| | Maddow: 'Are we looking at Bill Clinton's third term?'
 President-elect Obama has fulfilled expectations that he would hit the ground running and has already named the leaders of his transition team and three members of his White House staff. Some of those appointments come from Obama's own campaign team, but a larger number have a background of service in the Clinton administration.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was particularly concerned on Thursday with Obama's selection of Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who worked in the Clinton White House, as his own White House chief of staff. She noted, "The Emanuel pick has also caused some confusion among those who thought change wasn't just a break with the Bush administration but also with the politics of the last 16 years."
Maddow suggested that there are two interpretations that could be placed on the choice. One is that Obama is merely looking for experienced "old hands to accomplish his agenda in Washington," but it could also be that "the politics and policies of .. Washington in the the 1990s ... come with these guys too."
Reactions to Obama's selection of Emanuel have so far tended to focus on the second alternative. Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough was incensed on Wednesday, seeing it as a promise of the continuation of partisan politics and a message to Republicans to "drop dead."
In contrast, an article at the Politico commented that "Although Emanuel is undeniably a partisan fighter, his selection is not an ideological statement. The Chicago Democrat does not share the reflexively liberal views of many of his House colleagues. In the Clinton years, he helped pass the North American Free Trade Agreement and pushed for anti-crime and other centrist measures."
"Are we looking at Bill Clinton's third term?" Maddow asked, as she brought in Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly to "talk me down."
Benen expressed a skeptical position towards the idea that Obama is deliberately skewing towards Clinton veterans, noting that among Democrats, "almost anyone of a certain age or a certain political background is bound to have spent some time in the Clinton White House or the Clinton administration in some capacity."
"If we accept that it takes Washington insiders ... to govern effectively from the White House," Maddow asked, "then should we be scaling back our expectations in terms of how realistic the change message is in the first place?"
"Obama's policy agenda hasn't changed since his election," Benen replied. "Everything that he promised, he's going to continue to fight for."
Benen acknowledged that "Emanuel comes from the DLC wing of the party, whereas I think Obama comes from the more progressive wing of the party, and so it's disconcerting that there's something of a difference between them."
However, he reassured Maddow that "Emanuel worked in the Clinton White House. He understands the role of the White House chief of staff. I think he's there to help execute an agenda, not necessary to shape the agenda. ... Emanual probably wouldn't have taken the job if he wasn't prepared to act on what Obama promised to deliver."
"You have talked me down two-thirds of the way," Maddow concluded.
This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast November 6, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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