Reviewing the picks

Matthew Yglesias sums up my feelings on Barack Obama's national security team in that, well, it's not exactly what I was hoping for.

I love the pick of Samantha Rice for U.N. Ambassador. I like the pick of James Jones for National Security Advisor. I'm undecided on Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. And I'm not terribly thrilled with Robert Gates staying on as Secretary of Defense (I didn't know making a really lousy situation marginally less lousy was good enough to stay on at the Pentagon ...).

I'm nowhere near the ridiculously overdramatic meltdown that's occuring at Open Left since I'm honestly convinced nothing will make those guys happy, but I do wish he had put together a different team (one that included, say, Samantha Power).

This is in contrast to the solid work I think he's done with regard to building an economic team. I truly dislike letting Larry Sumners anywhere near our economy policy, but he's counterbalanced by strong picks in Timothy Geither and Melody Barnes, so that's positive.

Of course, any hand-wringing and/or rejoicing over this is kinda foolish, isn't it? I mean, we haven't actually seen any policy come forward yet, and that is what will actually define the Obama Administration.