Knowing that many of the Obama faithful (and a number of skeptics) have been disappointed with some of his choices to fill various Cabinet positions, I found this article in Thursday’s Financial Times to be quite astute.

FT.com / Never mind the team: the president does the moves

The campaign poetry is long forgotten. Barack Obama is promising business at usual. Look at the emerging line-up of his administration. Many are holdovers from Bill Clinton’s White House; the rest stand out for their small “c” conservatism and competence. Whatever happened to change?

That, anyway, is the widely taken impression from the president-elect’s personnel choices in recent weeks. Economic policy had already been placed in the hands of a phalanx of Clintonites. This week we got Mr Obama’s national security team. If this latest set of appointments carried a single message it was a promise of no sudden swerves.

Familiar faces, Washington observers yawn, promise familiar policies. After all, what stronger signal could Mr Obama have sent of the premium he now places on continuity than the decision to keep Robert Gates at the Pentagon? There will be no rush from Iraq.

This is the most telling part of the article, however:

The more interesting question, I think, is whether Mr Obama’s apparent conservatism militates against change; whether in opting for Washington heavyweights over faithful acolytes and for grey hair over youthful exuberance he has already ruled out a sharp change of course in America’s foreign policy. Will these strong personalities impose continuity? On two counts, I think the answer is no.

Even were Mr Obama’s instinct to lean towards caution – and the evidence is otherwise – circumstance demands a radical change in America’s attitude to the world. Steady as she goes is simply not an option in the face of a profound upheaval in the global geopolitical balance. To drift with the tides would be to be swept on to the rocks.

This was followed a couple paragraphs later by:

This week he repeated his commitment to ensure that the US retains the world’s foremost military. But he put the emphasis of his remarks on the need to deploy the full spectrum of America’s soft power.

Seen in this light, Mr Obama’s choice of foreign policy heavyweights is significant for its ambition rather than its caution. If he really does want to recast America’s relationship with the world, surrounding himself with seasoned players will make the task easier rather than harder. Why would a president who wanted to change things put the task in the hands of inexperienced acolytes

Why indeed?

And the decisions he’s making lie not only with foreign policy but with domestic and economic policy as well. If you want to change things, you need to bring in people who are capable of driving change; people like Paul Volcker and Timothy Geithner.

From what I’m seeing, Obama is making wise decisions on his choices to fill the various Cabinet slots.

But time will tell.

Three more great articles from The Economist on this past Tuesday’s election excerpted below. The first article deals with the expectations that President-elect Barack Obama will face once he takes the Oath of Office on January 20th.

Great expectations of Barack Obama | The Economist
Nov 6th 2008, From The Economist print edition

Barack Obama has won a famous victory. Now he must use it wisely

NO ONE should doubt the magnitude of what Barack Obama achieved this week. When the president-elect was born, in 1961, many states, and not just in the South, had laws on their books that enforced segregation, banned mixed-race unions like that of his parents and restricted voting rights. This week America can claim more credibly than any other western country to have at last become politically colour-blind. Other milestones along the road to civil rights have been passed amid bitterness and bloodshed. This one was marked by joy, white as well as black.

The second article examines how Mr. Obama won the election, where he won his support and how he held off Senator McCain.

How Barack Obama won the presidency | Signed, sealed, delivered | The Economist
Nov 6th 2008 | WASHINGTON, DC, From The Economist print edition

Barack Obama owes his victory to blacks, Hispanics, the young, women of all races, the poor and the very rich

IT WAS a suitably exhilarating end to the most thrilling presidential race in a generation. This was the longest election in American history, and the most expensive by far. It was also, on the Democratic side, the hardest-fought, with Hillary Clinton amassing almost as many primary votes as Barack Obama. But on November 4th the result was clear: Mr Obama beat John McCain by six points in the popular vote (52% to 46%) and 190 votes in the electoral college (364 votes to 174).

A sense of history in the making hung over the election: a country that has been torn apart by race peacefully elected a black man to the highest office in the land. Mr Obama’s volunteers wore T-shirts inscribed with the slogan “Making history”. People across the country cheered and wept when the result was announced. Both Mr Obama and Mr McCain gave speeches worthy of a turning point.

The final article discusses the many challenges, especially in foreign policy matters, facing the future President.

The challenges facing Barack Obama | Obama’s world | The Economist

How will a 21st-century president fare in a 19th-century world?

BLISS it is in this dawn to be alive. That will be the reaction of many people around the world to America’s election of a thrilling new president—young, black, with political and intellectual gifts well above the ordinary. But the world that will face Barack Obama when he moves into the White House in January is not very heaven. It is, in fact, a mess.

Just because the election is over does not mean that everything is going to be all wine and roses over the next four years. Stay educated, read the three articles linked above, and keep reading over the next four years.

The challenges facing this nation are not going away anytime soon, if ever. As each challenge is surpassed, another will surely present itself, and we the people need to make sure that we continue to make the correct choices as face each new obstacle.

That is what made the United States a great nation, once upon a time, and that’s what will bring us back to the fore.

Sarah Palin’s Foreign Policy credentials, based on Alaska’s proximity to Russia and Canada:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Yeah, yeah … it’s an old joke at this point. But the interview with Katie Couric is still important. Watch it. Listen to what Sarah Palin says. Do you really want this woman to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency?

Don’t forget to go read the transcripts of the full interview (and/or to watch the entire video):

Transcript, day one - economy
Transcript, day two - foreign policy

Obama picks Joe Biden as VP candidate - CNN.com

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama has picked Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate.

The longtime Democratic senator was long considered a likely choice for vice president, but the buzz surrounding him intensified after he returned earlier this week from a two-day trip to the Republic of Georgia after Russian troops invaded.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, brings years of experience that could help counter GOP arguments that an Obama administration would be inexperienced on foreign policy.