New York Times columnist David Brooks is reassured by the people with whom President-elect Obama has chosen to surround himself. (By Linda Davidson — The Washington Post)

Amid the chaos of Cabinet picks and the whirl of White House staff announcements over the past week, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture.

That big picture, simply put, is: What do the people President-elect Barack Obama appears to have chosen for his top Cabinet slots and his senior staff jobs say about what kind of chief executive he might be?

As usual, columnist David Brooks — one of the Fix’s favorite reads for his insightful takes on political life and discourse — takes a step back from the melee and offers a terrific 10,000-foot assessment.

Brooks starts his column by noting the common educational pedigree of Obama and his inner circle (some combination of Yale, Harvard, M.I.T., and Oxford) and jokingly notes: “If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.”

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