December 3, 2008, It's never too early
With only 47 months to go until the November 2012 election, Barack Obama is kicking ass in the polls. Having not elected to waste his precious bodily fluids political capital to help Jim Martin in his quixotic quest to defeat the all powerful Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia Senate race, he instead is scouring an old rolodex he found while touring the White House recently to find members of the Clinton Administration that he hasn't already appointed.
Let me make this clear, folks: Barack is a conventional politician who happens to have had a Black father (a rather kickass Black father with a Harvard Ph.D. who was a high government official in Kenya; though the campaign of course focused on his White family-- just as in the horrors of Mumbai, recently, the press here focused on the five Americans and handful of other Western victims which of course is the main reason why terrorists target Americans and Westerners in these horrors-- but I digress). Barack is demonstrating, as he did with his choice of Biden for veep-- that he makes safe, conventional choices of experienced, competent people. Indeed, so competent, that with the exception of All-Drama Hillary Clinton, they are boring. Similarly, he has backed off at least two tax proposals, previously, increasing the income tax on earners over a quarter million dollars, and now, the "windfall profits tax" on oil companies amidst the oil price collapse. Why? Conventional politician.
In short, like FDR (our last president with a Columbia-Harvard educational pedigree) Obama is facing an economic debacle of his predecessor's making.
But like FDR, what we have to realize is that Obama is a conventional, small-c conservative, meaning cautious and "prudent" politician. He will do the amazing progressive things we demand of him only if, like our ancestors, made FDR, we make him. Al Giordano reminds us that it is up to us to organize, using Obama's very model of community organization, to demand that change be more than a catchy and successful electoral slogan, but that it actually stand for meaningful progressive reform that the country so desperately needs-- and, if we're right, desperately wants.
It's never too early... and it's never too late.
Comments
Correct you are, TD.
Posted by Mixter at December 3, 2008 9:23 AM
So what you're saying is that Obama will flip flop on almost everything? Looks like he just continues to sell out now that he's been elected.
Posted by Just Wondering at December 3, 2008 1:10 PM
Not flip flop, JW, or even sell out, but, consistent with his only publicly stated theme, "change". As in "change his mind" or "change his tactics to deal with a deep economic slump".
It actually is a pretty good sign: it means he is willing, a la Clinton and unlike Bush, to throw out the doctrinaire playbook to actually solve crises, rather than just to have an excuse to trot out and double down the doctrinal ideological playbook, even (Iraq) when (Katrina) it clearly (tax cuts for the rich) isn't working.
Obama's very likely to restore competence to the central government. If we want him to move in an actual progressive policy direction, however, we're going to have to "make him" by keeping the "community organizing" going. The fact that the Dems couldn't even turn people out to dump the loathsome Saxby Chambliss in GA is not a good sign that this will be happening, btw.
Posted by the talking dog at December 3, 2008 2:01 PM
Hello,
A humble request...
Do you, by any chance, happen to know who Secret Dubai (the blogger: secretdubai.blogspot.com) is?
http://whoissecretdubai.blogspot.com/
Posted by whoissecretdubai at December 4, 2008 12:54 AM
Based upon what little I can gather, Secret Dubai is a bedwetter, with a classic case of TalkingDogphilia.
Posted by Will Graham at December 4, 2008 12:56 PM
"rather than just to have an excuse to trot out and double down the doctrinal ideological playbook, even (Iraq-Out on Day One, er , I mean 16 months, er, I mean keep 70,000 troops there indefinitely for security and training Iraqi troops) when (Katrina?--Mumbai, Schmumbai--Georgia, Schmorgia-- Ossetia, You betchia) it clearly (tax cuts for the rich--repeal, er, I mean, wait till they expire, er, I mean, well, Soros kinda likes them) isn't working.
Change--A registered trademark of the Democratic National Committee
Posted by Crabalicious at December 5, 2008 7:38 PM
Saxby Chambliss led Jim Martin 49.8% to 46.8% in the general election forcing a runoff. In the runoff, Ryan Seacrest could not muster enough interest to give Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi unfettered control of Washington, and Chambliss trounces Martin by 60% to 40%.
CHANGE--On tonight's episode, Blossom realizes the importance of sticking with a job until it's finished.
Posted by Crabalicious at December 5, 2008 7:52 PM