BY THEIR STAFF SHALL YOU KNOW THEM:

Barack Obama: the politics of hypocrisy and cynicism: It was supposed to be all about the end of politics as usual. But while President Barack Obama has been happy to bring about change while abroad by doing all he can to diminish the superpower status of the United States, at home it's been the same old (Toby Harnden, 11/21/09, Daily Telegraph)

Bowing to the wishes of Hillary Clinton, who blocked him from his preferred field of foreign policy, Craig was made White House Counsel.

He was charged with closing Guantanamo Bay, overhauling interrogation rules and translating Obama's high-minded campaign ideals into workable policy.

Having issued a directive on his second full day in office that Guantanamo Bay would close "no later than one year from the date of this order", Obama soon came up against reality. Last week, he lamely conceded that he would miss his own deadline but "would anticipate" the jail shutting in 2010.

Faithfully implementing Obama's wishes, Craig drew up plans for the release of photos of American troops engaging in the abuse of prisoners.

Faced with fierce opposition from generals and former CIA chiefs the President then changed his mind.

Before you could whisper "change we can believe in", Craig became the designated scapegoat for Obama's photos U-turn and the Guantanamo debacle. The campaign had been free of leaks but Craig was knifed by Team Obama in time-honoured Washington. He was toast, confided anonymous officials who portrayed him as an incompetent in the thrall of bed-wetting human rights types.

On the record, officials flatly denied Craig might be fired and airily dismissed reports of the authorised leaks as "typical Washington parlour games". A bemused Craig wondered who his enemy might be, realising too late that it was Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, operating with Obama's blessing.

White House officials were demonstrably lying to reporters when they said Craig was not under threat. With breathtaking chutzpah, they briefed last week that his departure had been on the cards "for months".

In the Clinton era it was OK to lie about sex. Under Obama, it seems, it's just fine to lie about running the country. [...]

One of this White House's flaws is that it is packed with campaign operatives like Axelrod at senior levels or other refugees from the Windy City like Emanuel, who delight in the dark arts of Washington and Chicago-style hardball.

W staffed his Cabinet and White House with governors and CEOs because he was primarily interested in running the country effectively. The UR chose ciphers and political operatives because he is exclusively interested in re-election. Of course, the problem is that when no one on your team understands governing you may do it so poorly as to make yourself unre-electable.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 21, 2009 1:41 PM