WASHINGTON -- When the new Bush Cabinet sat down for its first meeting after the inauguration, the only person missing was actor Michael J. Fox, because there's no doubt about it, this remake on the Potomac is definitely "Back to the Future: Part Four." And while nostalgia may be boffo in Hollywood, it's a sure prescription for bonehead mistakes in Washington.
After eight years of Wall Street financiers such as Robert Rubin calling the shots, Henry Kissinger wannabees Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Condaleezza Rice are now at center stage. The lone geo-economic thinker in the Cabinet is Bob Zoellick, the new trade representative, and his could be a lonely voice.
Of course, it's not who shapes U.S. foreign policy, but what they believe that counts. But there's every indication that the world view of most of the new Bush team is at least 10 years out of date. Globalization is definitely out with this crowd. And traditional diplomatic and military concerns will again be driving American foreign policy. While Powell and Rice are smart enough to sprinkle their speeches with the appropriate obeisance to market forces, and Cheney and Rumsfeld have been corporate CEOs, their actions since the election suggest that at a visceral level they don't get that the world has changed since they were last in Washington.