Cabinets

Lots of people have been complaining about Obama's picks for his cabinet. That he is letting down his supporters on the left with Clinton and Gates. So far it seems to me he is putting together a pretty promising entourage.
The team of rivals hype is pretty annoying for me another example of how the urge to be a part of greatness by comparison to an historic figure is everywhere. Bush thought he was Churchill and now Obama is being heralded as Lincoln and FDR in one.

For secdef it was smart to have Gates stay on as someone intimately familiar with the current wars, plus he will mollify the Republicans, you might hope, from trying to pin gwot's problems on the new pres. He has also walked the line quite well of disagreeing with Bush's more morally dubious ideas while still professing the inability to change them quite yet.

HRC et al could be quite good at sweet talking the foreigners and doing some token or possibly even meaningful humanitarian things.

Gen. Shinseki for the VA is encouraging, so is Steven Chu for Energy Sec is too- and he has won a nobel for research. Sounds a bit elitist to me though. I bet he eats Arugula too. Who will the next nobel laureate appointed? Al Gore for internets and powerpoint affairs? Paul Krugman for treasury?

Holder for the AG has potential he seems sincere and it will remain to be seen if he has the balls to do anything on the torture issue. Another plus for him is that his Marc Rich pardon involvement will cancel out with Gates' Iran-Contra involvement making for a scandal neutral cabinet.

Wisconsin's Russ Feingold talked about cabinet picks and other things in an interview here.