Barack Obama Should Be Happy With What Happened At CPAC Today

President Barack Obama should be happy with what he saw today at
CPAC. Deep divisions in the Right revealed themselves at the
conservative gathering. Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll, showing
that some in the conservative movement want the Republican Party
to move towards libertarianism and isolationism. This should make
the Republican establishment uneasy. The Republican Party is not
libertarian and I don't see it becoming libertarian anytime soon.

Something else that should make Barack Obama smile is that Glenn
Beck's speech was basically a GOP bashing fest. The GOP might take
back the House in November but when it becomes to choosing a leader
in 2012, I don't see it happening. There is too much division in the Right
and it won't be resolved anytime soon. And this "both parties suck"
rhetoric that Glenn Beck uses is just grease for a third party to come in
and split up the party.

The popularity of Beck and Paul at CPAC also shows that some in the
Right have moved to isolationism. Beck said that we should show liberty
and freedom by example and not impose it on other people. I think there
is a big schism in Right when it comes to foreign policy.

Barack Obama should be happy what happened at CPAC today.

Are the Press Being Unfair To Obama?

It's usually conservatives that have qualms about double standards in media
coverage. Politico is wondering if the press is unfairly criticizing President
Obama compared to the treatment they gave President Bush under similar
circumstances. Excerpt:

Eight years ago, a terrorist bomber’s attempt to blow up a
transatlantic airliner was thwarted by a group of passengers,
an incident that revealed some gaping holes in airline security
just a few months after the attacks of Sept. 11. But it was six
days before President George W. Bush, then on vacation, made
any public remarks about the so-called shoe bomber, Richard
Reid, and there were virtually no complaints from the press or
any opposition Democrats that his response was sluggish or
inadequate.

That stands in sharp contrast to the withering criticism President
Barack Obama has received from Republicans and some in the
press for his reaction to Friday’s incident on a Northwest Airlines
flight heading for Detroit.

I'll let you decide.

I will say that Republicans have been running on national security issues
and a strong military for a while now. It is tougher for Democrats and the
media to paint Republicans as being lax on the issue. Just like Democrats
are always reaching out to minority and women groups so it would be difficult
to tag them as being racist or sexist. However, Republicans are frequently
charged with being racist or sexist.

The news media has a running narrative on both political parties. They
are going to run with a story that fits that narrative. Sometimes the
narrative is unfair or even worst, untrue.

Obama: Republicans "Do What They're Told"

View video here.

Actually, I don't agree with President Obama that Republicans are
ideologically hegemonic. For example, I can name several Republicans
that are pro-choice even though the GOP base is not. For example,
Rudy Giuliani and Laura and Barbara Bush are all pro-choice. How
many well-known Democrats are pro-life? I can only think of Harry
Reid (at least he calls himself pro-life).

The Republican Party has people who are more libertarian than
conservative. We have foreign policy hawks and doves. For example,
George Bush and Rudy Giuliani would be hawks. Ron Paul and
George Will would be doves.

There are socially conservative Republicans and some socially liberal
Republicans. Arnold Schwarzenegger would be an example of a socially
liberal Republican, he's pro-choice and pro-gay marriage. Mike Huckabee
would be an example of a social conservative, he's pro-life and against
gay marriage. It is not really hegemonic on fiscal policy either. Many
conservatives were against the bank bailouts that George Bush did.

And actually I don't think the Democrat Party is ideologically hegemonic
either, as the Blue Dogs are showing us. A national party has to cater to
different interests in regional areas. A Democrat in New York is not
going to share the exact same ideas as a Democrat in South Texas.

Obama Political Hack Tells Former Clinton Political Hack Turned Journo: Fox News Isn't News

Enjoy the irony: President Obama's top advisor telling Bill Clinton's
former communication director turned journalist that Fox News
is too biased:



Last time I checked Fox News hasn't tried to pass off Karl Rove
as a serious, unbiased journalist.

Update: Here is a video of serious journalist George Stephanopoulos
being a political hack back in the day:

Public Skeptical of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

What has he done?

Barack Obama's Christmas Message

Hope and change!

'Time' Columnist: Obama's a Bigot

Via Newsbusters. All these years I thought only Republicans were called
bigots and homophobic. I'm learning this week I was really wrong. From
a Time magazine article:

Gays and lesbians are angry that Barack Obama has honored
Warren, but they shouldn't be surprised. Obama has proved
himself repeatedly to be a very tolerant, very rational-sounding
sort of bigot. He is far too careful and measured a man to say
anything about body parts fitting together or marriage being
reserved for the nonpedophilic, but all the same, he opposes
equality for gay people when it comes to the basic recognition
of their relationships. He did throughout his campaign, one that
featured appearances by Donnie McClurkin, a Christian entertainer
who preaches that homosexuals can become heterosexuals.

Obama reminds me a little bit of Richard Russell Jr., the longtime
Senator from Georgia who — as historian Robert Caro has noted
— cultivated a reputation as a thoughtful, tolerant politician even
as he defended inequality and segregation for decades. Obama
gave a wonderfully Russellian defense of Warren on Thursday at
a press conference. Americans, he said, need to "come together"
even when they disagree on social issues. "That dialogue is part
of what my campaign is all about," he said. Russell would often use
the same tactic to deflect criticism of his civil rights record. It was
a distraction, Russell said, from the important business of the day
uniting all Americans. Obama also said today that he is a "fierce
advocate for equality" for gays, which is — given his opposition to
equal marriage rights — simply a lie. It recalls the time Russell
said, "I'm as interested in the Negro people of my state as anyone
in the Senate. I love them."

I just skimmed through the article but I didn't where see Mr. Cloud noted that
President-elect Obama was opposed to Prop 8, which I think is something
significant to state before calling someone a bigot.

Politico: Liberals Are Voicing Concern About Obama

Politico's headline labels the people worried about President-elect Obama's
appointments as "liberals." I would be more exact. The people who don't like
President-elect Obama's selections are not "liberals" but leftists. FDR was a
liberal. Bill Clinton is a liberal. The folks of Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars
are way to the left of FDR and Bill Clinton. So I don't think liberals are concerned
with Obama's appointments, it's the leftist that are upset.

A snippet from the Politico.com article:

Liberals are growing increasingly nervous – and some just flat-out
angry – that President-elect Barack Obama seems to be stiffing
them on Cabinet jobs and policy choices.


Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for
the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He’s hedged his call for a quick
drawdown in Iraq. And he’s stocking his White House with anything
but stalwarts of the left.


Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria
at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the
new boss looks like the old boss.


“He has confirmed what our suspicions were by surrounding himself
with a centrist to right cabinet. But we do hope that before it's all
over we can get at least one authentic progressive appointment,” said
Tim Carpenter, national director of the Progressive Democrats of
America.

OpenLeft blogger Chris Bowers went so far as to issue this plaintive
plea: “Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic
administration?”

Obama should just ignore them. The leftist are never going to be happy unless
America looks exactly like Canada or France. Don't get me wrong, I like Canada
and France just fine. However, America is a different animal and we must keep
our uniqueness.

In related articles: Here's a NPR segment on the same topic.

Obama's Weekly Address

Just thought I would post it.

Will Universal Health Care Pass?

Apparently President-elect Obama has in mind the failed attempts of the
Clinton administration to pass universal health care when he tries to tackle
the issue very soon. From the AP

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are
determined not to repeat the mistakes the Clinton administration
made 15 years ago in trying to revamp the nation's health care
system. That means applying some of the lessons learned — moving
fast, seizing momentum and not letting it go.

Tom Daschle, Obama's point man on the issue, discussed the early
strategy, although details of Obama's proposals won't be finalized
for a while. Already, however, the political and public relations
parts are coming into place.

The strategy begins with giving people the chance to highlight their
concerns and experiences. Daschle invited people around the nation
to hold what amounts to house parties from Dec. 15-31. Obama's
transition team will gather the information from those meetings and
post the material on its Web site, http://change.gov.

I think one difference between the 1990s and now is there is more public support
for universal health care. I've found conflicting polls, some say Americans favor
universal health care and others not so much. So I'm not exactly sure where the
majority of people stand. But my guess is that we've an increase support for health
care reform since the 1990s. Look at this video of people protesting Hillary Clinton
during a rally on health care in Seattle:



Can you imagine this happening today? Actually, I live in Texas and went to
both a Hillary and Obama rally and heard many people in line saying that want
universal health care passed. No one booed when the Democratic candidates
talked about universal health care. Also, Hillary and Obama went all over the
country during the Democratic primary (north, south, west, and east) and universal
health care was the major topic during the Democratic debates. Did anyone hear
of a protest about universal health care? I didn't. So my guess is the Democrats
are probably going to pass universal health care and we are going to have little
(probably some) public outcry about it. What do you think? Will Congress pass
universal health care and will there be public support or dissent?

Mag That Peddles Conspiracies Asks Others to Stop Doing The Same

I love irony. This is irony.

In other ironic news: Politician who campaigned for two years on immediately
ending the war in Iraq is not likely to immediately end the war in Iraq. I guess
when all the political talking heads were talking about how "nuanced"
President-elect Barack Obama is. They meant please don't hold him down to one
position.

Not So Much Change

Hmm. Change is looking a whole lot like the 1990s:

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama promised the
voters change, but he has started his Cabinet selection process by
naming several Washington insiders to top posts.

Obama is enlisting former Senate leader Tom Daschle as his
health secretary. Hillary Rodham Clinton seemed more likely
than ever to be his secretary of state. Clinton is deciding whether
to take that post as America's top diplomat, her associates said
Wednesday.

Obama is ready to announce that his attorney general will be Eric
Holder, the Justice Department's No. 2 when Clinton's husband was
president. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, is another veteran
of the Clinton White House.

Hey, since we are bringing the 1990s back, perhaps, Jerry Seinfeld and cast should
give that horrible "Seinfeld" series finale another shot. Worst. Series. Finale. Ever!

Exit question: What was the purpose of the long and drawn out Democratic primary?

I Was Wrong

I wrote this shortly after Obama's win:

What really upset on Tuesday is that I didn't feel the extreme left deserved
the victory they got. I don't think the folks at Daily Kos deserve victory. I
don't think MoveOn.org, who endorsed Barack Obama during the primaries,
deserves a win. They've acted disgustingly the past few years. I cried last
Tuesday because I feared those people were just legitimized and they shouldn't
be.

I want to apologize. Only a little more than a week after writing this I've already
seen that I was wrong. Barack Obama's win didn't legitimize them. It's proving what
a bunch of whiners they are. After it was revealed that a Obama administration
is unlikely to bring up any charges against the CIA interrogators that used harsh
interrogation techniques against suspected terrorist , the folks over Crooks and
Liars are already whining about it:

However, that's not the thing that took my breath away in this clip.
Listen as Shuster and Turley both matter-of-factly admit that one
of the problems that Obama has in committing to close Guantanamo
is what to do with the detainees there because some of them could
not go through our criminal justice system due to lack of evidence
to hold them or because they've been tortured. No outrage. No
wringing of hands that these people still exist, years later, within
Guantanamo, as we count down the days until George Bush is
finally out of office.

Yet the media can get up in arms about Hillary Clinton can "subvert
her agenda" to serve as Secretary of State and rehash that ad nauseam?
We can have an academic discussion on presidential pardons (and not
fail to mention Clinton, mind you), but when it come to authentic crimes
against humanity that merit a full blown trial in The Hague, the media
yawns, as if it's just par for course.

My god, when did we lose our moral compass that this kind of
atrocity is an academic discussion instead of a rallying call for justice?
Per Robert Jay Lifton, this is our American Apocalypse.

You see they want everyone in the Bush administration in jail!!!

Here is Kos whining about Lieberman getting to keep his committee chair:

In the spirit of post-partisanship, and in spite of the American people's
overwhelming votes for change in 2006 and 2008, let's appoint fierce
global warming critic James Inhoffe to the Environment and Public
Works committee!

Shit, that wouldn't be any worse than appointing fierce Obama critic
and Iraq War supporter Joe Lieberman to the Homeland Security
committee.

But in all seriousness, I think we've now learned that Joe Lieberman
is the smartest politician in DC. He knew Democrats were spineless
capitulators who would cave at the merest threat no matter how
many times he shit in their face.

He's probably having a great laugh about it just about now.

Given how much he is hated by his constituents, he at least knows
that the Senate Democratic caucus are a bunch of spineless asses
utterly unwilling and unable to deliver the change the American
people requested.

These folks are never going to be happy. It doesn't matter who is in power. We
have just elected the most liberal President and Congress in our history and it's not
enough for these folks. It will never be enough. They want liberals who disagree
with them on a few issues (like Lieberman) out! So I was wrong. Electing Obama
didn't legitimize them, actually, it might have the opposite affect.

NBC Now Selling Obama Memorabilia

Wow. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that NBC is the tank?
I wonder if this NBC video has Chris Matthews historic "thrill up my leg"
moment?



Plus, there is the all important question of who gets to play Barack Obama
in a movie:

Grace

I've been reading a lot of post-election reaction. One reaction by some conservatives
is to get revenge. My example:

"We have to watch this guy and not give him an inch," one McCain supporter
wrote. "The same way he criticized every move of President Bush. We have
to make things as difficult for him as he did for Bush."

Other conservatives are saying they definitely are not going to go that route.

I know the extreme left has treated President Bush heinously. I don't think they
ever gave him a chance even right after winning the elected in 2000, which saddens
me. They called him every name in book and questioned his motives at every move.
Contrary to media narrative I never thought President Bush to be overly partisan in
his tone. One of his very first actions as president was to work with Sen. Kennedy
on No Child Left Behind. I was actually somewhat surprised that he used the term
"angry left" at this year's convention. I know payback would feel good right now. It
would be cathartic to rant with anger as soon as President Obama makes his first
mistake and he will. (And, yes, he's going to slip up just like every president.) However,
I think it's time put solutions over emotions right now.

What really upset on Tuesday is that I didn't feel the extreme left deserved the
victory they got. I don't think the folks at Daily Kos deserve victory. I don't think
MoveOn.org, who endorsed Barack Obama during the primaries, deserves a win.
They've acted disgustingly the past few years. I cried last Tuesday because I feared
those people were just legitimized and they shouldn't be. There are two thing my
faith in God has showed: Grace and Forgiveness me. It is time to move on.

I guess I can solace that the voices of the angry and extreme left will probably be
muted now that conservatives are out of power. They no longer have a punching
bag. I mean who is Keith Olbermann going to name "Worst Person in the World"?
Nancy Pelosi? Although, I imagine the extreme left will be somewhat vocal of the
new administration if it doesn't fully push their agenda like they want.

There are always going to be issues that Americans aren't going to agree on. We
can argue and bicker or we can have an discussion about our differences. We can
get even or get things done. I, prefer, to get things done.

Spread the Wealth Around: The Musical

McCain Calls For Delay of Debate

Interesting move by McCain. Obama is rejecting his call. I like the idea in
purely non-political terms. To give the campaigning a few days of rest so
the Senators can do some work in Washington sounds appropriate. No
negative ads, no bickering. In political strategy terms, which is less important,
it could be seen as either a good or bad move by McCain, according to your
perspective. Sen. Obama is calling his bluff and not agreeing to cancel the
debate. Thus, if Sen. McCain decides to attend the debate after all, it might
appear that he's folding to Sen. Obama. However, it might also look partisan
of Obama to put out negative campaign ads these next couple of days while
McCain does not. We will see what happens.

Obama Impersonates Brando

The Crowd Says It All

If one is ever curious which demographic the Obama campaign thinks
it's struggling with just look behind him at a rally. Remember when
Hillary was going to take Pennsylvania and Obama had those three Abercrombie
and Fitch guys behind him during his speech and some felt it was an attempt
to reach the so-called "white, working class voters." While watching a
Obama speech today on television, I noticed one particular demographic
stood out. Let's play can you spot demographic Obama needs to gain ground
in:










Don't get me wrong I think Sen. Obama will take the women vote. However,
the thing is that for Democrats women are a demographic they not only need
to do well with but they need an overwhelming majority to win elections.
So it's no surprise Camp Obama is going to do everything they can to appeal
to women.

Updated:
A commenter points out that Obama held a women's rally today. So this is probably
it. However, it doesn't change the fact that the Obama campaign obviously feels
the need to reach out to women voters.

Running the Economy

Um, Camp Obama does realize presidents don't 'run' the U.S. economy,
right?:

If John McCain's top economic advisor doesn't think he can run a corporation,
how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a
financial crisis? Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that
the economy is an issue John McCain doesn't understand as well as he should,"
said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

There's a small thing called the "private sector."