"Despite recent high-profile withdrawals, President Obama's selections haven't fared much worse than his predecessors' did."

It took only two weeks for journalists to realize that the young genius who cannot possibly make any mistakes is lucky not to do worse than other presidents.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to reality!

Maybe it should be standard operating procedure for IRS to

annually audit our elected officials -- instead of worrying so much about the small business owner who's probably paying more

taxes anyway. No wonder Democrats don't worry about spending...they have no intention of paying the taxes anyway.

We have had 16 years of lobbying gone wild and members of both parties enjoying the good life of Washington DC. Lobbyists provided junkets and meals, etc for anyone who had influence or committee membership. They're all guilty and ALL of them need to clean up their act or get out. We have 2 years to replace those Congresspeople who can't hack it. Email them and remind them of this on a regular basis.

Readers who offer comments here realize Salon is just one more Web advertising agency. Nobody's deceived about the nature of your site. Judging from the uneven quality among articles published here - many frivolous if not downright inane - we find Editors' Choice a comical conceit. Apart from opening the flank to a charge of readership control, you invite the observation that no one is interested in your qualitative judgment. Where could you get the idea he might be? Comments are offered to the world, not you. We don't find enough substance in your productions either to wonder or to care about your views.

I'm sure that one or more of Obama's nominees may have, at one time or another, driven faster than the speed limit or even jaywalked. We cannot tolerate such utter disregard for the law!!

Ya know, he really is NOT magic.

He never said he was.

He said he would do his best and, as far as I can tell, that's what he's doing.

He's having to work with a grimy, self-satisfied, revolving-door political culture.

He's having to work with a "greed is good / we *deserve* all our perks, dammit" financial sector.

There's no factory full of virginal, clean-as-a-whistle bureaucrats waiting for his call to glory.

He said he would make mistakes and acknowledge them -- and he's done so.

When did GWB ever acknowledge a mistake? How many years did we endure Rummy at the Pentagon?

Cut him some slack. Look at what just left town. Do you really want it back? Do you really think the past two weeks constitute "more of the same?"

Out here in the hinterland it looks like the punditocracy is doing what it does best, kvetching for the sake of kvetching.

That's fine. It's what you get paid (or not!) to do!

But a little perspective, please?

Thanks for listening...

Richard Jasper

East Amherst, NY

... during the campaign when he said everything in his administration would be executed with perfection. No mistakes!

He said that didn't he?

Salon should be spending time discussing Oval Office dress codes, and more importantly, how Obama hates white people in Kentucky.

when Clinton's staff were called corrupt etc (and by association clinton was called corrupt). Here we are finding one of the most prominent backers of Obama is in Greenwald's words a corporate whore.

The liberal blogosphere along with the Nation and Salon staff created the myth and now you come back and complain.

If these high-powered people with their tax accountants and attorneys can't figure out the US tax code, imagine how those of us who struggle with our taxes every year feel.

When you fail to pay taxes on over $200,000 worth of car and driver, why do you even assume you can be confirmed as a nominee? Why would obama's staff assume they could force it through?

I realize all presidents have had their nominees rejected or withdraw but I had hoped Obama would run a little more smoothly than this.

The Republicans appear not to care about the whole bipartisan, let's-pull-together thing, so please don't give them anything to sink their teeth into.

Hoo, boy. Obama's only slightly worse than Dubya and Clinton in terms of ethics-challenged proposed appointments.

Now that's change that we can believe in.