Rove: Obama Has Picked a First-Rate Economic Team

Karl Rove was pleasantly surprised by Barack Obama's choice of an economic team, the Republican analyst writes in the Wall Street Journal, singling out Tim Geithner and Larry Summers as solid picks. Geithner has played a key role in the current administration's handling of the financial crisis and will provide continuity, Rove observes, and Summers has a fine free-trade record.

Obama's economic plans should still worry conservatives, Rove writes, pointing to the president-elect's intentions for huge infrastructure projects and a stimulus plan that Congress could end up stuffing with excess spending. For now, however, Obama's economic picks are a reassuring move, Rove concludes, and businesses, workers, and investors "can only hope that, over time, this new administration's economic policies bear more of their market-oriented imprint." (More President Obama stories.)