Obama follows tradition and looks to czars to solve tough problems

Still, there will be czars in the Obama administration. To be fair, Obama does not use the term czar, which may have lost some of its evocative power but still represents brutal despotism. Rather, it's media shorthand and fits headlines nicely.

Obama appointed former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner, who was given a broad mandate to coordinate among Cabinet departments on climate and energy issues (a climate/energy czar).

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Democrat-South Dakota, was tabbed by Obama to serve as director of the White House Office of Health Reform (health czar) and to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, pending Senate confirmation. Daschle would be the first czar and Cabinet Secretary, although his confirmation may be in question because of owed back taxes. Czars don't require confirmation.

Obama has also created a White House Office on Urban Policy (to be headed by an urban czar); an office on technology (a technology czar); and may name a "car czar," to oversee the bailout of the US auto industry.

Previous presidents have also had czars, although not quite to the same extent as Obama: John Love, energy czar, appointed by President Nixon as first director of the Office of Energy Policy; Sargent Shriver, President Johnson's anti-poverty czar; numerous drug czars over the years; President Clinton's anti-terrorism czar; and George W. Bush's war czar.

Czars come and go and their track record is spotty, at best. But if you have the authority to cross bureaucratic lines, cut red tape, resolve interagency turf wars and rivalries, bang heads together and have the president's ear and support, there is always a chance you might accomplish great things. But there are no guarantees.