When Hillary Clinton became President-elect Clinton...

Oh.  She didn’t?  Are you sure?  That can’t be right.  Just look at all those Presidential appointments.

A little over a year ago, one of the candidates for President said, “The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result.”

Correct, all you smarter-than-fifth-graders (not to mention smarter than the collective government geniuses who seem intent on turning a recession into a Great Depression sequel and charging your children and grandchildren dearly for the privilege of all of us participating):  That candidate was none other than Barack Obama.

So far, President-elect Obama has announced (or leaked) the following appointments:

Rahm Emanuel, former Clinton White House senior advisor, to be Chief of Staff.

John Podesta, former Clinton White House Chief of Staff, as head of transition team (and who knows what thereafter).

Eric Holder, former Clinton administration Deputy Attorney General, as Attorney General.

Gregory Craig, former Clinton White House special counsel, as White House Counsel.

Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader, as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Arizona Governor and former U.S. Attorney (Clinton appointee) Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security.

Based on a variety of news reports, the President-elect is discussing/negotiating/playing political footsie (or a very dangerous game) with none other than the aforementioned Mrs. Senator Former Rival Clinton and her ubiquitous husband, the walking, talking cash register, for Mrs. Clinton to become Secretary of State.  The former President is so intent on keeping his wife out of town (or several continents away) that he is reportedly willing to sacrifice millions in income from questionable sources in order to secure her the position.

The bigger-than-your-Christmas list of other names being bandied about (including such previous Presidential appointees as Bill Richardson and Lawrence Summers) have similar pedigrees.  Given the number of appointments yet to be made, it is far too early to belabor the issue.

Suffice it thus merely to observe that we have finally cracked the code of “change you can believe in.”  It’s from the appropriately French proverb, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose or “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”