Here's the thing

[mtnsnake]

It's just too early to be whining incessantly about Obama or the people he chooses. Even if you don't like his choices, how about if you give his administration some time to see what kind of job he and his administration do. Has he had a chance to accomplish anything he set out for yet? No, he hasn't.

Criticize him for a certain choice of secretary or chief of staff or spokesperson or whatever, but after you're done expressing your disapproval with that choice, can you at least give the guy a few months to see how his choices/administration performs before writing them off? There's nothing wrong with a little complaining, but some people never stop, especially a certain few who make a career out of whining when their favorite personal pick gets passed over by Obama for someone else, someone who he thinks will do the job that HE wants them to do. It was our choice to get him elected, but it's Obama's choice who he wants to work for him, not yours.

If after some time in office, he doesn't accomplish whatever it is you were hoping or whatever it is that you thought he promised you, then complain to high heaven about him, but at least give him and his administration the chance to perform first. We're all going to hold his feet to the fire if he doesn't do what's right for the economy/middle class, if he doesn't get all our troops out of Iraq in something that approaches the time frame he promised, if he doesn't look out for the environment as responsibly as so many fine Democrats before him have, if he doesn't look out for equal rights of all our citizens, and if he's not nearly as liberal during his Presidency as what he implied he'd be during his campaign. But can we at least wait until shit happens before considering him a disappointment?

[OKNancy]

1. My opinion: too much navel gazing on both sides n/t

[stillcool]

2. Obama sucks...

now there..see how un-group-thinking, non-lock-stepping I am? Are you trying to shut down dissent? If so, that means that we are no better than they. I will continue to say Obama sucks because I refuse to be shut up. So there. How's that for a healthy discussion about the issues that we face as a nation?

[Jennicut]

3. Discussion is one thing, utter stupidity is another

Obama rules. Obama sucks. Blah Blah Blah. My answer: We shall see what happens in a few months. I think he is doing good so far, considering most prez-elects don't even make cabinet appts. until after Dec. Obama is organized.

[BeFree]

4. It is a shame

That your OP even has to be said. Having said that, while it was long winded and too negative, it wasn't half bad.

[ProSense]

5. What about the people who make a career out of whining about the whining?

But can we at least wait until shit happens before considering him a disappointment?

What happened to the time-honored tradition of trying to prevent "shit" from happening?

[EFerrari]

6. That sounds reasonable to me.

And I guess, if the cabinet is paid out of tax money, the voters who mobilized to get Obama elected have every right to discuss and to criticize the choices being made.

(Maybe the problem is that "criticism" is a concept that isn't widely understood. Invective isn't criticism, it's just invective. Ridicule isn't criticism either. Criticism usually involves some kind of thinking.)

The truth is that the Obama people have invited feedback and they've set up a loop to get it. Are they wrong in doing that? I wrote to them about Holder and I'll be writing to them about Brennan, the Cheney guy who went around defending torture on teevee, and who looks to be the next head of CIA. We don't have to wait a few months to know his track record is ug-lee. Will he perform differently under Obama? I hope so. And I hope that having him in that position doesn't prevent the administration from going after the torturers.

Some of these choices, it seems to me, don't reflect on Obama as much as the level of corruption you have to wade into to be in government at all any more. In other words, the pool he has to choose from hasn't been cleaned up in quite a while.

I also think that it's a mistake for Rahm to loudly be saying that they'll reach out to Republicans WHILE they snub the left. (A mistake but not a surprising one coming from him.) I don't need to wait for months to know that this strategy is going to split up our coalition -- although, that may be the resting state of the party. The left has many strengths, and it wouldn't kill Obama to use some of them in the areas of education, the environment, and resource management. The time to point that out is now, not in six months, imo.

Obama's challenge is to pull together the best team possible; ours is how to keep people productively engaged.