Some people are looking at President-Elect Obama under the microsope of policy and personnel picks. My judgment of how he "walks the walk" was his master of the First Dog question.
You can prepare talking points for a lot of issues, from welfare to energy, and get them right. Obama is something of a policy wonk anyway.
When reporters are looking for an inside look at more of the personality of the future president, or a point where they might catch them revealing something about themselves with a seeming softball, they toss out the "innocent" question.
At the Obama Friday press briefing, the question of the First Dog came up. Obama, after all, made a campaign promise to his children that they would get a dog.
He treated the question like pretty much any of his policy decisions. It had two criteria: One, his daughter, Malia, is apparently allergic. So there was the hypo-allergenic pet requirement. Then there was the preference to get a shelter dog, or, as Obama called it, "a mutt, like me."
The pick was revealing. Little is going to go by Mr. Obama that is not well considered, and, if nothing else, his self-deprecating sense of humor is a welcome change from George W. Bush's petulance and peevishness.
Okay, it will be a bit more important when he comes up with a Secretary of the Treasury, or his Secretary of State. Still, you can learn a lot about a president from his pick for First Dog, because dogs, after all, are usually a bit like their owners.
Take Barney, the current serving First Dog, here, as a classic example: