Dec. 3: It's Because They're Successful

By Sylvia Gurinsky

For those who carp that many of President-Elect Barack Obama's Cabinet selections worked for the Clinton Administration, that they don't represent change, there's this:

They do represent results.

Remember the Clinton Administration? No, not the scandals. The other Clinton Administration, the one that made progress in foreign relations and gave this country a good economy and a budget surplus.

Obama remembers. That's why he's picked so many people who worked in Washington during the 1990s. Technology may change, but know-how generally doesn't. Obama is counting on them to get the country back on track. So are Americans, who have generally greeted the selections with a thumbs-up.

Obama seems, above all, a pragmatist. That's something the United States desperately needs. So if he's stacking the deck with Clintonites, it's because they've been succesful.