I think Al-Jazeera captures the WTF state of my brain trying to wrap itself around the idea of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. What it doesn't really explain is the dark underbelly of the "Why?" Is the a show of strength or a show of weakness?

I hope history will prove me absolutely wrong on this one, but I have to go with the second choice and not the first. For all the talk of frenemies being the new black, the fact of the matter is that Obama didn't win support within the Democratic Party unless he had to give up something.

And by the looks of it, it was control of national security both in the foreign and domestic arena. Here's a magical mystery tour of the country's "new" National Security Team :

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
Do I need to say more? Then there's Bill Clinton, his ethics and his Id.

Robert Gates, Defense Secretary
An alum of the Iran-Contra scandal, he was appointed by George W. Bush after Donald Rumsfeld left the post in 2006.

Retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones, National Security Advisor
Teh republikans lurvs him. By the way, his name is totally tragic.

Eric Holder, US Attorney General
Another Clintonite, a former deputy AG under Janet Reno and the guy that issued all the shady, last minute pardons done by Clinton on his way out.

Susan Rice, UN Ambassador
Eric Posner over at The Volokh Conspiracy is so not drinking the kool-aid that she's a progressive. Check out where she stands on the UN Charter.

Gov. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security
Last but not least, the appointment that will bring a world of pain domestically because, if anything, it will make it almost impossible to throw out the Patriot Act. Napolitano is from the school of thought that you treat anybody not smelling remotely of patriotic citienship with swift and brutal force notwithstanding her calls for a humane approach to immigration. The proof is in her love-hate relationship with the infamous Joe Arpaio.

This is, allegedly, the change we can believe in.

Sigh.