You hear it again and again. Someone is *owed* a position of power because she happened to back the right horse. People say it unashamedly, as if there's nothing wrong with asserting such a position, as if someone *should* be given a position of power that isn't based on merit, but on loyalty. Haven't we had enough of that mindset?

How should all the Obama supporters and surrogates feel? Maybe disappointed that they were not the most meritorious. Maybe angry that they are misperceived to be less meritorious than they are, if that's what happened. What they have no right to feel is that they have a justifiable beef with Obama for not valuing loyalty over merit.

It is morally repugnant that they should be given a job, that might well affect the lives of millions of people, merely as a reward for having said what they supposedly actually believed. If, say, Kerry didn't think Obama was the best man for the job, he shouldn't have said he was. If he was only stating what he believed, then that is no point in his favor when considering his merit for a job. That Crowley's letter-writer feels apparently justified in writing that email is a bad sign -- it means that the expectation of rewards for loyalty is so entrenched, no one thinks it so bad anymore.

epicciuto -- this has been going on since the administration of Andrew Jackson. Stop feigning shock.

I'm not feigning anything. I actually believe that Obama was different, that people around him were different than the Bushies. Or at least, that they believe themselves to be and would try to be. I also believed that even if they felt they expected a reward for loyalty, they would be embarrassed to say it directly. It's the openness of all of it that bothers me. Of course, one feels that they are owed something. It is hoped that one could tell oneself that it isn't justified, or there's something wrong with feeling that way.

Well, if all the fears turn out to be true-- and I hope they do-- then it means Obama used and leveraged the Leftie Dems and the Kozzie jerks to win the nomination.

It might mean he is a Manchurian Candidate.  Of the Right!

Sweet Revenge Without Fail!

I think that Obama wants to make sure he has a foreign and national security policy staff at his side against whom nobody can make the accusation that they are ideologues with an agenda or an echo-chamber that merely reflects whatever they think the president wants to hear.

Somewhat in contrast to the MO of the outgoing administration.

Their time will come.  Nobody stays eight years in a Cabinet post or high-level position, others will percolate up from within, and the Obama supporters will get their chance, after seasoning in some sort of under-seceretaryship for a while.  The smart ones among them know this and are ready to work with it.