Booorrrred…

We haven’t been bringing you the most recent names to be announced in Obama’s cabinet (largely from his economic team), mostly because we’re bored. Not bored with the actual names announced– we think some of those are pretty interesting, really– but bored with the whole reaction in the media and from the netroots. There are a whole ton of people who can’t seem to do anything but flip out because Obama is appointing people who they’ve actually heard of before, which means they’re people with experience in Washington, which means they’ve decided this isn’t the “change” we need. There is an equal number of people who do nothing but criticize this first group of people and insist that we should just trust in our dear leader (-elect) and wait to see what happens.

Whatever. This is dull. Both sides need to settle down, especially since I’ve mostly stopped reading all of their blogs because they can’t shut up about this and I’d like to start looking at them again. I can only spend so much time reading about basketball teams throwing bizarre junk defenses at Stephen Curry before I start to go a little nutty.

So here’s what Obama had to say about it:

And furthermore:

(I)t would be surprising if I selected a Treasury Secretary who had had no connection with the last Democratic administration, because that would mean that the person had no experience in Washington whatsoever. And I suspect that you would be troubled and the American people would be troubled if I selected a Treasury Secretary or a chairman of the National Economic Council, at one of the most critical economic times in our history, who had no experience in government whatsoever. What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking.

But understand where the vision for change comes from, first and foremost. It comes from me. That’s my job, to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure then that my team is implementing it.

(emphasis mine… all mine…)

Shocker! Obama is actually planning on being a president who uses his administration to enact his goals and vision? You mean, his idea is to lead? I don’t understand.

And if you’re one who is nervous that Obama is sending out signals that his administration is going to be more “centrist” (whatever that means) than you’d like, Nate Silver has a nice little breakdown of all of the policy proposals to which Obama has publicly committed and where they fall (in Silver’s opinion) on the political spectrum.

Spoiler: His administration is shaping up to be more progressive than you might think.

All that said, of course there’s nothing wrong with criticizing various moves Obama makes. That’s healthy. We’ve got a big problem if the netroots fall in lockstep and never raise a stink over things that are really important. But it’s not like he’s nominated Eichmann for HUD or anything.