I’m getting a cold, so I’m a little muddle-headed today, and blogging might be light. Let me direct your attention then to a new piece I have up at Grist on the Obama “urban” appointees — HUD, DOT, and OUP. My thinking on the selections has evolved somewhat. Initially, I was fairly disappointed, but I’m more sanguine now. Political reality is going to intrude on all the departments, and where top notch selections have been made, we’ve seen those men and women tie themselves in knots trying to get across their points while not offending this or that political interest. Steven Chu is a great pick, for instance, but he’s already having to give all these contorted statements on the role of coal and high gasoline prices. The urban picks are probably just a bit more explicitly pragmatic and shouldn’t be read as a betrayal by the president.