I Trust My President

Lately, there have been countless news stories talking about people complaining about the President – Elect’s choices for numerous things.

Pres. Elect Barack Obama names Tim Geithner to head the Department of Treasury.

Ken Salazar, who has been selected to head the Department of the Interior, has been criticized for not being Environmentally friendly enough, Rick Warren, who has been chosen to give the invocation at Obama’s inauguration, has been criticized for being too anti-gay and too-anti choice. Steven Chu, who has been chosen as Secretary of Energy, has been criticized for not being “political enough”. Robert Gates, chosen to remain at the Department of Defense, has been criticized for not embodying change enough.

Granted, any incomng adminstration is going to be attacked for every hole in their system; no matter how small. But looking at several of these critiques, many of them (if  not a majority) are coming from the left wing of the part. As a person who leans left-of-center myself, this is starting to get to me.

Barack Obama was chosen in primary because his stances were more liberal and more of a change than Hillary Clinton. He was going to end the

Then Senator Obama listens to a point by Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton

warimmediately, he was going to fix the economy with an FDR style public works system, he was going to fight to lower the costs of health care, increase funding and awareness for preventative care, and make sure that no one in America went without health care. Then, suddenly, on November 5th, 2008, nothing changed. Barack Obama was still the same man he was when he promised and pushed for all of these changes. The only difference was that now he actually was the President.  We elected Barack Obama because we trusted his judgement to lead. His judgement showed superior when he spoke out against the war in 2003, when he spoke about the economy in 2008, and it is showing again in his cabinet positions.

President Obama seems to be building a pragmatic and practical government. While Obama is including people in his cabinet that many would consider right of center, or even centrist, that is no indication to criticize the adminstration, which is still being led by a man who is left-of-center. It is important to realize who the man making the decisions is. Obama would not pick these people if he did not believe they could offer real insight to the adminstration.

What will the rest of Obama’s Cabinet look like? Do you trust the picks he’s made?