Way back in the Cold War (with Russia) there was a sweet science called Kremlinology (which strangely enough is a word recognized by the Mac system spellchecker). This involved reading official Soviet News (Pravda, western press releases, etc) and scrutinizing official published photographs to reverse engineer the politics behind the closed walls of the Kremlin to know who was in and who was out. Given that official Soviet Photographs were often doctored, eliminating embarrassing connections between the powerful and the recently dead or exiled, this was not exactly rocket science, but it still took skill and memory. Also a vast archive of previously published photos didn't hurt. In fact the photo doctoring/elimination was so widely known as a hallmark of corrupt regimes that George Orwell made it the job of Winston in 1984.
These skills are having a strange revival when it comes to the President Elect. Because Obama refuses (with good reason) to usurp the current president's power, and, in my personal opinion, people are looking for hope that the current president cannot/isn't willing to provide, the public is attempting to scry the future through appointment announcements. Soon I expect to hear what breakfast food he's eating and how that relates to fiscal policy, how many bowl movements and the regularity relates to military policy, and when he goes to sleep relates to how he'll revise "No Child Left Behind." And I'm only slightly joking here.
Mr. President (the current one, not who we'll have next year), the country is longing for leadership. You're longing for legacy. Looks like a solution in search of a problem to me, and it will help your party more than installing the "Shadow Government" your brother was talking about. Pull your head out of your nether region, sir, and do your job.
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