11.07.2008
The Chicago White House
Here's Obama's likely new press secretary, Robert Gibbs, an Alabama native turned Chicagoan:
Oh, didn't some people worry that Obama would prove too conciliatory and deferential and accommodating, too namby-pamby, too lofty and ethereal and weak and hesitant and appeasing and cowering and effete and prissy? Didn't they claim that because he knows how to craft powerful language he would naturally allow the White House to be helplessly overrun by prancing pink unicorns snorting liberal fairy dust? And didn't the Republicans hope those things were true?
Ha ha ha ha ha! Add this cool customer Gibbs to David Axelrod as the Good Karl Rove of the North, and the pitbull Rahm "Dead! Dead! Dead!" Emanuel (whom we have to thank for a Democratic Congress) running the White House ... and it looks like open season on unicorns as well as Republicans. The Onion begins to resonate: "THE ADULTS HAVE COME BACK! WE ARE NOT HOME ALONE ANYMORE!"
These are seasoned power brokers ... from Chicago ... these are people that have nearly run the Republican party out of Illinois. They are cutthroat characters, ruthless, smart, merciless about getting things done. They just finished dispatching Clinton and McCain -- the two most powerful politicians in America -- and they are just getting warmed up. I am starting to think they'll make Rove and Cheney look like Laurel and Hardy. But what about bipartisanship? the Republicans are already whining. Well! It will be bipartisanship from a solid position of strength, it looks like. Meanwhile, Obama will be providing the overall leadership and be out there making with the soaring rhetoric that the country is now addicted to. I think it's about to dawn on people what a very, very good thing it is that we have done in making this unusual choice at the ballot box.
That said, it's awfully white and male so far (okay, make it two Jews and a Southerner). I want a lot of women and minorities in that cabinet and on the Supreme Court.
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3 comments:
I know, awesome, right? Not only is Rahm a cold-blooded thug (our cold-blooded thug), he knows his way around the white house. Putting in a few people who have been there before is a good idea.
My bet is, though, that there will be more than symbolic bipartisanship in this admin. I think we'll see some today.
Powell for Dept of Ed!
Hagel for Director of the CIA!
McCain for Postmaster General! (stamps, after all, are a technology he can understand).
Let's remember, too, that there is a pattern with Obama decisions:
1) Absurd expectations
2) Initially disappointing choices
3) A dawning understanding of the wisdom of said choices.
At least that's the way it works when he ends up being right. That happens enough that I'll pretty much always give him the benefit of the doubt, whatever my initial reaction.
From NBC's First Read: "Perhaps the most underreported aspect about the Rahm pick is how it's a subtle message to Pelosi and Reid that Obama isn't going to be rolled over in dealing with Congress."
And I couldn't agree more on Obama decisions so far. Every time I think I know better, he proves me wrong. Second-guessing him has proven to be a waste of time and energy. -- So far.
Yeah, I agree -- Emanuel isn't simply a slap to Republicans (though he will be tough with them); he's a signal to the Congressional Democrats that they can't run wild. I think it's great.
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