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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
sez "...Our Boy’s intelligent and strategic center-right, hawkish appointments ..."
and then later
"could the picture accompanying this piece be entitled, 'Boy Caught Fibbing'?"
Mz Miller, what's with you and this "Boy" appellation for the new black President? It's "boy" this and "boy" that. Are you trying to make some sort of south-of-the-Mason Dixon kind of point?
If not, I'm not quite sure of what kind of point you are trying to make.
Obama is trying to pick the best people for the jobs he has to fill. Hillary, for example, has the respect of leaders around the world, or at least more so than Daschel, Richardson or (especially) Kerry, and, being young and relatively inexperienced, it is probably wise for Obama to pick someone slightly to his right so her counterparts won't think they can get away with something. Also, he needs a strong hand running State, since he is going to be knee-deep in domestic economics for at least the first year of his Presidency.
Whenever I see complaints that all of Obama appointments are Clinton re-treads, what I don't see is a list of alternatives. I think that answers the question as to why he is picking whom he is picking.
I have another spin to this subject: is this the kind of knee-jerk, second-guessing, praising-with-faint-damnation article we're going to be getting from Salon for the next 6 months? Coz if it is, I may be starting to panic about how often I need to come to this site.
Give the man a goddamned chance.
Obama is picking competent, intelligent, experienced people for his Cabinet. The horror! Who are these fools that think he ought to be picking inexperienced idealogues who are going to rush in and impose radical and untested alterations on a nation which is already in crisis? Do you really think that all 'progressive' policies are likely to be exempt from the law of unintended consequences? That we can just legislate ourselves into peace, prosperity and universal healthcare without fetching up against a law of physics or two? And that, if we just ignore everybody who isn't an extreme leftist, they and their opinions, their influence and their interests will just go gently into that good night?
Jeez. It's a good thing that Obama is smarter than a lot of his supporters. If you actually listened to any of those silver-tongued speeches, you would have already understood that by 'change,' he never promised a radical progressive agenda. He merely promised to listen to people he doesn't agree with, bring competence and a sense of responsibility back to government, and end the polarizing, backbiting rhetoric of the political discourse. Which he IS DOING.
Those of you who are looking for triumph and revenge weren't paying attention.
We are thrilled to death to get an intelligent man in office for the first time in a long time and here you are crying because Obama isn't doing YOUR bidding.
He's still about 2 months away from taking charge and is making appointments that any centrist should make. I'm glad that he has an ear for what McCain thinks as well as many others across both sides of the political spectrum.
It's a wise thing to angle to the middle when you are starting things off. People can't and aren't accusing him of being a wild-eyed leftist and are taking note of the thoughtful appointments that he is making from the near left and near right side of the aisle. The cries of "Muslim" are fading quickly in the distance. Obama is going to need a balanced feedback to solve or minimize one of the greatest economic challenges of the century. Let's give him ALL our support and prayers.
I particularly agree with the person who mentioned Kucinich, my own dear congressman, and someone whose ideas I agree with at one level. But I don't think I'd want him running things right now, even if he could have gotten more than 5% of the vote. I want the guy in there who is getting ready to do what we elected him to do - make the country work for ordinary people, and change the way things have been done the last 8 years.
And yes it is crazy to criticize how he's running the country two months before he gets to start running the country.
Our Internet President Elect has shown Liberals and the country something that has been lacking for years now, a good sense of judgment and ability to engage a team of leaders, not followers.
The quality and competency of his administration should elicit high expectations, and liberals who are impatient need to exercise patience. Their reaction is understandable given the consistent downward plunge of American policies, economics, and international relations in the past eight years from the Bush administration.
Short of withdrawing troops from Iraq, the best thing Obama can do to appease the left along with the center would be to be quick and decisive on shutting down Guantanamo. The economy and Iraq, both of which are priorities, are likely not to be resolved in 2009 and Guantanamo is an eye soar to human rights and civility through the world.
believes in putting individual medical marijuana patients in prison.
That's way worse than Bush. Nobody in the Bush administration ever threatened to do anything that cruel.
I never kidded myself about what Obama was - neoliberal to the right of the Clintons. So all my chagrin was during the primaries when I saw how people were thinking this guy was going to offer a huge change I was upset. It almst seemed like McCain might win after Palin and I grew despondent , prepared for the worse. I was never a fan.
Only after Obama became president did I let myself feel joy. I cried and cried - I didn't realize how much sorrow the last 8 , or 50 years had marked me with - the hopelessness of being in a country that had never included my dreams. - he is still a thousand times over an improvement over Bush and I have grown to admire his temperament and cool, his intent to coalesce the party ( yes even tho' I despise liebeman) and to hold a tiny corner in my heart where I pray that these people recognize the opportunity they have to craft any real changes they'd ever wished they could make , because this time we have a majority.
I also realize the natives are skittish , so it wouldn't really behoove Obama to scare them with anything wild and crazy at this point in time, but to let them adjust slowly. We've all been through a traumatic time and we've been made to feel incidental to our own country But I
think he gets that.
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"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
