My daddy play college football at North Carolina A&T during the one platoon, leatherhat days—let him tell it, he was on the field for every play for four years. He taught me that in sports a guy can make head and feet moves all day but watch his waist or his belt buckle—that’s where he is going.
President-elect Obama plays basketball with the best of them. I have been “watching his waist” on team-building and I think where he is not going is telling us the sections of the Democrat Team that he has quietly and inadvertently put on the bench. For example, Obama is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus but Sanford Bishop is the only member of the CBC who was seriously considered for a cabinet position. There is one school of thought that dictates that Obama is a CBC member at the top of the table so why should others be there.
Obama clearly respects Bishop and fellow Harvard Law grad Rep. Artur Davis; but I am starting to think he wonders why other CBC members and other Democrats did not provide better congressional oversight during the Bush years. Are CBC members mostly interested in keeping themselves in office? Rangel, Thompson, Waters, Holmes-Norton and Clyburn are major players on the Hill but most members of the CBC could have or should have done more with policy and legislation for the years they have been in office. How does a skinny kid with a funny name blow pass you in route to the White House in a few years?
Listen to my daddy and read Obama moves. We had a pastor at my AME Church who uses to say she was tired of hearing people pray “Lord, they need you over here and they need you over there.” Pastor said God must be thinking, “Why do you think I put you down there…you fix it, then come back and tell me about it.” Obama must be pissed with so-called leaders who fail to see these huge problems or messes coming and must be think how dare those guys think change starts with them when they help get us in the ditch in the first place.
Obama promised change but my friends are wondering if some oldheads will be surprised when he starts calling Dems out for being asleep at the wheel. He can start with me: I confess that I believed Vice-President Cheney when he said that if we can get to the Iraqi oil fields before Saddam Hussein sets them on fire again, we will pump enough oil to fund the war. Then again, I am not a baller in the game.
Before the primary season, old school Black leaders and many CBC members lined up behind Clinton and Edwards because those leaders had clout with those teams. I like the way Black leaders did not automatically get with the Black guy. But reading their waists in retrospect, they knew changing the politics, methods and policies of old would mean they were old dogs who need to learn new tricks. The same thing applies to Republicans: conservatives who are sincerely interested in ensure that the new administration’s initiates include sound fiscal and budgetary provisions are good Americans. Conservatives who want failure so they can get political power again should be ashamed.
President-elect Obama is like Michael Jeffery Jordan standing at the top of the key explaining exactly what moves he is about to make on the way to scoring. If you stepped into the arena with a weak game and much mouth—you better eat your Wheaties.
Project Logic Ga 
I like your analogy and have to agree with pretty much of what you said.
In terms of calling the shots and making the moves, how do you explain President Elect Obama’s almost 50% of the top cabinet former Clinton folks, no Southerners in top cabinet positions, nor African-Americans in top cabinet positions either.
Hey, those Clinton people were young and smart back in the day and have growth wiser with age and experience. To me, Obama is not trying to screw the South over but following the second golden rule—he who has the gold, rules.
All of those people in the West and Midwest doing for this guy during the campaign…they eat first, like the South would have been at the head of the table in Senator McCain won.
You’re right, one must take care of those who have taken care of them. It’s going to be an interesting four years indeed.