In search of the intellectual President with a practical Presidency

I find this transition period very....well, interesting.

• I understand the need for unity. Please do show everyone how magnanimous you are, Mr. President-elect, to look beyond all the comments made about you on the campaign trail. Never mind that those who made the comments are highly unlikely to be as supportive of you even after all this "forgiveness". Problem with this? Unity is a nice concept; but a real challenge to achieve. Alienating your base is a real risk in wooing those who have not warmed up to you. History is full of examples of people who have ended up with nothing by ignoring those who loved them because they spent all their time trying, and failing, to make those who didn't love them do so. Try convincing your base to woo them too, because there are those who will have a harder time with forgetting comments about race, experience (or proposed lack thereof), and generally dismissive and condescending tones. Recognize that that takes time - not everyone is you.

• I understand the search for experience. I recognize the magnitude and variety of challenges - so many balls in the air all at once. But no change can happen without people and people will become disengaged if promises are not kept, if the authenticity of the leader is doubted. Hope and change are what the winning team ran on. If there was a yearning desire in the country for a complete return of any Administration, then would that candidate not have been selected from the very beginning? There is still time to balance the experience and familiarity that seems to be so critical to "hit the ground running" with those fresh revolutionary ideas to get the country out of the deep ditch quickly; those fresh revolutionary ideas without which there would be no President-elect Obama . Age and experience have no monopoly on solutions. Let's have a healthy mix of perspectives - old and new; experience and youth.
  

• I understand the intellectual appeal of "the team of rivals". What a statesman and leader you are if you can pull it off; if you can get a team of rivals formed. Does the team get anything constructive done though after they have agreed to serve? Or do they just look nice and give historians lots to write about? That is the real test. We need some realism about the personality types. Leopards (note the plural) never change their spots. Qualifications are not the issue. Ability to work in a team is; to not act in a parallel, and opposing manner that introduces divisiveness. Has that test been passed? I'm not so sure.

Frankly, the President-elect has made some great choices, and like all choices there are positive and negative aspects to each one. In net, the country needs a team that works; a team characterized by personal dynamics where members exhibit respect for each other and can work together to find creative practical solutions - for all people - that can be implemented in the fastest and most cost-effective manner.