Newsweek wonders if Obama's machine will drive...

First I have to state I'm not one of those gushing over the idea of Sanjay Gupta as the Surgeon General, frankly that bothers me since the role of the Surgeon General shouldn't be determined as to how "drool worthy" some think he is. Beyond that though, Eleanor Clift seems to ignore the concern expressed by womens groups about Summers and almost has a verbal orgasm in describing Obama's picks before she gets to William Galston's points. Some of which are:

Galston cautions that Obama doesn't have the depth of support FDR enjoyed. "FDR didn't have to sell anything. Congress and the people came to him, begging him. If he'd wanted to be appointed dictator, all he had to do was ask." Obama faces a far more skeptical audience. The TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) pushed through by the Bush administration was badly executed and public support for the auto bailout fell well short of a majority. People are beginning to focus on how much more deeply in hock we're putting the country in order to get out of the downward spiral gripping the nation. The first rule, if you're in a hole, is you should stop digging. But digging deeper is not so paradoxical if you study history, and Obama is citing a consensus among economists, liberal and conservative, that a massive stimulus package is needed.

Obama brushed aside a question from a reporter about the crisis in the Middle East distracting from his economic agenda, saying a president has to be able to do more than one thing at a time. Yet conflicts are inevitable and Galston predicts they will erupt over the sequencing of major initiatives like health-care reform, a 21st century energy policy and a regulatory overhaul of the financial sector. Obama seems to think that Congress—with 435 members of the House and 100 senators, and all those committees and staff—can multi-task like everybody else and do parallel work on policies and programs. That was Jimmy Carter's position, and he was a one-term president, dismissed for trying to do too much and accomplishing too little.

I think some are in for an adjustment in their unrealistic expectations, many of Obama's promises were made before the Wall Street and Big Three bailouts and the realization of how some parts of our nation were struggling economically. No matter who was president, that was going to happen.