The Face Of Change Wades Into The Pool.

     Every business in every city has a finite labor pool of qualified personnel from which to assemble their organizations. At any point in time, there are top-notch people working for bottom-dwellers, and life-long mediocrities who lucked out with niches at the best in the business. 

     All such things being cyclical, the make-up of the companies will usually change, with the top-notchers migrating to the best in the business, while the mediocrities meet their levels. 

     This ebb and flow can continue over the lives of individual careers, the opening and closings of companies, and the emergence and obsolescence of entire industries.      

     The personnel in the pool are largely the same, but the direction of the companies in their fields of expertise often change, so it's out with old, in with whomever you knew.

     Think of your favorite sport, and its coaches and managers. Once they are in, they usually stay in. It's only their uniforms that change from time to time.

     They become part of the pool.

     Politics, too, is a business with a finite pool of qualified personnel. Administrations assemble staffs and cabinets, pulling from the pool, almost always with the added wrinkle of partisan considerations and an aversion to anything other than the tried and true.

     And then came the 2008 presidential campaign, billed as a "change" election--first by Barack Obama, and later as a mutant form of change claimed by John McCain. 

     President-elect Obama ran on change, won on change, and is taking some heat because his staff and cabinet picks don't yet feel like change.  

     I'm not in panic mode, though. Sure, there are numerous Clintonites and other experienced D.C. hands in the mix. But I keep thinking about that pool, and it's far too early to judge Obama on a process he's only just begun.

     Besides, I voted for him for what I felt were his intellect, organization-building skills, and his judgement, as well as his overall stated policy positions (and in spite of that wrong-headed FISA vote.)  

     I won't doubt a person's skill sets or worthiness merely because they are--or were--a "Clintonite", just as I wouldn't turn naked cartwheels over a high-level pick because they were bright, shiny, and brand-spankin' new. It's all about plugging the right people into the proper spots, and managing them to goal-achieving cohesion. 

     Managing to bring about the president's vision of change. 

     Ultimately, it's the president-elect's job to pick the pieces from the pool, and--starting on January 20th--it will become the new president's job to make sure those pieces fit.

     And that's something that will never change.