Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Barack Obama was supposedly an unacceptable candidate because he was inexperienced and not tough enough to fill the oval office. An "empty suit" some called him.

Now he's moving quickly to put together an administration comprised of experienced, tough people. He was accused of being weak in foreign relations, but he's already placed calls and had conversations with nine heads of state; more are scheduled for tomorrow. He was supposed not to have enough experience to be commander-in-chief. But David Petraeus as recently as this morning suggested publicly that conversations be initiated among the middle eastern countries to begin the process of tempering the potentially volatile situation in Iran. Will this include Iran? Syria? Petraeus wouldn't say "no" when asked directly. Was this somehow the result of Petraeus several-hour long conversation with Obama when he visited Iraq a couple weeks ago? Or is this something Petraeus has wanted to do but couldn't under policies of the current commander-in-chief?

Now the Republicans are complaining because of Obama's choice of Rahm Emanuel as his chief-of-staff. He's a tough guy...he won't be nice to us, the GOP says. Other cooler heads like the choice as a steel hammer inside Obama's velvet glove. Not the choice of an empty suit, for sure. Those that know Emanuel say he will be a powerful force in assuring the implementation of Obama's policies.

Speaking for myself--I know there will be some other frequent posters here that will disagree with knee-jerk speed--I'm liking the speed, organization, leadership and , yes, quiet toughness of our new President in managing the transition. We need a new Presidential administration that will hit the ground running to address the serious problems facing our country. We need a President who will surround himself with the best and most experienced minds the U.S. has to offer. He's picked a tough, experienced chief-of-staff and we can soon expect a new Treasury Secretary to begin to address the financial crisis facing the country, I'm sure.

So far, it looks like we're getting exactly what we need.