what are barack obama's flaws?

I mean they did the same thing during the campaign, seesawing back and forth about Hillary ("ooh she's washed up! But wait, a comeback!") Its all just manufactured narrative bullshit that doesn't matter. You know why? Cuz in the end this stimulus bill will pass along a party line vote, and Obama will say to the Republicans "hey, I tried to include you but you were a bunch of bitchy whiny babies AND YOU STILL LOST."

This was going to happen to any President, regardless of who it was; you would see the exact same shitstorm swirling around Clinton, McCain, or Romney had the chips fallen slightly differently.

i really and truly do not think we're seeing anything at all unusual either in the losing party's response to the winning party's first few weeks in office, or in the press's post-inaugural shift to a critical stance. obama's got a big, ugly job in front of him, the ever-swelling stimulus package was bound to attact a LOT of negative attention no matter what, and his appointment stumbles couldn't have been more poorly timed.

take it in stride. we'll know better what way the wind is blowing a couple years from now.

and yeah none of this is in the least bit surprising - barring the issue with the withdrawn nominees, which is really minor imho.

I remember Ned frequently reminding us in the midst of shitstorms before the election that "It's only February."

"It's only June."

"It's only October."

Now I find myself thinking: guys? It's only February 2009.

People remember when Supreme Court nominees get shot down - failed cabinet nominees are forgotten almost immediately and rightly so

I'm sure we're gonna remember Daschle, though

"People remember when Supreme Court nominees get shot down"

Sorta. They remember memorable ones.

Harriet Miers and Hugh Hewitt, BFF

Daschle will still be around in some fashion though, unlike oh Linda Chavez who crawled back under some rock.

ugh Miers/Bork fanfiction would be the worst thing ever

"Can you mix...THIS kind of martini?"

slash fiction would top it.

Or is it just implied that all fanfic is slash now?

Miers/Bork/Palin/Katie Couric slash fic

my formatting was meant to imply slash; the inclusion of the word "fanfiction" was a mistake (as was thinking up the concept of "Miers/Bork", ugh ugh ugh)

Miers/Coulter/Palin/Malkin

I'm sorry I will stop trying to ruin life

my slashes between the names in my previous post represent slashing

Miers/Limbaugh

Andrew Sullivan ran this letter:

You have identified an approach by Obama that seems to be confounding the political pundits on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, among others. For example, the political “experts” on CNN yesterday wondered why Obama let the Republicans in the House get the “upper hand” on the stimulus bill. They are still operating under the grudge expectations of the past (i.e., now that the Democrats are in charge they can take retribution against the Republicans). Obama clearly seems to want none of this. He really seems to mean it when he says that this bill is not “his” bill, but everyone seems to be skeptical. It’s understandable since Washington has operated in this mode of political revenge for so long now (at least since the Clinton years) that Democrats are waiting for him to give them the battle charge to vanquish the Republicans and Republicans are wondering when the veneer will drop and Obama will sucker-punch them. I admit that this, too, is my natural political inclination. But I learned during the primary and presidential campaigns that every time I second-guessed Obama by wanting him to play the game as it has always been played, he proved me wrong.

Change will not come in two weeks. It will be a long process that requires building trust first. He seems right now to be committed to this process and I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

Yeah, I don't see it (pace Daria upthread) as an 'other' level chess game, just a long-term one. It might well not work, but that's the risk run to start with.

I don't agree with bits of that letter either.

interesting re: Sully

altho in general I don't like him at all

maybe he'll set up daschle as some kind of czar working on health care or related issues - the advantage being, no need for confirmation by the Senate.

xp: It's an "other level chess game" in the sense that he seems to actually be playing backgammon.

"Checkmate."

"Yeah, uh...wait."

"I jumped your king, that's $200 you owe me rent."

the writer assumes that things ran on grudge expectations in the past. questionable IMHO

well, certainly some of Pelosi's aggression (and the Gingrich Repubs in the nineties) depended on grudge politics.

not at all questionable imo

and resentment isn't necessarily a bad thing. RE the stimulus I agree with Barney Frank's remark the other day: Obama may have overstated his ability to bridge political divides. But we'll see.

it's February 4th

You just learned that yourself, right?

the point i take from sullivan's post is.. for a long time, it's going to be possible to explain everything that happens vis-a-vis obama administration as.. this is the new politics, which is different from the old politics, and everyone else just doesn't understand. perhaps they should invent shorthand or a nice acronym for this explanation, because it's not interesting, but at least it could be said briefly.

Joan Didion wrote an essay in the late eighties called "In the Court of the Fisher King" or something, in which she eroded in her understated way the claim that Reagan's misstatements and blunders were really "signals" sent over the heads of the media to his true interpreters, The Base. Obama ain't Reagan, not by a long shot, but I don't want to get into the fortune telling trade yet.

"everything that happens" = uh what exactly? that's pretty broad. Everything bad that happens? Everything good? Every bill that actually passes? A terrorist attack? Withdrawal from Iraq? Capturing Bin Laden?

as far as media commentary on the politics of any situation - yeah - i await plenty of "you just don't get it, this is the new politics." right now IMHO this is not the new politics, this is right wing talking points & the gop screwing up obama's plans, which IMHO is a very bad thing for the country.

i mean GOP/right wing winning the message battle over this, is a bad thing for the country. i trust obama's people are mostly on point, i mostly get annoyed about stuff they're taking out of the bill

yeah, i really hope that team O wasn't really expecting a lot of cooperation from the gop, on anything. they've got dudes out there showing placards of stacked dollar bills (omg), saying transit spending is not stimulative at all (wtf), or calling the bill a "mugging" (lol). time to cut them out. nobody remembers bipartisanship after a week except david broder. put a good bill together and get it to 51.

is it me or is it not really obvious that offering to cooperate with the GOP and then them acting like childish assholes makes the childish assholes look bad, not the other way around. This thing will pass along party lines, the public will go along with it and move on to the next crisis, and the GOP will have further isolated themselves like the jackasses they are.

yes, but in going along with the game, we'll come out with some weak brew of business breaks, tax cuts for buying america cars, and piddly road fixups, and not a gop yea vote in the bargain. it's not just the optics of the process that matter but the meat of the bill passed

i don't buy for a second (never did) the explanation that obama is playing some mysterious other level chess game that the rest of us mortals just don't understand.

― NFL RUNOFF miss u plaxico (daria-g), Wednesday, February 4, 2009 3:57 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

u didnt even buy it when the metanarratives around your candidate sunk her?

i mean in this case im not so sure hes on the right track but come on, u think it was just dumb luck & not his 'chess game' that had him beat the biggest name in dem politics??

It helped that her campaign seemed to be run by three-year-olds.

i don't think it was 'metanarratives' but ground-game ruthless execution that offed HRC in the end.

besides, fighting HRC to a media/narrative draw doesn't mean he isn't getting rolled on the stimulus

besides, fighting HRC to a media/narrative draw doesn't mean he isn't getting rolled on the stimulus

― goole, Wednesday, February 4, 2009 7:57 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i said as much

just put off by daria's "ive been TELLING you guys" thing