BILL CLINTON'S FIFTH TERM:

Obama Tilts to Center, Inviting a Clash of Ideas (DAVID E. SANGER, 11/22/08, NY Times)

President-elect Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination with the enthusiastic support of the left wing of his party, fueled by his vehement opposition to the decision to invade Iraq and by one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate.

Now, his reported selections for two of the major positions in his cabinet — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and Timothy F. Geithner as secretary of the Treasury — suggest that Mr. Obama is planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues.

The choices are as revealing of the new president as they are of his appointees — and suggest that, from its first days, an Obama White House will brim with big personalities and far more spirited debate than occurred among the largely like-minded advisers who populated President Bush’s first term.

Rather, his choices reflect the extreme continuity in modern Anglospheric politics.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 22, 2008 9:41 AM