Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Patti Solis Doyle Hired by Barack Obama

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She was Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager until she was let go after February. In hindsight, Mark Penn should have been fired well before her.

In any case, she has now been hired by Barack Obama as the chief of staff for whoever his VP choice will be.

According to the cognoscenti in Washington, or at least one Hillary supporter, this is the, “biggest ‘f$#@ you’ I have ever seen in politics,” because she was rather unceremoniously dropped by Clinton, and they allegedly have not talked since then.

I really don’t know what is going on, though the Clinton Campaign has said the right thing:

Patti will be an asset and good addition to the Obama campaign. After nearly two decades in political life, she brings with her the ability to tap an extensive network that will be a huge asset to Senator Obama. As Senator Clinton has said, we’re all going to do our part to help elect Senator Obama as the next President of the United States.

I’m not sure what is going on, but I don’t see this as being a f$#@ you, it simply makes no sense to do so for that reason, particularly after Hillary’s speech endorsing Obama.

I don’t know what is going on, but either the hiring, or the reaction to the hiring, or (more likely) the press reaction to the hiring appears to be something out of high school.

Nunn of the Above

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Open left has the following VP short list of Obama, and I thought that I would put my 2 cents in:

  • Evan Bayh (Sen-IN)
    • DLC Squish.
  • Joe Biden (Sen-DE)
    • Only if McCain chooses Joe Biden.
  • Wes Clark (Gen-AR)
  • Hillary Clinton (Sen-NY)
  • Tom Daschle (Sen-SD)
    • Sorry, but he screams out milquetoast.
  • Chris Dodd (Sen-CT)
    • Recent revalations about his house loans rule him out.
  • James Jones (Gen-MO)
  • Tim Kaine (Gov-VA)
  • John Kerry (Sen-MA)
    • No. He’s already lost once.
  • Patty Murray (Sen-WA)
  • Bill Nelson (Sen-FL)
  • Sam Nunn (Sen-GA)
    • If he gets the nod, we will all know that a bunch of progressives in the party got completely taken in by him. In addition to being homophobic, he’s sat on so many corporate boards lately that he looks like a McCain lobbyist.
  • Jack Reed (Sen-RI)
  • Kathleen Sebelius (Gov-KS)
  • Mark Warner (Gov-VA)
  • Jim Webb (Sen-VA)

We’ll see, but if it’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” Nunn, it’s not a good move.

Shoot Me, I Agree With Canuck Flying Monkey Right Winger David Frum

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David Frum, writing in The New Republic, in yet another example of how that magazine has fallen, actually writes something that I wholeheartedly support, though for very different reasons:

I have my own personal nomination for vice president for McCain. It’s Rudy Giuliani, precisely because he shares the vision of a practical, reforming, war-winning Republican Party that inspires John McCain, plus the stronger-than-usual grounds for hoping that he might be the rare candidate who can make a difference in an essential state–in this case, New Jersey.

Simply put, it’s been way too long since I’ve had the opportunity to use the phrase, “Clown Show”, but making a your vice-presidential running mate the man who:

  • Chose a police commissioner who was mobbed up.
  • Who recommended said mobbed up police commissioner to be head of homeland security.
  • Who broke up with his wife at a press conference on mothers day
  • Whose first wife was his cousin
  • Bailed on the Iraq study group so he could get fat speaker fees.
  • Lobbyied for unsavory clients, including Saudi Arabia, Tobacco, and Coal.

Would give me plenty of opportunity.

Of course, I can’t hope to own him the way that Joe Biden did when he said that when Rudy talks, “there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.”

That one is one of the classics of the ages, up there with George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill.

Economics Update

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The Empire State Manufacturing Index droppeed 5 points, to -8.7 (0 is neutral), indicating further weakness.

Oil is down for the day by a quarter, but it hit a new record of $139.89/bbl before settling, and retail gasoline hit another record, now having hit a record on something like 25 days of going back a month.

It’s not surprising that the dollar was down today, though I’m not sure if this drove oil, or oil drove this.

In banking, we have Barclays looking at selling shares to raise capital to cover losses in the US mortage market, and Lehman had some sort of hush-hush weekend meeting, which might indicate some problems, though it’s reassuring that they reduced their mortgage holdings by 20%, which indicates a bit of common sense.