President-elect Obama gives great press conference and the transition thus far seems to have gone swimmingly. Today, he meets with President Bush and, given Bush's determination to be gracious, I expect very little news from that meeting.
Yet let's note my first moment of, um, unease. That was a respectable group of economic advisors gathered around the president-elect last week. Very respectable. As this list shows, all had reason to feel comfortable in this setting. Not a single disreputable Nobel Prize winner among them. No other scruffy, contentious academic sorts, either, unless you count Robert Reich. And no labor leaders. A Democratic president-elect assembles a transition economic advisory board and fails to include a single labor leader. More interestingly, I've yet to see anyone else notice that fact.
Given the troubles in the automobile industry, much less American manufacturing as a whole, I think one would have been nice. You're a Democrat, Mr. President-elect. 'Kay?
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