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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Pat Buchanan is shrewder than I gave him credit for. It is indeed important to soothe your own base.
However, may I remind everybody that Obama during the campaign never really digressed from his happy bipartisan talk: let's bring everybody together? Quite obviously that includes Lieberman, the Clintonites and some fairly conservative Republicans like Chuck Hagel (just a reminder: yes CTH was against the war in Iraq but on most other counts Sanctimonious Joe is to his left). However incensed you are by the Lieberman affair, nothing in Obama's talk made me believe that he would not walk the walk of all-inclusiveness.
On health care policy, Hillary's crown jewel, she is the more liberal, and while she certainly does enough of her own triangulation, with Obama it is called "bipartisanship".
Apparently, a lot on the left bought into the Republican line of "Obama the most liberal member of the Senate".
The fact that Obama chose so many Clintonites for his transition teams to me is not yet an indication of future policies. It shows that he learnt the lesson of the Carter and Clinton transistions. Having Rahmbo as his chief enforcer shows that the president-elect understands: if you want to play ball in Washington - particularly if you want to rough up business as usual - it is good to have some heavy hitters in your own team who know their ways about Washington. Carter did have all the good intentions but he really got to almost nowhere because his people did not have a clue what minefields were waiting for their good intentions.
So far, most of the appointments have been about the mechanics of politics. The real test comes when the clockwork starts to run: what for?
I admit, FISA has been a big disappointment, already.
My feeling is that Obama really wants to have Hillary inside the tent, therefore the leak to put the pressure up. Their positions on future foreign and defense policies are not really that different, and on Afghanistan Obama seems to be even more hawkish than HRC. (Again, don't complain, he never said otherwise!). But boy, can you screw-up big in Afghanistan and Pakistan...
Ever since the story came out about Hillary being picked for veeping Ted Kennedy on health insurance, I wonder if Hillary is going to accept Obama's "offer".
In his eagerness to soothe people on the right, BO has shown little consideration for the left so far - not enough leaks for them, so to speak. I wonder how he is going to juggle "bipartisanship" with the necessity to reward the people who really made him win.
But don't panic, rare is a time when there is not silly season in the media. One horce race is over, the Derby winner is in the stables, but there are so many more races to be talked up breathlessly, and reporters are out-scooping each other. After all, there are 15,000 slots to be filled.
I got advice for you: don't start to yell after each favorite of the day, hour, minute ...
Instead relax, don't worry, be happy!
Frankly, it shows that when it comes to filling the cabinet positions, Obama has to go to the Boomer bench. Yes, my dearies. It is about experience. The creative class, will have to get some practice being in government before anyone hands off the running of the government. So, blogger boyz and girlz. Relax. Obama is not a dummy.
And if Obama is a smart politician, he would not let Richardson near him. When Carville tagged Richardson Judas, he knew what he was doing. All politicians worth their salt, will use a Judas for their purposes, but they will never let them in the inner circle. Cause if they did it once, they will do it again. So, Judas, is gonna stay in New Mexico.
To Thadeus Crumb:
Why are you taking your heat on HRC?
She was done,finished. Barack brought her back from the dead.And why on God name did he do that?Did he cut a deal with her after the primaries when they met @ D. Finestein house in DC? It's Barack fault, no question. And it's his fault too regarding Zionist Lieberman.Both could have gone into the wilderness for good, but Barack somehow knows best.
Time will till.If 2 years from today we all are wondering how Zionist Lieberman is launching investigations against Barack , and we are on the brink of war with Iran...then we will know that Barack is reaping what he sow.
"Too many Democrats seem to think the first thing they should do when they get power is display contempt for their base"
But, a lot of us Democrats actually _have_ contempt for our base!
dummy.
so you encourage Obama to treat Richardson as a phariah but have no problem with him rewarding Lieberman for far worse acts?
STELLAA...
STELLAAAA...
STELLAAAAAA...
Now, lets talk politics. Obama, will not injure Lieberman. Now Lieberman owes Obama. Lieberman is an enemy. You are getting things confused.
Did you think that Pat Buchanan and his crowd may just be hoping for an easy-to-tag poster boy/girl liberal? Someone they can point their knarly fingers at and hiss, "Socialist! Marxist! Despoiler of American Values!"
When the boss man gives you a job, who do you owe?
The boss man.
I have no doubt Hillary Clinton is conflicted about the SoS job! She can't take it and run against him in four years. She may be too old to run in eight years. She certainly can't sit around in the senate being obstructionist.
And Lieberman, I have no doubt, will be called upon for this favor. He can't very well establish an anti-Obama power base when everyone knows he owes his position to him. He can't even make common cause with the Republicans.
They're both neutralized. They get on board or they get out of national politics.
But never forget who the boss man is. The boss man is *in charge*.
I think its hilarious that people (right, left and, er, Clintonista) think that because he is a nice, polite, well spoken and articulate man, everyone assumes Obama is not a bare-knuckled politician.
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
