Washington Insiders

Some of y’all know that I am on the board of PGS, a Norwegian Geophysical Services company. What you probably don’t know is that I have to be reappointed every year. And one of the people on the nominating committee is C. Maury Devine, who is currently living in Washington DC, and counts as my one “insider” contact in our government.

Maury is very close with Hillary Clinton, and almost certainly would have been part of her administration had Hillary won.

Maury and Roger O’Neil, our other Nominating Committee member joined us for the Board Dinner. Jens Ulltveit-Moe(our chairman) asked her to talk about the mood in Washington, and how the transition was going.

She was part of the Carter administration and said that she has never seen a better transition than Obama’s. The problem that the Obama team may have had was that they were running as outsiders, and that outsiders just don’t know how Washington works. She said that the Carter and the Clinton transitions were disasters for that reason. Nobody they brought in wanted to work with the folks that were there. (She also confirmed that the Clinton to W transition was extremely ugly. Clinton staffers really did pry the “w” keys off of the computers. She also said that President Bush is being very gracious and helpful to the transition team. He will be able to take some credit for how well this is working)

She also said that the mood is the best she has ever seen it, in spite of the financial crisis and everything else. Obama’s choices, his attitude, his approach are all going to make it better. She said that there is a palpable feeling in DC that this recession can be handled, the war can be handled, everything can be handled. Jens then said “Yes, we can” That has really become a shorthand for an attitude that change is possible. (Last week we went to see Robert Wilson speak in Houston. He used the same phrase to the same effect)

The Europeans at the table were all really happy about Obama, and about what he is doing. Everyone has been very impressed with the quality and speed of his appointments, and the amount of face time he is spending explaining all his decisions.

I asked Maury if she was going to State, and she said no, that she was going to be an advisor. She also said that watching Obama work that she believes he was the absolute right choice.

She also said that this recession will end in September of 2009.