From the moment Obama cast his vote for the FISA bill I knew what he was and was not, so this is hardly surprising. My personal feeling is that he has made a pact with the Democratic Party to adhere to certain bounds that, for whatever reason, they like to adhere to: No impeachment on the table, pro big business DLC, pseudo hawkishness. It's really a shame, but there it is. I still voted for the man, because McCain would have literally caused our death, probably beginning with an attack on Iran. If not that, then he would have continued with enough of the Republican ideology that would have, in fact, destroyed this country in some military or economic way (there are so many to choose from these days in the wake of Bush). No, my best hope for Obama is that he charts the most rational course within the constraints of the Washingtonian machine. I wish it were otherwise, but Obama is, above all an establishment man. In that context, it all makes a depressing kind of sense. He will not get us killed, if he can avoid it, and we might climb out of this economic hole with him at the helm, but there will be no accountability for those who put us here, and there will be no radical departures from business as usual. It kind of makes all that Republican blather about palling around with terrorists during the election that much more outlandish and grimly hilarious.

When Thomas Friedman hears about this Don Obama, will he, um, be able to stand up?

or will he have to think about baseball for a while before he can rise from his desk again?

He graduated from Harvard with an MBA, joined GM, and worked his way to the top. Heckuva job he's done there.

A bit off topic, since it's not specifically about debate regarding the individuals given (or who might be given) positions of authority in the Obama administration...

...It would be a brutal rewrite of history to have imagine that FDR was governing silently without constant inputs by interest groups, liberal groups, labor organizations, leftist groups, and the like.

Hell, there were general strikes, including the then-largest strike ever in the U.S. in the textile industry (whose brutal & violent crushing by state authorities and mill goons ended much organizing in the South), and the 1941 march planned by A. Phillip Randolph against racial discrimination in defense industry hiring, which wasn't carried out because the threat of it led to negotiations with FDR.

A recap might be interesting from that time. Remember, this is 1941 -- the U.S. was gearing up for war. A coalition led by 2 prominent African American labor & civil rights leaders (Randolph & Bayard Rustin) and a radical pacifist religious leader A. J. Muste [head of the Fellowship of Reconciliation], still in a Depression and the call to march had been issued on January 15th of 1941. Randolph, though, had fought for 12 years getting the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters recognized by the Pullman Company.

[Randolph begins defining to Roosevelt what it is he and the "10,000 Negroes" would march on Washington for.]

"Mr. President, we want you to issue an executive order making it mandatory that Negroes be permitted to work in these plants."

"Well, Phil," answered the President [FDR], "you know I can't do that. If I issue an executive order for you, then there'll be no end to other groups coming in here and asking me to issue executive orders for them, too. In any event, I couldn't do anything unless you called off this march of yours. Questions like this can't be settled with a sledge hammer."

"I'm sorry, Mr. President, the march cannot be called off," Randolph responded steadfastly.

"How many people do you plan to bring?" asked Roosevelt.

"One hundred thousand, Mr. President," answered Randolph.

Sensing a bluff, Roosevelt asked Walter White [NAACP leader] how many people really planned to march. Unhesitatingly, White replied, "One hundred thousand, Mr. President."

Whether Randolph and White were bluffing, no one can say for sure. What is known is that the president seemed alarmed at the prospect. "You can't bring 100,000 Negroes to Washington," he said. "Somebody might get killed."

Randolph replied that violence was unlikely if the President spoke to the marchers. Roosevelt responded impatiently, "Call it off and we'll talk again."...

...Finally, the officials relented and agreed to draw up an executive order for the president to sign. After he rejected several initial drafts as too weak, the White House finally came up with an executive order that met Randolph's approval. On June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802. The order mandated that "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin."... Most importantly, the order established a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to "receive and investigate complaints of discrimination" and to take "appropriate steps to redress grievances." Holding up his end of the bargain, Randolph agreed to cancel the march.

- Excerpted from Philip A. Klinkner's & Rogers M. Smith's _The Unsteady March_.

http://tinyurl.com/Randolph-1941-FDR

Okay, maybe the whole thing's irrelevant, because it's a different time, it involved major issues, and was taking place in the midst of a popular president's 3rd term and not weeks before an inauguration for a 1st term.

The point is that these leaders represented organizations whose members were all overwhelmingly loyal allies and fervent electoral supporters of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Hildebrand's comments stem from his seeming belief that governing must be done from the center. Governing from either the Left or Right is not sustainable (they'll just point to Bush as an example). Bill Bradley has said something very similar--that while while either Left or Right can kill proposals, only the center can generate them--and then push them through. Proposals like health care, for example.

Obama's team has already been identified (obviously) as not being of the Right. Their campaign (and campaign opponents) did that for them. But they also believe (I think) that they must be just as clearly separated from the Left in order to govern effectively. This is what Hildebrand and the whole Obama team is doing. In a way, the more they piss the Left off, the better positioned (branded) they are to govern effectively and pursue partnerships in the center.