{"id":312,"date":"2008-12-02T15:02:56","date_gmt":"2008-12-02T15:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/obamas-white-house-appointing.html"},"modified":"2008-12-02T15:02:56","modified_gmt":"2008-12-02T15:02:56","slug":"obamas-white-house-appointing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/obamas-white-house-appointing.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s White House – Appointing Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Election of Barack Obama was one month ago on
\nThursday.\u00a0 <\/span>What a difference a
\nmonth makes.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>We remember
\nwhen we saw the words flash across the screen – President Elect, Barack
\nObama\u00a0 <\/span>– and the ecstasy that
\nfollowed.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Yet much has been
\nsaid about the demeanor of our next president when he took the stage in Chicago
\non Nov 4.<\/a>\u00a0 <\/span>There was gravity in his
\ndemeanor – his smile bright but his words serious and humble.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In his speech he spent less time
\nrunning the victory lap and more time reminding us that climbing out of the
\nhole of the last eight years and the economic crisis was going to be hard work.<\/p>\n

Obama has begun that work largely through his appointments
\nto his cabinet<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>He showed his
\npriority and determination by starting with his economic team and then moving
\nto international.\u00a0 <\/span>Some have
\ncomplained that there are too many people left over from the Clinton years resurfacing
\nin Obama’s administration, or that Obama has tacked towards the center in his
\nappointments.\u00a0 <\/span>But overall there is
\na sense that these men and women, including Senator Clinton, represent the
\nstrongest candidates available to bring our country together again and to put
\nAmerica on a strong footing – domestically and internationally.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These appointments do not come as a surprise.\u00a0 <\/span>Obama always spoke of himself as a
\nsocial justice realist when it came to politics, citing Reinhold Niebuhr as a
\nphilosophical guide<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>In this time
\nof crisis we need to rebuild upon the most solid of foundation.\u00a0 <\/span>Even keeping Robert Gates as secretary
\nof defense provides a sense of continuity that feels right when viewed from the
\nglobal perspectives.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>When asked in his interview with Barbara
\nWalters where the change comes from when he has appointed so many known
\nentities Obama replied: “It will come from me.”<\/p>\n

I believe that.\u00a0\u00a0F<\/span>or change to come we need people with experience positioned in areas where
\nthey can make Obama’s vision for America a reality.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>But while Obama
\nwill be a leader that many of us can believe in, the real work for change will
\nhave to come from each of us.\u00a0 <\/span>It
\nwill be hard work and it will require sacrifice. \u00a0<\/span>But it is specifically the call for work and sacrifice from
\nall Americans that, one month after the election, gives me what Obama promised
\nduring those many months of campaigning – Hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Election of Barack Obama was one month ago on Thursday.\u00a0 What a difference a month makes.\u00a0\u00a0 We remember when we saw the words flash across the screen – President Elect, Barack Obama\u00a0 – and the ecstasy that followed.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet much has been said about the demeanor of our next president when he took the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08"],"yoast_head":"\nObama's White House - Appointing Hope - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/obamas-white-house-appointing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama's White House - 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Appointing Hope - Progressive Revival","og_description":"The Election of Barack Obama was one month ago on Thursday.\u00a0 What a difference a month makes.\u00a0\u00a0 We remember when we saw the words flash across the screen – President Elect, Barack Obama\u00a0 – and the ecstasy that followed.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet much has been said about the demeanor of our next president when he took the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/obamas-white-house-appointing.html","og_site_name":"Progressive Revival","article_published_time":"2008-12-02T15:02:56+00:00","author":"Paul Raushenbush","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/obamas-white-house-appointing.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/obamas-white-house-appointing.html","name":"Obama's White House - Appointing Hope - 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}