Transition: From Hope to ?

Indiana? And Nebraska's second district? Wow ... I thought I was going on a limb when I called North Carolina for Obama.

But now the warm, fuzzy, post-election feeling is starting to fade. And reality sets in. This country is in a deep, deep hole. And we're still sinking deeper by the day. President Obama has his work cut out for him.

(As an historical aside, President Reagan also started his first time in a deep recession, but as I recall, things had turned better by the time the '84 election around. Will Alaska be the only remaining red state on the 2012 map?)

The hot gossip of the moment is whether Hillary will be part of Obama's Cabinet. Don't count on it. There is no place in the Cabinet that would meet her goals and agenda. And Hillary subordinate to Obama? I can't imagine it.

I suspect their clandestine meeting in Chicago was to allow Obama to talk with Hillary about who she would suggest for Cabinet positions. As Bill did many years ago, Obama will fill his Administration with the best-qualified, not just the best-friends. But even if Hillary were the most qualified person for Secretary of State (and I don't think she is), I don't think she'd want the position.

No, Hillary's seat in the Senate is a nice place to be. As a member of the Senate HELP Committee, Obama's health care plan has to go through her. Plus, she's on the Armed Forces Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee. She has a lot of power just where she is now. And unless she's the Decider, I can't see her working in the Executive Branch.

There's another issue that is beginning to come up from the left-wing of the Democratic Party: what to do about Bush and torture. This is the single issue that most disturbs me about the Bush Administration and his legacy. He has immensely damaged the image of America as a nation of laws and justice. We must forcefully condemn those actions as antithetical to everything America stands for.

However, how to do that? Put Americans on trial? When they were instructed that their actions were legal ... by the Justice Department itself? That doesn't seem right, and in fact, violates the ex post facto clause of the Constitution. I think the best response is to clearly state that the rules have changed, and we will never allow Americans to torture again. This change in policy could in theory be reversed by a future administration (since it appears the current administration is impervious to laws passed by Congress), but I hope that no administration would ever go into that dark place again.

We need to move on and move forward. We should relegate the Bush administration to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.