Obama's small circle of friends

By Ed Lasky

Barack Obama betrays a certain parochialism and infantile approach towards governing and reinforces the theme that he was completely unprepared to be President. He had no contacts, no relationships.

From Anne E. Kornblut and Scott Wilson of the the Washington Post

In his nearly two years in office, President Obama has relied on a very small clique of advisers that serves as his most trusted sounding board on politics and policy.

Members of his staff describe Obama as wary of outsiders and reluctant to widen his inner circle. As one of his advisers bluntly put it, the president "doesn't like new people."

His Chicago gang (Rahm Emanuel -- Chief of Staff; Valerie Jarrett -- putatively the senior adviser and assistant to the President for public Engagement and intergovernmental Affairs, but involved in advising in many areas and a potential future Chief of Staff; spin-master David Axelrod, now senior domestic policy adviser; the departed Desiree Rogers). Were these the "best and the brightest" and "the Lincolnesque "Team of Rivals" that would bring about a better nation? No.

He promoted the career of the man who became Illinois State Treasurer (a disaster now running for the US Senate) because he liked how he played basketball.

He liked Timothy Geithner because Geithner appealed to him as someone who spent a few years of his childhood in Indonesia.

No meritocracy here -- just friends and family -- like a gangsta' government, like the mob.

Now because they have run the country into the ground and Obama's poll numbers are plummeting, Obama may be forced to make some trades and install new people at the White House. The problem: The most worldly and sophisticated President ever "doesn't like new people"?