President-elect Barack Obama is in the process of choosing the members of his upcoming administration. Much as been made of Obama’s choice of Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel to be his White House chief of staff and it seems like at every turn, the media is attempting to guess who will make up Obama’s inner circle.

I think all the guesswork is a result of the excitement surrounding the 2008 election. Now that it’s over, people are looking for whatever election fix they can find. To feed our addiction, the New York Times has set up an “If you were president…” cabinet picker. That’s right, election junkies, you can pretend that you are Barack Obama and choose who you would have in your administration’s top positions. The Times offers lists of likely candidates and a write-in category, so you can tap your own friends or politicos not on Obama’s actual short list.

You can also see top picks made by other readers. What caught my eye is that under “Treasury Secretary,” readers made Paul Krugman — the Times columnist who recently won a Nobel Prize in economics — their No. 4 pick, above current Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson and investor Warren Buffett. Talk about an ego boost for Krugman…

Lindsay, based on your last post, I would put you in the Department of Health & Human Services. (If I was president-elect, that is.)