Does Obama understand what he is doing?

Shortly before the festive break Clive Crook blogged at the FT on Barack Obama’s Trade & Labour appointees. He made the point, not for the first time, as to:-

the wisdom of combining people with fundamental disagreements in executive (as opposed to advisory) roles. Widely divergent opinions are good in a seminar but not so good in a management setting, where the challenge is not to develop and polish an opinion but to get something done. Much as I admire the man and respect his appetite for countervailing opinion, I’m beginning to wonder if Obama understands this distinction. Dysfunctional quarreling is the obvious risk. A subtler problem is that if you appoint people who disagree with each other to run adjoining or overlapping spheres of policy, you, the boss, cannot delegate.

Precisely.

This led into a final point from Crook in that post.

Obama will always have to be there to adjudicate–and his time and energy are going to be very scarce resources.

This led Adam to ponder does Obama realise this fact.

Is his administration going to be bedeviled by internecine conflict?

Will Obama be able to avoid being dragged into every turf war between the various competing cabinet and agency barons?

Does Obama actually comprehend what he is doing?