Category: Barack Obama

Obama Cabinet Update

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Bob Rubin does not want to serve as treasury secretary, which I see as a good thing.

The last thing we need is another Wall Street insider handling this.

Rahmbo is in as chief of staff. Rahm Emanuel has accepted Obama’s offer that he be chief of staff.

I hate his politics, but like his partisanship, and the fact that he is a hard ass. As gatekeeper to the resident, I think that he will make it harder for people bleating about bipartisanship to get face time with the president elect.

One development that surprises me is that Barney Frank is strongly pushing for Sheila Bair, currend FDIC chair, to have a role. She did a good job with IndyMac, but she’s a Bushie.

Quote of the Day

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It’s been on the radio, and I found a link through “the google”:

“Lately, he’s called me a socialist for wanting to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class. I don’t know what’s next. By the end of the week, he’ll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

— BarackObama

Heh.

So NOW Republicans Want an Aggressive FEC

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We all know about Obama’s small donors.

He’s collected hundreds of millions of dollars that way, and the Republicans won’t stand for it:

The Republican National Committee plans to file a complaint on Monday against Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign raising questions about the legitimacy of its small contributions and donations from overseas.

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But such donations do not have to be itemized in reporting to the election commission unless the donor’s total contributions exceed $200. The lack of information on such donors has been highlighted by watchdog groups as potentially troublesome. The groups have also praised the campaign of Senator John McCain for offering on its Web site a tool that allows a search of all of its donors, including those who gave less than $200.

So Barack Obama is following the law, and the ‘Phants don’t like it, because he raises too much money.

McCain “Suspends” Campaign

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It appears that he believes that his campaign the country needs him to go down to Washington so that he can inject politics into the matter.

He is also calling for a delay in the first debate, doubtless because with the financial crisis, there will have to be some questions asked on the economy, though Obama is having none of this, noting that multi-tasking and delegation are crucial skills for a president.

My theory is that he knows that no one is concerned about foreign policy right now, so he wants the foreign policy debate delayed until people will pay attention.

It’s also certain that the economy would come up in the debate, even with the ostensible focus on foreign policy, so he’s looking to cut and run.

Of course, it may just all be a ploy to distract people from Sarah Palin’s disasterous interview with Katie Couric……How the hell do you get owned in an interview by the mistress of softball questions anyway?

H/T This Modern World for the pic

Comedic Genius

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This guy owes me a whole box of screen cleaners

Obama to Nation: “F$#@ this sh#@, I’m outta here”

September 19, 2008 at 12:21 am · Filed under political humor

In the wake of an epic financial meltdown that threatens to derail the U.S. economy for years, Barack Obama announced he was ending his run for President of the United States, declaring to a stunned nation, “Man, this is bullsh#@.”

In a boisterous and hastily-called press conference, Obama detailed his reasons for the decision. “I was prepared to fight global warming, reform the health care system, repair our crumbling roads, create a 21st century electric grid, find Bin Laden, end the war in Iraq, and bring peace to Israel and the Palestinians. But now you tell me I have to clean up the worst financial mess since the Great Depression too? One that’s going to plunge our economy into a recession for most of my administration while I take the blame? F$#@ that. That’s f$#@ing ridiculous. You guys clean up your own sh#@. I’m outta here.”

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Read the rest, in all its profane glory, at the link.

Finally!

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It looks like the Obama campaign has concluded that “behold my incredible awsomeness” is not a winning strategy, so they have reversed themselves, and they are telling Democrats that they should “get serious” about contributing money to “independent” groups to attack McCain.

Nice that they finally got a clue that they need a a way to point out the many problems that McCain has with his temperament, ethics, philosophy, intellect, and health.

They are right to go after McCain’s character, after John Sidney McCain has no character, it’s just a pity that they are this late to the game.

Barack Obama: Fire Cass Sunstein Now.

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Because he just called Roe v. Wade an unsupportable decision. He does day that it should remain as precedent, underthe principle of stare decisis, but that the decision is not based, “in either the text of the Constitution or its own precedents.”

First, this analysis is just plain wrong, the precedents of Griswold v. Connecticut and Eisenstadt v. Baird, which prohibited states banning contraception on the basis of privacy rights, and which he studiously, ignores is clearly on the path to Roe.

Second is that his embrace of stare decisis would invalidate rown v. Board of Education, the national minimum wage, and the National Labor Relations act.

For Barack Obama to continue to have him as an adviser, or to consider him as a member of the cabinet, or as senior Department of Justice appointment would be a betrayal of his supporters and the Democratic party.

H/T TalkLeft.

I Think Obama’s Speech Deflated this Concern

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I have always had a concern that Barack Obama might be too focused on nobility to take it to his opponents, or as David Kurtz puts it

One thing I’ve come away from here in Denver, in talking to various people, is the sense that the Obama campaign has become consumed with its brand as an end in itself. They did such a good job of packaging hope, optimism, and change that they are now resistant to any campaign strategies or tactics that might, in the eyes of some people, damage the brand.

They remind me of the classic car aficionado who beautifully and meticulously restores a vintage sports car but can’t bring himself to risk actually driving the thing.

While it is not to be his advantage to be the hatchet man of his campaign, that’s Biden’s job, it’s clear that he is able to take it to John Sidney McCain III.

I think that this needs to be a regular part of his campaign, and I think that this will be a regular part of his campaign.

Penny Pritzker Needs to STFU

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Ms. Pritzker, Barack Obama’s campaign finance chairwoman was, as I’ve noted earlier, chairman of the board for Superior Bank of Chicago, the bank that pioneered the subprime and predatory loans as a business model, that collapsed in 2001.

It’s likely that at some point this will become an issue, but to the degree that she invites reporters to cover her, as she clearly does here, she makes it even more likely.

The article is innocuous enough, it really is quite favorable, but it raises her public profile, which makes her a more likely target.

Given the current state of affairs in banking and housing, I cannot imagine anyone, in any campaign, who would not use her background against any campaign with which she was associated.

She needs to keep her head down.

This is a Bitch Slap, and Obama Needs to Respond

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Joe “I’d Call him a Schmuck, but a Schmuck has a Head” Lieberman is now claiming that, “Obama hasn’t put the country first,” and the McCain campaign, despite John Sidney McCain III’s promise that he and his campaign would not question his patriotism, is endorsing the statement.

Obama needs to hit back, hard, because he has just been bitch slapped, and if he just takes it, it makes the statement that he’s, “Someone who can’t or won’t defend themselves certainly isn’t someone you can depend upon to defend you.” (link)

Bad Idea, Barack

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Woah, this is a full metal pander:

Obama appeared to agree, saying, ‘I have consistently called for deepening relations between Georgia and trans-Atlantic institutions, including a Membership Action Plan for NATO, and we must continue to press for that deeper relationship.’

It was this sort of statement that encouraged Georgia to get its war on and level a city full of women and children.

Additionally, it makes him look weak, because it makes him look like he is triangulating and that McCain is taking the lead on foreign policy.