"the prodigal son has bestowed his presence upon us in our darkest hour",
"the horrors of the last 8 years have finally come to an end",
"our hopes our dreams our aspirations are finally going to come to fruition as our fearless leader is going to usher us into the golden age of peace and prosperity".
All hail our new savior from Illinois....
Ok so these aren't verbatim the quotes I have heard on the streets, grocery stores and haberdashers of NY, I might be paraphrasing just a little (well except for the "our hopes" quote, I proudly claim sole ownership of that one), but they are close. In fact the non-Whoopie black woman on The View (you know, the one who admitted that she couldn't say for certain that there are other planets in our galaxy, because she hasn't seen them first hand) actually gave President-Elect Obama Divine status, saying he's the closest thing to Jesus we have ever witnessed.
Before St. Obama single handedly solves world hunger, claims his rightful place on Mt Rushmore and supplants Benjamin Franklin as the face of a crisp $100 bill, I need to quote one of my favorite TV personalities Lee Curso "not so fast my friends". Obama's first test and challenge as President-Elect was to stage a viable, successful, and seamless transition in the 2+ months time between the election and the inauguration.
So how did he do?
Well he did manage to successfully garner congressional approval for every cabinet nominee he brought to the hill. This was accomplished with a nearly unanimous vote across the board. Which includes the high profile, highly controversial but much ballyhooed former democratic rival Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. No one would argue this was an accomplishment that took a lot of preparation, due diligence and hard work on behalf of Obama's transition team.
This transition was not without it bumps in the road however. The most highly publicized bump, which turned out to be more of a crater came from his former state of residence, as the Governor of Illinois and one of Obama's staunchest allies during his days as State and US senator, Rod Blagoavich was impeached for improprieties pertaining to the the alleged attempt at "selling" Barack Obamas senate seat.
Obama's first choice as Secretary of Commerce Bill Richardson was forced to resign after speculation that he was involved in his own pay for play scandal involving a New Mexico company that proved to be one of the biggest contributors to his campaign for Governor.
Despite Obama's pledge not to, he has appointed numerous lobbyists to key governmental positions including Bill Lynn as Deputy Secretary of Defense who until his appointment worked for the third largest defense contractor in the US. Sounding eerily familiar to a conflict of interest scenario that was highly ridiculed by Obama on the campaign trail with regards to a certain outgoing Vice Presidents corporate ties prior to his VP nod.
Tim Geithner, Obama's appointee for Secretary of Treasury it turns out owes back taxes to the IRS for insufficient payment over the span of a couple years. Though to his credit when notified took immediate steps to rectify the situation.
The heat he has taken during his transition has not been unilateral. He has received much criticism from the right and left regarding his appointee for CIA Director, Leon Panetta. Though Panetta has been a stalwart for the democratic party serving with distinction as both a Congressman and as Presidential chief of staff. Panetta however has no experience in the intelligence community which has caught fellow democrats by surprise and even irked many of them. Diane Feinstein who leads the congressional committee in charge of approving the CIA appointment was quoted as saying "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge".
Obamas appointments have not been the only transitional headaches he's encountered over the last couple months. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been confused by Obamas contradictory position regarding a President's-Elect role when it comes to publicizing policy initiatives before taking office. When it comes to sensitive issues like the conflict in the middle east, Obama has consistently tried to avoid controversy by hiding behind the line "there is only one President at a time", however when asked about the economy and Obama's plans on domestic issues, he has ignored his own "one president" dictum by going on a diatribe in his critique of the Bush administrations domestic policy or discussing in detail his stimulus and tax plans. A stimulus plan that for the record has been the subject of much anxiety by many legislative members of his own party.
Has Obama's transition been an utter failure, no. He has clearly run a tight and organized transition team with confidence, diplomacy and caution. Much the way he ran his campaign. There have certainly been more than a few bumps along the way, some more embarrassing than others, but none that have been game changing. One central theme however that has become increasingly apparent to me since Obama has been thrust upon the national scene is that his words are often much loftier and more hopeful than his actions have been to this point.
Over the course of the last 18 months Obama has been compared to a king, a savior, a god, and of course a profound conduit for change who is willing to shake things up in order to better our country and way of life. So far the closest example I have seen of a shake up is Obamas desire to appoint a TV personality , CNN's own medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta as his Surgeon General...
Who knows, if he really wants to change the staus-quo maybe he'll consider Judge Judy as his Attorney General.
