even bush officials are already impresssed by Obama

Former Bush adviser: Obama’s cabinet is ‘Much less ideological than George Bush’s cabinet.’

On ABC’s This Week today, former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd marveled at President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet choices, saying that Obama will have “one of the most pragmatic, least ideological cabinets that we’ve seen in a long time.” Dowd noted that this contrasted with how his former boss picked his staff when he first entered office:

DOWD: Much less ideological than George Bush’s cabinet when he appointed it, when he first came into office. People that have disagreements. He has disagreements with his potential Secretary of State. He has disagreements with the person that’s going to run his Pentagon. It’s an amazing thing he has done that.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Obama is more open to appointing “people that have disagreements” than Bush was. As Bob Woodward has noted, Bush has often shown “a lack of interest in open debate.”

(Think Progress)