Same Old Politics?

Arianna Huffington writes about the amazing book that Obama campaign manager David Plouffe [what nationality is that, anyway?] has written about the campaign. But then it also causes her to reflect on the first 10 months of Obama's administration:

Indeed, reading the book, I often found myself wondering what Candidate
Obama would think of President Obama. Would he look at what the White House is
doing and say, "that's what I and my supporters worked so hard for?"

How did the candidate who got into the race because he'd decided that
"the core leadership had turned rotten" and that "the people were getting hosed"
become the president who has decided that the American people can only have as
much change as Olympia Snowe will allow?

How did the candidate who told a stadium of supporters in Denver that
"the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old
players and expect a different result" become the president who has surrounded
himself with the same old players trying the same old politics, expecting a
different result?

How could a president whose North Star as a candidate was that he "would
not forget the middle class" choose as his chief economic advisor a man who
recently argued against extending unemployment benefits in the middle of the
worst economic times since the Great Depression?
I'm referring, of course, to
Larry Summers. According to a White House official I spoke with -- later
confirmed by sources in the White House and on the Hill -- Summers was against
the extension. And it took a lot of Congressional pushing back behind the scenes
for the president to overrule him.

And, according to another senior White House official, when foreclosures or
job numbers come up at the regular White House morning meeting, Summers'
response is that nothing can be done. Nothing can be done about skyrocketing
foreclosures or lost jobs.

Nothing can be done -- pretty much the opposite of "Yes we can," isn't
it?

According to Plouffe, "reform is in Obama's DNA." Then how do you have in
your inner circle a man who has "nothing can be done" in his DNA? Unless, of
course, the problem on the table has to do with Wall Street, in which case
"everything can be done, has been done, and will be done."
Obviously, an
administration needs to hire people who weren't part of the campaign. But the
danger comes in hiring those who don't even share the goals of the campaign.
That's why The Audacity to Win is so desperately needed right now.