From The NY Observer
By Joe Conason

When the journalistic pack bites into a tasty cliché they often refuse to let go, lazily chewing and regurgitating a phrase like “team of rivals” long after the flavor is gone. Derived from the Doris Kearns Goodwin book on Lincoln’s cabinet, that morsel had scant relevance to the cabinet being assembled by Barack Obama, as the president-elect bravely tried to explain when he introduced his national security team.

But as Mr. Obama learned many months ago, our leading media minds tend to be far less interested in real ideas and policies than in a fixed narrative about personalities. So his decision to nominate primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state, with all the friction that would supposedly generate, became the focus of the news. All his other appointees somehow had to be crammed into the same imaginary framework.

According to that storyline, Mr. Obama will soon find himself in conflict not only with Mrs. Clinton but also with Robert Gates, the holdover Bush defense secretary, and with James Jones, the retired Marine general chosen as national security adviser. Everyone will feud and fuss over the timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, how to confront or cajole Iran, and whether to spend more money on defense or diplomacy.

The clear implication is that the national security apparatus could collapse into chaos within days of the inauguration.

Now this distorted perspective on Mr. Obama and his national security cabinet may end up serving the new president very well by setting up an expectation of disaster that he will easily avoid. But it doesn’t reflect what he is actually trying to do – or why he feels comfortable with those he has chosen to advise him.

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