who is an independent).  This did help the Democrats get more control over the committees in congress though, which has made a difference.

You seem to be going off on several different points, which are only vaguely connected to the OP. I know you like the guy, but this is about his cabinet choices, and at least your first two replies were on that. I was just commenting why you felt the need to note he would be criticized with other choices, when I didn't imply that.

I was just trying to flesh out a rationale for some of the decisions. I'm sure if Obama could waive a magic wand and change Washington he would, but sometimes you have to be practical about change.

I would definitely like to see him appoint more Republicans too, if only for the fact that it would be good press. It would balance his Cabinet more as well and hopefully lead to better policies coming out of the administration.

Something of note.

The Lincoln "Cabinent of rivals" thing didn't even work for Lincoln to my knowledge.

He put people around him who disagreed with him. Then he didn't listen to them and did what he wanted anyway.

So maybe Obama is just going for that.