David Brooks, the right’s prince of wonkishness, is pretty impressed with the creds of those around Obama. So am I. Not that smart people always do the right thing but a culture of inquiry, acknowledgment of facts, reason elevated back to parity with emotion and ideology seem to have a greater chance of backing us away from disaster than the terrifying promise of more of Bush, more of Palin-McCain.

Already the culture of the Obama administration is coming into focus. Its members are twice as smart as the poor reporters who have to cover them, three times if you include the columnists. They typically served in the Clinton administration and then, like Cincinnatus, retreated to the comforts of private life — that is, if Cincinnatus had worked at Goldman Sachs, Williams & Connolly or the Brookings Institution. So many of them send their kids to Georgetown Day School, the posh leftish private school in D.C. that they’ll be able to hold White House staff meetings in the carpool line.

And yet as much as I want to resent these overeducated Achievatrons (not to mention the incursion of a French-style government dominated by highly trained Enarchs), I find myself tremendously impressed by the Obama transition.

[And don't miss Borowitz's wonderful take on Obama's complete sentences.]

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