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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
We all still know that Obama is inheriting an unholy mess. Fox News is already calling it "Obama's recession." The MSM is just exploiting the sentiment that can be wrung from this moment of fresh-start solidarity while sharpening its claws under the table. They will produce what gets ratings, and what gets ratings is transient and manipulable emotion. The left- progressive-whatever-contingent to which I belong is accustomed to marginalization and impotent outcry, and outrage and suspicion may be all we remember how to do.
But we unwittingly join hands with the ever-fulminating and floridly stupid far right when we feel it our bounden duty to simply rip and tear around our less universally held convictions. One of these is that our elected leaders are all crooks and liars and if it seems momentarily otherwise, well, just wait. Because they have been crooks and liars for some time and always will be. Right? Maybe.
But this is a nation steeped in the habit of blind nationalism on the one hand and knee-jerk outrage at government on the other. And crippling division in the better places. Where I live politically, nobody has said "stand behind your president" except in parody of the right for a very long time. I think it's pretty much forbidden. Like that collective pride we felt when Obama was elected... could that be... gasp... "patriotism"? Get that thing out of my house, my patriotism has just been about hating the ongoing vileness into which my country has been hurled, and feeling a deep need to loathe and expose it as the rotten thing that it has become. That's patriotism, right? Not pride in a collective task well done, by a whole bunch of people from all over the political spectrum... not pride and even loyalty pledged to the actually good president who has managed to accomplish that impossible thing. We are perhaps disoriented.
There is every possibility that whatever real good this very good man can do will be torn to ribbons in the political bear-baiting ring.. There is a certainty that a media designed to entertain people at their fifth-grade capacity will remember that we seem to have no attention span and is dying to see if we won't just blame Obama for what probably cannot be fixed for years to come. This cycle is going to hurt. The knee-jerk response will be blame of the new administration, starting with a deep, righteous sigh of disappointment re cabinet appointments, and ending in a stupidly reactionary vote next time around.
I say, let's not do it. Let's not go along with that crap. Let's stick together on the big stuff, unintimidated by the fickle winds of what passes for political "hardball", and stay the damned course with this guy. Looks like a pretty sound line-up to me. How quickly we forget.
I wish someone would speculate on the deal or charge that Obama surely must has given Hillary Clinton. What policy goal or challenge he might have set for her. Pullout from Iraq is happening anyhow. Pakistan-Afghanistan certainly is complex and needs deft moves over a period of time. But the biggest challenge of all, one that is a key to remaking the world order is none other than the Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Has Obama lined up his ducks in a row? When does the show begin? Some inkling on what to expect would be nice.
The fact is, this country really doesn't take well to being governed too far from the center. The constitution is written that way. However, it's not about left vs. right, it's about finding solutions that will work. The same old Clinton centrism will not.
You know the kind of economics that works? Credit unions. Community capital. They work, and "heartland" conservatives love them. Study models like that.
I'll specualate that O will send Hill to get an Israeli/Palistinian settlement. I'm not sure she or anybody else can do it - but let her try.
Obama promised to heal the rift in American society. And he is doing exactly that. What better way than to enlist Clinton people and Republicans to assume positions of responsibility in his administration? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer!
WTF?
I voted for Reich and I got Rubin
If he earnestly tries to solve the problems from somewhere near the center. This could be catastrophic and send the Marxists into a funk if not a depression. What next? All the robots who voted Obama then exited the polls may not get their handout.
Got news for all you Buckos: All Obama ever wanted was to be President. He never cared how he got there. Helloooo. Were you watching the first day he announced he was running and threw Jeremiah Wright under the bus? That should have told eveyrone something right there about the guy. Opportunistic. Never met a teleprompter he didn't like. Has a platitude for everything.
The joke is on all of you. Bill Clinton said it was all "fantasyland." And Hillary Clinton summed him up rather nicely. After citing a litany of her accomplishments, she summed up Obama with, "...all he brings is a speech he made in 2004."
Think about it for a second. Who does Obama know? Other than home-grown terrorists in Chicago and other like-minded "community activists (whatever THAT means!), where are his long-term relationships and connections to those who actually have experience running federaql government? That's right.
What? Did the idiots on the far left and the netroots really think they were going to run the show? Why? They didn't get him elected. A badly run McCain campaign coupled with a real economic crisis just before election day is what sent moderate independent voters holding their noses and voting for him - and running from McCain - to give him the election.
And it will be those same moderate independent voters who will send him and his Democratic-majority packing if he doesn't deliver for them. The netroots need to get over themselves. They are only as good as the next brownout anyway when you really think about it. See. Young people don't vote. They might sit up all night thinking of clever shit to type on their blogs, but they don't vote.
Grow up. In addition to many platitudes, the Democratic Party is an equal opportunity "fuck you" organization too. What? You mean you didn't know that? Gee. We thought you knew it all.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
