If this is true , it's a real downer for my hopes of Obama's economic outlook as president.

Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee -- once the chief economic adviser to candidate Barack Obama -- may be less of a shoo-in to chair Obama's White House Council of Economic Advisers than his admirers once imagined. The Obama transition team is interviewing to find a woman, perhaps a minority woman, to fill the CEA chair -- a Senate-confirmed position. Informed sources suggest the candidates on the CEA list now include Princeton University economics and public affairs professor Cecilia Elena Rouse, whose specialty is labor economics. The hunt for a woman, explained several sources close to the transition deliberations, is aimed at broadening the white-male cast of the White House team assembled to date (the current tally of announced picks is 3 women, 9 men). Goolsbee, a respected University of Chicago professor, remains in contention for other administration posts, the sources added.

I share Megan's bemusement (see link). Like Megan and other libertarians, I took solace in Goolsbee's involvement and influence in the Obama economic team. He's good economist in the correct sense of the term...meaning having a grasp of and respect for market fundamentals. YES! Believe it not (if you don't waste time on Daily Kos and the like) Democratic-leaning economists can indeed be a respectful adherent to markets and all that such adherence entails...capital, tax feedback, regulations, incentive structure, behavioral concerns and so on. Goolsbee is an excellent economist in the U of Chicago tradition...just a different twist on that tradition from Milton Friedman. And if the range of our economic paradigm was between Goolsbee on the Left and Friedman on the Right, it would be a much, much better world economically speaking and I would much less cynical. Moreover, I find the politics of finding a women (and minority women at that) simply for its own sake on both counts (gender and race) to be beneath the message it seemed Obama was trying to convey. I'm disappointed. Never mind that fact that she's a labor economist. I won't even go there. McArdle, who was an uneasy but decided Obama supporter is spot on with this remark:

Throwing him overboard now makes this look like less of a "plus factor" and more like Obama is much less concerned with competence than painting a pretty picture for voters. Given the stakes, that's more than a little irresponsible.

Absolutely. I agree. Of course, it's not over yet. Obama may yet dance with who brung him. Obama may yet choose true market-economic competence and expertise over style and Identity Politics and labor economist. We shall see. But now isn't the time for social statements.