BAMWATCH

Posted at 6:24 p.m. ET

Watched the president-elect and first-lady-select on "60 Minutes" last night.  The show has been in the tank for liberalism for so long that I didn't expect much.  Didn't get much either.  It was a softball interview, but the program's ratings soared. 

We learned about the search for a White House puppy.  Nixon made good use of a dog also, so there is presidential precedent.

We learned little else.  The president-elect has been in that status for two weeks.  He is eloquent and articulate, as is Michelle Obama.  But Americans are an impatient people.  In the midst of a major economic crisis, they will want to see their new president a bit more publicly active - at least making the key appointments that will affect the economy.  Mr. Obama was correctly criticized for vagueness during his campaign, and that vagueness continues.  There is often a conflict between intellect and action, and he must balance the two.

Douglas MacArthur told of the advice given him by his own father, a Civil War general.  "Councils of war," the elder MacArthur said, "breed defeatism."  He was cautioning against the over-intellectualization of every situation.  We may be seeing some of that, and it can quickly destroy public confidence.

A Reuters dispatch today says this:

With United States facing two wars abroad and the expanding financial crisis, the president-elect is focusing on the decisions over a secretary of state and a new Treasury secretary.

He has been coy about the timing of such moves, saying only that one will come "soon."

Coy doesn't work.  The in-the-tank press cannot protect Obama if he is seen as indecisive and unready.  He should move quickly to appoint a Treasury secretary, and the vetting of Hillary Clinton should also move quickly.  You can't put her name out there and then drag it out for weeks. 

The president-elect may have another week or two to start naming key people and indicating a clear direction for his administration, before the public starts to wonder whether it's gotten a president or, like Carter, an indecisive ponderer.

November 17, 2008.