The Note: Not Just a Slogan

Nov. 20, 2008— -- Call it change Washington can believe in.

The Cabinet that is emerging (still unofficially -- President-elect Barack Obama has yet to make a single formal announcement) looks so very . . . practical, maybe typical.

The faces are like the folks at a college reunion -- you knew these people once before, when there were a little younger, and sort of always had the feeling you'd see them again.

And -- surprise -- Obama picks top aides the same way previous presidents have: From the ranks of elected officials, old friends and allies, and people who have done it before -- yes, in Washington.

Your latest entries for the ledger of the likely: Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader, at Health and Human Services; Gov. Janet Napolitano, D-Ariz., at Homeland Security; and Penny Pritzker, an early campaign supporter and a big Obama fundraiser, at Commerce.

Made formal Wednesday: David Axelrod, to become senior advisor to the president; Greg Craig as White House counsel; Lisa Brown as White House staff secretary; and Chris Lu (not Patti Solis Doyle) as Cabinet secretary.

"President-elect Barack Obama promised the voters change but has started his Cabinet selection process by naming several Washington insiders to top posts," Kevin Freking writes for the AP.

"President-elect Barack Obama campaigned on the slogan of 'change.' But his early appointees, including two top choices that emerged Wednesday, show that experience is one of his main criteria," Laura Meckler and Jonathan Weisman write in The Wall Street Journal.

"The latest transition news highlighted the three personnel pools supplying Mr. Obama with his picks," they write. "Most prominent are Clinton administration veterans -- including, possibly, former first lady Hillary Clinton for secretary of state. Some high-profile appointments are also long-serving members and staff from Capitol Hill. Then there are the influential Chicagoans -- a group that seems smaller than the hometown crowd that usually accompanies a new president to Washington."

And why is it that all the Cabinet picks come with what Al Kamen is calling a "Best Buy" contingency -- a 30-day return policy?

"Reminds us of the Hamlet-like performance of former New York governor Mario Cuomo when Bill Clinton offered him a seat on the Supreme Court and he accepted, then he didn't, and back and forth," Kamen writes in his Washington Post column. "In the end, if it doesn't work out, there was no Obama announcement, no photo op. There are no pictures of him walking out with Clinton, smiling. He's reached out to his former foe, he's been magnanimous. And of course he will be saddened that it didn't work out."

A transition plays to a few audiences -- the insiders and members of Congress who want people they can work with, and the outsiders who constituted the overwhelming bulk of the people who actually voted for the president-elect.

It matters approximately not at all right now -- but which group is happier with what they've seen so far?

"Antiwar groups and other liberal activists are increasingly concerned at signs that Barack Obama's national security team will be dominated by appointees who favored the Iraq invasion and hold hawkish views on other important foreign policy issues," Paul Richter writes in the Los Angeles Times. "The activists are uneasy not only about signs that both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates could be in the Obama Cabinet, but at reports suggesting that several other short-list candidates for top security posts backed the decision to go to war."

You can't keep everybody happy: "The unsolicited and sometimes conflicting advice represents an early leadership challenge to Obama, who is deep in the process of selecting his own team and settling on an initial legislative strategy at a time when the economy seems likely to subsume all other issues," per ABC News. "Obama also faces an additional challenge: He ran on a platform of independence from Washington interest groups and doesn't want to be seen as too beholden to any organizations."

More progress on the one potential Cabinet member who everybody knows, and most people have something of an opinion about.

"Former President Bill Clinton has agreed to all of the conditions sought by President-elect Barack Obama's transition team to eliminate potential conflicts of interest if Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state," Peter Baker and Helene Cooper report in The New York Times. "Mr. Clinton accepted several restrictions on his business and philanthropic activities to remove any obstacle to his wife's nomination if the cabinet job is formally offered and accepted."

"Bill Clinton has sent President-elect Barack Obama's transition team a list of more than 200,000 donors to his foundation," Bloomberg's Timothy J. Burger reports. "The Clinton and Obama teams could seek donors' permission to reveal their names -- a potentially lengthy process."

Just a hint more of tension: "President-elect Barack Obama's camp, well practiced in keeping secrets, is increasingly frustrated by a steady stream of leaks that insiders suspect come from confidants of Hillary Clinton," Ken Bazinet reports in the New York Daily News. "Just as ex-President Bill Clinton pledged Wednesday to prove there are no new skeletons in his closet that could derail his wife's chances of becoming secretary of state, top Obama sources suggested loose-lipped Clintonistas abide by their rules: If caught leaking, you will pay the price."

Another hint -- just below the surface: "Obama aides said yesterday that it would be difficult for Sen. Clinton to walk away from the secretary of state post. Obama's staff has thoroughly vetted both Clintons with the understanding that, if he should make an official job offer, she would accept," The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, Alec MacGillis and Philip Rucker report.

Can it fall apart now? "The examination better find her acceptable. Any other selection now would embitter her supporters, even if she publicly declines the appointment," Karl Rove writes in his Wall Street Journal column.

"Obama will seem to be dissing Clinton and her supporters if she doesn't get the job. Here again, one sees a once-seamless team making little mistakes," David Ignatius writes in his Washington Post column.

Politico's Ben Smith asks: What is he thinking? "Insiders around Obama say the X factor at play is Obama's icy tolerance for risk, and his belief in the power of the grand gesture," Smith writes. The Clinton pick "marries an arguably practical choice with lofty symbolism: He's enlarging his own administration by bringing in one of the leading figures in American politics, and delivering on a promise of a new politics that doesn't play favorites or hold grudges."

"As he wrapped up his second week as President-elect, it was clear that Obama was taking the long view in both diplomacy and politics," Time's Karen Tumulty and Massimo Calabresi write. "How else to explain the fact that he had all but offered the most prestigious job in his Cabinet to a woman whose foreign policy experience he once dismissed as consisting of having tea with ambassadors?"

Daschle brings savvy and expertise to one of Obama's toughest campaign promises: healthcare reform.

The choice "puts a skilled navigator of Capitol Hill in charge of the president-elect's bid to establish universal health care, which he has made a top priority," The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler writes. "He goes in with good will from key interest groups that have been working behind the scenes to build momentum for health reform, an effort not seen since 1993-94 when President Bill Clinton tried and failed to pass a universal-coverage initiative."

"Daschle has seen, as few in Washington have, the particular toll that the broken system has taken on rural America," Time's Karen Tumulty reports. "It's hard to imagine a more useful ally for Obama to help lead his bid for health-care reform, both because of Daschle's understanding of the legislative process and for his belief in the new President-elect."