Tamp Down Camelot

Franklin Delano Obama is infinitely more preferable than Obamalot.  However, Obama's recent selections suggest a shift that may not be so bold.  (Sidenote from the "Where's the frackin' liberal media?" department:  can someone explain to me how center-right appointments so obviously indicate that Obama is surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues, but center-left appointments would not?  It would seem to me that there are pragmatists on both sides of the ideological divide, and what puts center-right Clintonistas on the right is their fidelity to ideology, not pragmatism per se).