I had an occasion to drive up to Sacramento and back by myself the other day.  How nice it was to be able to listen with unbroken attention to National Public Radio.  And to have time to reflect.  And to have time to do some writing in my head.  I listened to a report about Leon Panetta’s naming to be the next head of the CIA.  In case you missed it, there was a brief storm of controversy about the proposed apointment earlier in the week.  Why the controversy?  Because he’s not a CIA man – he’s an outsider – and because the Obama transition team, either accidentally or intentionally, neglected to let Senator Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, know about the selection of Panetta before they spilled the news to the press.  Anyhow, as I listened to the experts talk about the pros and cons of a Panettal directorship, my mind wandered back to the natural, human and administrative catastrophe that was Hurricane Katrina.

Back when Katrina hit, the husband and I were living in London.  As we read the stories coming out of the U.S., especially those about FEMA’s total failure to manage the situation, we talked a lot about what it revealed about the Bush Administration generally.  I remember well the husband giving credit to the Bush Administration for making him realize that yes, it is difficult to run the United States of America.  Before George W came into office, we realized, the government had basically worked the way it was supposed to and consequently, we’d taken it for granted.  In running it so badly however, Bush gave us a wake up call and an incentive to give some thought to just what it takes to run it well.

I suspect we weren’t alone in experiencing this awakening.  Too, I suspect that awakenings of this sort, happening as often as they did over the last 8 years, had quite a lot to do with the energy, the involvement, the hope and the outcome of the Obama campagin and election.  From the disputed election of 2000 right through the war in Iraq, the Bush Administration worried us and underscored the importance of choosing someone who we think can actually do the job.

Which leads me back to Panetta, Leon, who, by all accounts, is an intelligent, thoughtful, experienced person of integrity.  And the NPR conversation about the CIA and its workings.  What was most exciting to me was being engaged with the conversation.  It wasn’t just an abstract report about abstract happenings in Washington.