The grass is greener on both sides.

I wanted to quickly discuss something my friend brought to my attention. President-Elect is in a very cushy position as he soon will take the White House. He will, at least for a honeymoon period of his administration, any and all problems can all be scape-goated back to Bush's administration. For example, if Iraq all of a sudden goes to hell-in-a-handbasket, his administration can point all the blame back at Bush, as it was "his war" and a mess they inherited. On the contrary, if the war is successful Obama and his administration will be credited for victory in Iraq and they will be painted as "saviors." Same goes for the economy. If the bailout of the financial sector (and possibly the auto industry) fail to lift our economy out of a looming recession, again, all blame can be sent Bush's way. "He was the one who left the economy in shambles for Obama and Congress to repair, so its not our fault we could not repair it." On the other hand, if their policies work, well naturally, everyone will be singing Obama's praises.

In a bigger picture, I see this grace period possibly enabling the new administration and Democrats as a whole, at least for the first year or two, alienating the Republicans. And why shouldn't they? They have the presidency and congress. The 2008 election gave the party a revitalization of strength and unity. One must also look at who Obama is surrounding himself with. So far, his cabinet is a rollback to the Clinton Era, literally. He has appointed Rahm Emmanuel as Chief of Staff, a key player from Clinton's administration and an influential fundraiser. Second is his new appointment of Secretary of State, Senator Hillary Clinton herself (I will cover my frustration over this later). It seems Mr. Obama is going to throw fellow party members into his cabinet, disregarding the use of experts and seasoned foreign policy veterans to give him advice. Mesh all of this together and it clearly breeds an environment of partisanship and a "get out of jail free" card for the next one or two years of Obama's administration.