One thing that is a big difference between Bush and Obama is the lack of cronies we see going into our new administration.

Barack Obama’s picks for Cabinet and other senior posts are many things: centrists, veterans, rivals. Most of all, though, they’re big: big names, big intellects and big egos.

The president-elect’s national security and economic policy teams, inside the White House and out, will be led by power politics veterans, all but one of them older than the president-elect, and all accustomed to being the most important voice in the room.

No horse racers running emergency response agencies? Nope – this is the sign of a man willing to actually run the government instead of making it a clearing house for his friends that failed at everything else in life.