WHICH RAISES AN AWKWARD QUESTION:

Obama's first gamble: Clinton at State (BEN SMITH, 11/19/08, Politico)

The Clinton move, like those, 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.

“It says that he has the personal confidence to engage someone of the notoriety and substance of Sen. Clinton,” said Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, an early Obama supporter and prominent campaign surrogate. “Implementing change is an exciting exercise.”

Indeed, Obama’s transition appears suffused with a sense that the actors are living a historic moment, for which extraordinary gestures are appropriate.

“This would really give her a very unique platform to really be a part of this historic time we’re living in right now, even greater than her role as a powerful senator,” said Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan of Missouri, another early Obama backer.

What if, instead, this is, as most are, a thoroughly ordinary moment? What if grand gestures premised on people rising above themselves at an extraordinary time are doomed to failure precisely because the ordinariness of the time allows for the ordinariness of the people involved?

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 19, 2008 9:41 PM