At first it seemed to me like it was taking Obama a long time to name anyone to his cabinet. But I’ve found this old New York Times article about Bill Clinton’s presidential transition, dated November 11, 1992, eight days after his election to the presidency. It stated that Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and Reagan all waited until December to appoint any cabinet members. So I guess Obama’s on track.

The article’s also interesting for the light it sheds on the Clinton and Obama transitions:

The most striking thing about Gov. Bill Clinton since the election has been the intriguing contrast between Bill Clinton the candidate and Bill Clinton the President-elect.

The Bill Clinton the public saw during the campaign was decisive, vigorous and remarkably open, a candidate who spent up to 18 hours a day talking up his ideas in public. But President-elect Bill Clinton has been seen only rarely. He has been conspicuously deliberate in making decisions and as obsessed with holding information close to the vest as any President.

That sounds familiar, and it’s probably not unusual.

A week after Election Day the Clinton transition operation still consists of Mr. Clinton, his wife, Hillary, Vice President-elect Al Gore Jr., a few intimate friends and advisers from the campaign and a skeletal transition board that has met only twice and is still trying to work out a timetable to present to Mr. Clinton for his most important transition decisions.

By contrast, Obama’s team seems to be highly organized and meeting regularly.

George Stephanopoulos, Mr. Clinton’s director of communications and one of the very few former campaign officials with any apparent connection to Mr. Clinton these days, presents daily briefings for the public that are portraits in minimalism. Tiny shreds of information about Mr. Clinton’s activities and thoughts are padded out and embellished to make the puny sound Presidential.

OK, I just thought that was funny.

“The reason that it seems like very little is happening is because very little is happening,” said one longtime Clinton friend, who spoke only on the condition that he not be identified. “Very few decisions have been made. This is very much Bill’s style: being extremely deliberate if not slow. He wants to do things carefully and right.”

Obama at his first press conference: “And I want to move with all deliberate haste, but I want to emphasize ‘deliberate’ as well as ‘haste.'”

I guess things are moving along at a decent pace after all.