NP: John Cage, 4'33"

There's been a considerable amount of ink spilled over how the Obama transition team is leaking so much more than the Obama campaign, and how the President-Elect is somehow losing his message discipline, but I think the media is getting played. Leaking all of these names, without actually announcing them, is how this John Brennan CIA story was able to play out in a way that got the bloggers their token scalp.

Now, perhaps Brennan was the best man for the job, and Obama really wanted him heading the CIA, but I think letting the blogosphere "win" one could have been a shrewd strategy from our next president, and I wouldn't put it past him as intentional. Which is such a nice change of pace -- thinking that maybe your head of state is thinking two moves ahead.

Or maybe this is just a way of crowdsourcing some of the many, many appointments Obama needs to make -- letting the blogosphere go to town vetting some of his picks -- and that can't be done if you don't leak their names. So, we can discount that media narrative as well.