“Soul-searching” at the White House? Not so much. “‘There isn’t going to be a reset button. That’s not their style,’ said a Democratic strategist who works with the White House on several issues. ‘They don’t like pivots, and they also believe they’re right.’”
Nancy Pelosi is the right leader to show the country that the Dems “get it”? Not so much, according to Heath Shuler: “Shuler believes that his party didn’t get the message on Election Day when voters kicked Democrats out of majority control of the House if his caucus keeps Pelosi at the top of their leadership team. ‘I hope that with so many members that we need to go in a different direction, that we have to be able to recruit or get back those members of Congress that lost, and I just don’t see that path happening if she’s at the top of the Democrats,’ Shuler said.” He says he’ll run against Pelosi, but maybe he’s in the wrong party.
Would Russ Feingold be a formidable primary challenger to Barack Obama? Not so much, says Mara Liasson: “There’d have to be a real anti-war movement in the country for Russ Feingold to try to capture and lead. But there’s not even that.”
Have the Obami learned anything about their Middle East policy failures? Not so much. The U.S. is goading Bibi to offer a 90-day freeze (why should this freeze produce a different result than the last one?), but the PA is already grousing. “Earlier on Sunday, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat expressed strong reservations about the U.S. proposal, because it would only apply to the West Bank and not east Jerusalem, the Palestinians’ hoped-for capital.”
Is Obama still the media’s darling? Not so much. “The Democratic president left for Asia just three days after his party suffered big defeats in mid-term elections at the hands of voters worried over the sputtering U.S. economy and unemployment stuck near 10 percent for more than a year. The trip was intended to counteract that frustration with a stress on opening new markets for American goods and improving the jobs picture, so the timing was especially tough. ‘The coverage has been quite negative. The dominant narrative is an embattled president representing a weakened nation,’ said William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. ‘All in all, not the kind of trip a president who has just suffered an electoral rebuff needs,’ he said.”
So the Obama team is going to be more transparent and connect more successfully with the American people? Not so much. “From the administration’s stance on a presidential commission’s controversial recommendations for Social Security and Medicare cuts, to Republican demands that Obama veto any bills containing earmarks, Axelrod offered few specifics on administration plans during interviews on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ and ‘Fox News Sunday.’” So why bother going on? It’s hard to solve the alleged “communication” problem if you don’t have anything to communicate.
Iran wants to negotiate about its nuclear program? Not so much. “They have yet to agree on venue, a length for the talks or even the subject. Iran says it is willing to talk about everything but its uranium enrichment program; the other countries – the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany – want to talk mostly about the entire nuclear program.”
Just imagine what will happen to the restaurant industry when the SEIU goes into towns and gets the employees to unionize. It will kill the mom and pop restaurants. They will be forced to raise wages, buy health insurance and provide a pension.
The only places left open will be TGI Fridays and an order of loaded potato skins will cost $22.00. And they will only be semi-loaded.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/obamas-new-atta.html
Jake Tapper: Obama’s New Attack on Those Who Don’t Want Higher Taxes: ‘Selfishness’
Obama said this yesterday. Richardson said during a radio interview that the people who earn below $120,000 won’t get a tax increase. As Michelle O. said, they keep moving the goal post.
I think most of us remember the commotion a couple of weeks ago Christopher Buckley endorsed Obama. Even though it will not generate anywhere near the buzz, it is still a fact that Buckley’s brother Reid has now endorsed McCain/Palin. Interestingly, he did not publicize this endorsement in National Review, but rather in the Buchanan/Taki magazine called “The American Conservative.”
…and there will be military checkpoints everywhere, and some people will have to wear symbols on their outer clothing, and no one will be allowed to use real money just debit cards, and if you’re not…you’ll be…
Got milk?
Check!
Got reality?
[This is a repost of something I put in a thread to which it was less germane:]
Did anyone else see Obama on NBC News last night. I got the clear impression from his answer to Brian Williams question about the Supreme Court, that Obama believes that the Constitutional right to “privacy” (with which I’m OK as developed in Harlan’s opinion in Griswold) extends to the right to marry whomever you choose. Since I doubt Obama has in mind the right to marry my pet goldfish, or my sister, I wonder just where he might be headed with this. (The idea that the right of “privacy” extend to entry into a legal relationship, as opposed to doing what one wants in the privacy of one’s bedroom, strikes me as radically bad constitutional thinking.)
Reid Buckley has been in the “American Conservative” fold for a long time. He was never on Bill Buckley’s wavelength regarding the meaning of political conservatism, but always more of a Buchananite. National Review hasn’t made a point of discussing that over the years; the Buckleys seemed to pray for each other and let Bill do the talking.
That said, the interesting part to me is that there was an endorsement, from any source, of McCain in the American Conservative. I don’t really keep up with that wing of conservatism, which tends to see it as an entangling alliance to say the word “France” out loud, among other peculiarities. But McCain has been deeply despised over in that camp, for his stance on Iraq and his public record on immigration and amnesty, along with other perceived shortcomings. At least some of the “American Conservatives” must see Obama as a very, very grave threat, to come out for McCain.
You already see the agenda of Obama and the liberal Democrats in the way they are conducting this election. Illegal campaign contributions, intimidation of free speech, race-baiting, class warfware, misues of governmental power- they are the hallmarks of this campaign- and of the future Obama Presidency. If you want details, check out my blog- I’ve been detailing all these things as I spot them.
Similar to 2004, that magazine does not seem to have published a unified editorial endorsement of any one candidate, but rather pulled together some sort of symposium of different people (15-20) and allowed each of them a few paragraphs to say their piece. Reid Buckley was not the only one to support McCain.
I did not know that about the dynamics between the different members of the Buckley family. Interesting.
Other things you can expect in an Obama presidency:
1) end of term limits. During the primaries, Obama said that he would be president for 8-10 years. I expect that with the supermajority in congress, Obama can end term limits. While he is at it, the term for president will be changed from every four years to every four years or life. Of course the only way to solidify that power is with number two below.
2) The Obama personal army that is just as well funded as the US Army. Obama referenced this Army during the election season as speech, I believe in Colorado. What does the president need a personal army for? Ask Yasser Arafat, who had many of them. Welcome to the Robert Mugabe style reign of Barack the First.
3) foreign aid will increase to save our reputation. you think wall street got a hand out, wait until you see Emperor Obama the First open up the purse strings to buy the love and adulation of the third world and western Europe. Taxes will increase on all workers to pay for the Obama way.
4) increased funding for the DOJ so they can prosecute every person who worked in the Bush administration. Night of the long knives part II.
5) all of the drastic measures being taken before a 2010 republican wave can undo the buyers remorse those non-ideological democrats will feel when they realize that Obama is not the Obama they thought they knew.
It’s gonna be bad people. It’s gonna be really bad, and let’s hope that the bad that happens can be reversed or stopped before the Democrats solidify their power through sweeping legislation and constitutional amendments to permit them to do it.
(the post above is only half-joking)
My favorite is the Fairness Doctrine. I want to see the Republicans pull out all the stops to argue against fairness, especially on Faux News, “the fair ‘n balanced” network. It will be falling-down funny to watch that one!
If they titled the doctrine that forces media outlets to provide time for opposing point of views, the “I love Mommy and our little Doggy” Doctrine, #10 would state how funny it would be to see conservatives denounce the American suburban family. It takes an intellectual giant like #10 to equate the Orwellian title of a doctrine to its reality.
jennifer:
Yopu need to add censorship and silencing critics with fascist behavior.
“Three of our nation’s leading newspapers, The Washington Times, The New York Post, and Dallas Morning News, endorsed John McCain.
On Thursday, October 30, 2008, the reporters for these three top American newspapers — The Washington Times, The New York Post and Dallas Morning News — were all kicked off Obama’s plane.”
Three of our nation’s leading newspapers, The Washington Times, The New York Post, and Dallas Morning News, endorsed John McCain.
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/10/31/love-me-or-else/
It is the top story at Memeorandum:
http://memeorandum.com/
Rod, you Nutcase, go read what the Dallas Morning News had to say about it:
“We think the Obama campaign’s decision is to some degree more a function of limited seats, and while we’re a large regional newspaper, we’re not national and we’re not in a swing state. We’ve been on the road with them at key moments, but we’ve not been along for the entire ride, like, say, The New York Times and The Associated Press.
“For what it’s worth, we’ve had the same trouble with the McCain campaign. One of our reporters dropped off earlier this week when space became an issue, and we’re only getting back on with McCain tomorrow for the final weekend because they, unlike the Obama campaign, are adding a second plane.”
Not that the truth ever once mattered to a Nutcase.
And, Rod, I was touched to read your protest of that fascist John McJerk’s exclusion of Maureen Dowd from his campaign plane!
Jenn dear, darling… its not a power grab. It is called an ‘election’ you might want to look it up. It involves candidates of (usually) different points of view telling Joe-The-Six-Packing-Plumbing-Dude why they should be in office.
I know it is unfortunate to you to believe that all those that might vote for Obama are in love with his hyped celebrity and don’t support an airhead and an old blowhard that you so admire, sorry I meant old blowhard/airhead, amazing how these tickets spin around isn’t it.
I love elitism, well not your kind Jenn… I’m sure come the revolution Sarah dear would put you against the wall long before she put a liberal. You know what Stalin use to say about how to manage your own party.
Democrat: why are you here? doesn’t that orange trash recycle blog aka as DKos doesn’t love you enough?
Democrat: why are you here?
I would ordinary say, “To torture you,” but that’s not correct. Let’s call it fraternity pranks.
Talk about ‘fairness’: Conservative Talk Radio has the unfair advantage of being financed by sponsors from the private sector who have deep pockets, something (real) leftist media can’t compete with. Yet, this doesn’t mean that right-wing ideas are supported by a majority of Americans.
Tell me which article of the Constitution stipulates that public expression must be monopolized by the wealthy?
Charlie forgot to mention that the Obama Administration also plans to ban wheelchairs inside of Washington, D.C. proper AND prohibit the use of wheelchairs anywhere near any Fox News studio in the world.
Charlie, nice to see you’ve not gone Captain Paranoid on us.
Oy vey!
Isn’t this exactly what this UCLA paper says was responsible for prolonging the depression by 7 years? http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx
what is the matter libs? You don’t like the constitution? You don’t like being an American? We as americans have the liberty, justice & FREE SPEECH. What part of that don’t you people like PelosASS understand? You libs have your lib channels, they certainly don’t rate as high as our conservative talk radio stations however. All you poor little libs have to do is change the channel if you don’t want to listen to conservative talk radio, or is that too hard for you to do? Maybe you should wait for the good ol’ government to come into your home & change the station for you, since the government has their freakin fingers in everything else. LIBERALS real definiton is (Little Idiot Babies Especially Radical Anal Loser Socialists)Yeah the government….give us more of those anal orifaces…just what this world needs. More government less freedom isn’t that right libs?
To MagicalPat:
Fridays sucks. That’s the only way they will stay open.