Winter's Picks

  If you want to work for the Obama administration, you're going to get that question - No. 59 on a 63-list questionaire.

  Apparently, it wasn't asked for those who wanted to work for President Bush.

  And that has a lot of gun supporters pretty much up in arms.

  Quote: The National Rifle Association has denounced the move, which has already led one Republican senator to consider legislation aimed at ensuring a president can’t use an applicant’s gun ownership status to deny employment.

  Barack Obama's expected first few picks for cabinet positions are about as Washington-Insider as they come.

  For a guy who kept talking about change, he's basically bringing in old Clintonites and other long-time D.C. power brokers

  However, quote: Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, said he wasn't surprised that Obama would be relying more on Clinton veterans "who participated in a presidency that is viewed to have its accomplishments and was viewed as well run..."

But Obama faces pitfalls when relying on Clinton veterans because he ran on a mantra of change, Riley said.

"The argument that Obama people would make ... it's possible to rely on people who know how the levers are pulled, but move it in a different direction than the last eight years," he said.

  Forget about turning the other cheek or keeping politics and religion separate.

  Cardinal James Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, called Barack Obama "aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic."

  He didn't stop there.

  Quote: Commenting on the results of the recent presidential election, Cardinal Stafford said on Election Day “America suffered a cultural earthquake.” The cardinal argued that President-elect Obama had campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform” and predicted that the near future would be a time of trial.

  Barack Obama smoked for most of his adult life. He promised his wife he'd quit when he decided to run for president.

  Yet has he? The answer is ambiguous at best, as Time columnist Michael Kinsley points out in this op-ed piece.

  But Kinsley also suggests we should give Obama a pass on this one - that his other attributes outweigh this deadly habit.

  Quote: If Obama actually has accomplished the miracle of giving up cigarettes at the apogee of a presidential race, he should be happy to let us know this and add to his superman image. And if he hasn't? Well, if he is straight with us about it, we should forgive him. So he's not a superman. Neither are we. In a democracy, that is a good thing for ruler and ruled to know they have in common. Furthermore, as presidential vices go, this one is not near the top. As for being a role model for youths, Obama's good habits outweigh this single bad one.

  What do you think? Should we just "look the other way" or is this a bigger issue?

  That would be Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff to President Bush and now a big Republican pundit.

  Rove cautions Obama against getting mired down on the issue of Guantanamo. He also said the president-elect is pretty much stuck with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

  “Any other selection now would embitter her supporters, even if she publicly declines the appointment," he said.

  Quote: One challenge the president-elect faces is setting a starting agenda that's too ambitious. Even a popular new president has finite political capital and time. The congressional pipeline moves more slowly than any White House wishes, especially a new administration.