The appointment of Rahm Emanuel is more evidence for what I suggested the other day, that Barack Obama will seek to govern from the political center. As Ben Smith and John Harris suggest on Politico.com today, one must not confuse Emanuel’s tough game playing with ideology. As they and others have argued, Emanuel’s reputation is that of a centrist, who has often sought to reign in the left-wing of his party, “who does not share the reflexively liberal views of many of his House colleagues.” That judgment was seconded by Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA) who said that Emanuel “is closer to the center, from a policy standpoint, than many of the Democratic Party.” It was also shared by Lindsey Graham, who said that while a “tough partisan, he understands the need to work together.” Graham called him “honest, direct, and candid” and a man who will “work to find common ground.”
You wouldn’t know this, however, if you were listening to and taking your cues from right-wing talk radio. It doesn’t matter to which radio host you listen to. What you hear is a chorus that seems to think Obama’s Presidency will be the coming of some form of leftwing totalitarianism to America, in which the new Administration will shut down free speech on the radio, force socialized medicine down the nation’s throat, increase the capital gains tax instead of repeal it, give the trade unions more power over the economy and politics, etc.
This is not to say that the Democrats in Congress will indeed push for many of their favorite entitlement programs, and will want to spend more and to push for an immediate and fairly leftist set of new programs. But Obama has surrounded himself, especially when it comes to the economy, with sound conservative economic advisors. The men who sat with him at today’s press conference are tough-minded businessmen, who all want our economy to recover and to get back on the track.
The real question is how much of a realigning election Obama’s victory is. Harold Meyerson, the social-democratic journalist, argues the case that it is a fundamental one. He senses a shift in an electorate that wants more government activism, and he warns Republicans that their party is on the road to becoming a permanent minority party, based on areas of the country that are primarily rural. It is the opposite of what Karl Rove thought he would be able to build- a permanent Republican realignment.
Those who believe that the Democrats have produced a realignment that will enable them to govern for decades- the equivalent of the majority FDR built in the 30′s- want Congress to push boldly and quickly. Some have noted that Obama’s majority is not as solid as Roosevelt’s, and that a good portion of the popular vote went for John McCain. Also, Democrats who won in previously Republican districts are in fact conservative Blue Dog Democrats, who do not have the same liberal agenda as many of their House colleagues. As a perceptive column in National Journal puts it, Obama’s temperament suggests that Democrats will not overreach, will seek to keep their forces together, and forge alliances with Republicans. Former Clinton aide Leon Panetta thus thinks that Obama will have to tamp down the expectations of his supporters, and let them know he intends to work slowly for incremental steps forward.
The worst thing I think conservatives and Republicans can do is decide that their response has to be to dig in their heels and retreat to a rigid, hard-line position based on conservative dogma of yesteryear. They cannot, as Ramesh Ponnuru argues, succeed by simply moving to the right.
Realignment????
You don’t realign with 52% of the vote. (Compare to 1936, both for presidential tally and congressional seats.)
That is not to say that Obama, if overwhelmingly successful, would be unable to set a realignment in motion. But we are a long way from one now.
I think you’re whistling in the dark, and the dark is as dark as can be. All these qualifications–”they’re not as bad as they seem,” etc.–stand and back and read what you’ve just written.+ I see no reason in the whole wide world to give Obama any benefit of the doubt. Remember the statements the campaign brought out: Obama has told you himself what he intends to do. He may be POTUS, but I think he’s a manchurian candidate, and part of what a MC does is make people want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I think that it’s going to be sooner rather than later that the cold light of dawn comes up and those who voted against Obama will begin to get an increasingly close gander at what failure to elect McCain has brought us.
Our immediate response should be to start blitzing congress–democrats as well as republicans, people who represent other districts as well as our own–and start immediately to voice our misgivings about an Obama administration. This guy needs to start being resisted at full throttle NOW.
Remember how Bush started taking it from the left the nanosecond after he was elected, and it never relented, never, ever. These people–and I’m referring to the hard-core electorate that formed the basis of an Obama vote–are the enemies of the rest of the country. Civil War Two is upon us. They’re waging war–ACORN was out in the open literally, doing what they do when they do what they do–and the rest of us are the enemy.
“Now is the time for all good men,” etc. etc.
Obama did not offer the kind of transformational program that would characterize a realignment. “Hope and change” is not a policy platform, and his followers are already becoming disillusioned three days after the election. Ronald Reagan made clear what he would do if elected, and although he won only the Senate and did not hold that very long, he brought about more of a realignment than any Democrat is capable of doing today.
“Obama’s temperament suggests that Democrats will not overreach…”
Barack Obama will almost certainly “overreach.” This is because he is a shallow and poorly read individual. Obama seems to have issues with white elderly white women. Please note that he threw his own grandmother under the bus and insulted Nancy Reagan. Obama also sat in a pew virtually every Sunday morning listening to his racist pastor attack white people. Obama is instinctively a left-wing radical. That is his default existential way to look at the world. Sorry, but we are in for a rough time for the next four years. Race relations are likely to deteriorate rapidly. Obama will prove to be an unpopular president—and this will embitter most blacks. They will interpret it as racist and not a deserved response to Obama’s poor leadership skills.
So, you think the lepoard can change his spots and the doctrinaire can become the pragmatic. That is possible, but, it would be more realistic if we expect the probable. Look for a decided shif to the left.
Ronald, You folks are starting to sound like the “me-too” Republicans of yesteryear.
ummm I can now say that “I told you so”,
well, not “you” Mr Radosh, but lots of others:
Obama is an isolationist. Beside him stands Powell. Rahm Emanuel is his hatchet man, there to keep Pelosi and etc in line, not to keep Israel happy.
The latest is, Obama is no longer interested in keeping his ‘promise’ to put missiles in Poland. I would advise the EU to get its defense house in order, ’cause the USA is bowing out! Ditto Iraq, by the way.
And, of course, Israel.
They are going to be cut loose in an Obama administration. Maybe that is a good thing? Like, get out of the way of India and China in the new century?
My mother, a wise lady, once told me that in her lifetime (1912 – 1995), the British Empire was all important… but after WWII, it just disappeared in importance. And, she said, the same can happen to the USA.
FAIRNESS DOCTRINE: A FOOLS FANTASY
How and why the Democrat pursuit of talk radio will blow up in their faces:
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/11/fairness-doctrine-fools-fantasy.html
You’re kidding right? It’s been precisely ONE WEEK AND ONE APPOINTMENT and you’re declaring “Centrist Victory”. Lindsey Graham is one of the most pathetic Republican doormats in the Senate and a guy I’m sure R. Emanuel is nice to BECAUSE HE CAN ROLL HIM AT WILL. Now I think Rahm is also a smart guy who likes power, and I believe they have to at least be really good at FAKING moderation. It won’t take much to fool the electorate, though, so they have every chance of success. Another tragic case of “Premature Moderation” I think.
Let’s discuss BHO’s moderation when the executive orders and legislation start rolling in. Oh, and try to actually think critically instead of rushing to claim you were right (again) regardless of the facts (or lack thereof).
A man whose book advocates (and Obama adopted) national youth movements (with or without the coercion, depending on when you looked at change.gov)… This Nazi-style propagandist is centrist?
Conservatives who believe this need to go study history again.
Obama’s razor thin resume indicates that he is in so far over his head that there is no telling what might happen. The safest bet right now is to form a worst-case-scenario contingency plan and pray you won’t have to execute it.
Yea; I’m busy in the back yard with my backhoe digging my nuclear proof bomb shelter. Probably won’t have any use for the swimming pool any more.
Well I understand he has removed his post-election agenda from his post-election website – already! That story is all over the web. Again, very strange behavior. But I doubt seriously that the “agenda” when it reappears will move center. Declaring that you will close Gitmo and try the prisoners of the Global War on Terrorism here on our soil in our citizen courts is hardly centrist. It is an outrage of unsound thinking, disdain for our cause and an insult to Americans and our military. It is unthinkable. 52% of the voters have handed him the power to do whatever he pleases. The question of the our time is what happened to them?
He and his buds have the nerve to talk about greed? There is no greed more damaging to others than the greed and lust for power: Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Rahm. That’s my opinion. We had better express it while we still can, the door is closing.
Why does anyone think that Obama is going to govern differently in any way then how he has conducted himself in public office so far? He isn’t the #1 ranked liberal in the senate for nothing. Don’t be shocked when we see some shocking things from him.
I think Emanuel’s appointment suggests something very important: There will be no backing off support for Israel. Emanuel’s father was a member of Irgun,Emanuel himself was a member of the IDF and rose to the rank of captain. Any hint of the contrary,and Emanuel will probably make a very embarassing very public break with the administration and I can’t imagine Obama wasn’t fully aware of this when he offered him the post.
As an aside,I wonder if Rashid Khalidi bemoaned all those wasted dinners his wife cooked for Obama when he found out about the Emanuel appointment
Ummm, dude…. He’s got two more months until he’s sworn in. It’s a little premature to talk about how he’s governing, until he actually makes an executive decision.
Man, this 0bama crack is potent stuff.
The worst thing I think conservatives and Republicans can do is decide that their response has to be to dig in their heels and retreat to a rigid, hard-line position based on conservative dogma of yesteryear. They cannot, as Ramesh Ponnuru argues, succeed by simply moving to the right.
Why not? I don’t necessarily recommend it, but I can’t help but notice that the Democrats won this year by doing exactly that — digging in their heels, taking hard-line positions and moving further and further to the left.
Of course, they also set up a propaganda drum beat that the Bush administration was illegitimate, had lied repeatedly, the Iraq War was lost, that Bush was stupid and incompetent, etc. I don’t recommend that either, but it did work.
“The appointment of Rahm Emanuel is more evidence for what I suggested the other day, that Barack Obama will seek to govern from the political center.”
I disagree. I believe Emmanuel’s appointment is more indicative of this quote from Lenin’s “What Is To Be Done”:
“Every question “runs in a vicious circle” because political life as a whole is an endless chain consisting of an infinite number of links. The whole art of politics lies in finding and taking as firm a grip as we can of the link that is least likely to be struck from our hands, the one that is most important at the given moment, the one that most of all guarantees its possessor the possession of the whole chain.”
Emanuel’s appointment appears to be the first link in the chain to a permanent assent to power and the “tough-minded businessmen” could very well be the useful idiots needed to carry out the first stages of socialist redistribution.
If I am wrong then Obama’s actions are a strong signal that all the high flying rhetoric about “economic justice” was just that and now it is the turn of the proletariat to be thrown under the bus in the pursuit of power.
Oh, and I hope all the rich liberals out there are going to be paying lots of taxes because I am waiting for all the free stuff Obama promised me because of redistribution of wealth.
The central problem with Professor Radosh’s analysis is a conflation of Emanuel’s personal political stances with those he would have as Chief of Staff.
In short, Representative Emanuel is a free agent, who can argue for policies from his own personal perspective.
As Chief of Staff, he would be bound to act in the interests of his boss.
What Emanuel brings to an Obama administration isn’t his ideology, but his ability to crush the nuts of those who don’t toe Obama’s line.
As I understand, Emanuel is a good nut-crusher. Reading anything into his putative centrist leanings is wishful thinking at best.
If Obama is really considering Larry Summers as Treasury Secretary, that’s a very good sign in the opinion of this PUMA Clintonista. Summers was Bill’s Treasury Secretary after Rubin (called Summers’ mentor) left. Summers had several years in the Department, including some time as Undersecretary, and was involved in successful bailout loans to Mexico, which were eventually paid back at a profit to the US.
We have now discovered who our next head commander is. Congratulations, Mr. Obama on becoming 44th President of the United States of America. Your endurance through the 22-month campaign is highly admirable. However, your journey has just begun. There are so many struggles, wherein you will may or may not overcome depending on decisions you will make. You have been chosen to become the decision maker for all Americans to resolve the major issues in our economy. First and foremost, the financial system and the faltering economy must be stabilized and we understand that you have proposed a number of different stimulus packages in recent weeks regarding this matter. Your plans to temporarily exempt seniors from having to make annual withdrawals from their IRAs and 401 (k) s after the age of 70 ½ and to temporarily exempt the unemployed from having to pay tax on their unemployment benefits will most likely have you score on both sides. Nevertheless, the biggest focus should be on keeping the bank bailout/credit repair that started on track, reduce real estate foreclosures and change the position of financial regulation. To sum up, you have all your objectives laid out for you, Mr. President-Elect.
Click to read more on Payday Loans
http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/what-are-payday-loans-2/
Your article is speculation at best. To the core Obama is a leftist not a centrist. And he believes in his leftism. I don’t see how he will govern from the center.
Emanuel is a good choice to get things done. And the things he will get done are what his boss wants.
We already see the Democrats positioning to oust Lieberman and Dingell because they are too right. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122637110991716383.html) Lieberman and Dingell too right?!!!?
And then of course there is the so called fairness doctrine. He wants to revive that and pass it. No doubt you support it since fairness to a liberal means keeping opposing points of view silenced.
Finally, Obama will go for the entire CO2 nonsense with devastating effects on the US economy. He already is set to rescind Bush’s executive order to allow drilling for oil. OPEC and the Russians must be celebrating that the once largest producer of oil on the earth, the USA, will continue to hobble their own energy production. The only way to get the US to use the amount of energy Kyoto and other nonsense suggests is to have a great depression. It took 10 decades to get to the oil consumption we have today. It will not go away in 10 years let alone the time frame these guys want. A centrist Obama would acknowledge this reality. Haven’t heard it yet.
Full disclosure: I live on a sailboat and I am sure I use less energy than 99.9% of the so called environmentalists pounding the table for American energy starvation.
OBAMA STARTS LIKE A ROOKIE
Team Obama has a long way to go in just over 70 days. Time to fasten our seat belts as noted here:
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/11/obama-starts-like-rookie.html
It is amazing to see so many people that one would expect to be clear headed about this drinking from the moonbat kool aid.
Curious Barry, the Marxist, will work on implementing his agenda in the dark of the night. Don’t expect the propaganda organs of the left, known as M$M, to shine a light on this. They worked so hard to get him elected. They surely will do all within their power to insure he will be successful.
I think that you are wrong.If Obama were the pragmatist you think that he is, he would have dumped Ayers,Wright,Khalidi etc years ago in preparation for his Presidential run. After all he had no reason to think then that the MSM would become his Ministry of Propaganda.He is a hard core left wing ideologue and we will see that demonstrated very shortly.
Obama is not a pragmatist. He is a leftist ideologue who has spent the past two years trying to hide it from everyone.
Rahm is not and has never been bi-partisan. He has reached across the aisle only to manipulate and set up the opposition for the fall. It will be no different here.
This is just wishful thinking.
Obama is going to use people’s fear of the first real recession in 30 years to push his agenda. He plans to make people dependent upon government. This will create a permanent underclass that will not dare bite the hand that feeds them even if they despise how they live.
You want evidence. Look at what has happened with Johnson’s Great Society. We have spent trillions for nothing but bigger problems then when those programs began – so much for the empathy of liberals.
Ron, you need your head examined.
How would Bill Ayers govern?
Answer one, and you answer the other.
There are a lot of people angry at this man Obama . He will have to walk the fence and fear the fall . He has angree left and right religous groups aginst abortion in the churches. Skinheads , Nazi’s ,KKK ,and gun owners just plain raciest black and white . They all want something from him or his skin on their wall . Obama is most miss trusted president elect to take office in my 67 years of life . I must be truthful I as well have a quezz in my stomack about the man . If he falls from the fence the dogs will be there to eat him alive . To be honest I hope he will be a do nothing president and let the country fix its self . Government just keeps screwing it up every time a do-good president tries to think for the people in this country .
Oobonga was suckled on the milk of Communism from his mother, his biological father, his adoptive father was an Indonesian Communist who abandoned it for Islam (to preserve his life and get a job), his grandfather, his grandpa’s pal, the Communist Frank Marshall Davis, his Marxist/Communist professors at Occidental and Columbia, his Communist terrorist buddy Billy Ayers, his Marxist pastor Jeremiah Wright, and his Marxist wife Michelle.
He is also a bold liar. He may not even be an American citizen, as he may have lost his citizenship when he took on Indonesian citizenship. May have been born in Mombasa, Kenya…
This man, if he gravitates towards the center occasionally, will be going against his deepest instincts.
A grown man with his education who is still a Marxist at age 47 is hopeless. He possesses a less than stellar mind.
I never realized just how broad and deep collectivism/socialism is in this country, especially in the urban areas, which now have to be considered parasitic on the entire country.
Civil War II is coming eventually. We are much better armed and trained than the socialists are. Plus, most of the military will be on our side. And to my fellow Americans who are socialists who we will be fighting: there will not likely be enough political officers who will point pistols or machine guns at your backs to stiffen your resolve.
Govern? Accorning to the Obama follower I saw in the news he is going to RULE not govern! You govern a free nation. Obama wants to RULE a nation of helpless followers who will have no choice but to accept his mandates as royal decree. THAT is how Obama will ‘govern’.
RADICAL POLITICIANS WILL DESTROY OBAMA
The far left in Congress is on track to ruin the Obama administration:
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/11/radical-politicians-will-destroy-obama.html
If memory serves, in the 1920-23 period, the Politburo engaged in some market-based approaches called the “New Economic Policy.” The point was not to create a market economy, it was to exploit it for growth purposes. After 1923, there was not a lot of use for those types and they were–if lucky–”thrown under the bus.” Expect the real Leftism in Term 2.
I don’t think he would know the center if it hit him in the face. He won’t be a centrist simply because he doesn’t have any concept of what the center is, and doesn’t even know how to tell centrist people when he sees them. He really believes that redistribution is a popular, centrist idea. All that shows is that in his tiny world, the center is somewhere between Mao and Trotsky.
Expecting 0bama to understand America is like expecting Homer Simpson to understand string theory.
“” The appointment of (Al Capone) is “evidence” …. that (NMB”p”) will seek “to govern” from the political center. “”
HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa !
What absolute rubbish.
NMB”p’s” “appointments” are evidence only that he’s never had an actual job and has never been responsible to a profit nor met a payroll. In his 47 years having demonstrated no other “skill” than an ability to read well from a teleprompter and a thuggish competence to bulldoze his way to election victory, B Hussein Chauncy Gardener Alinsky bin B Hussayn bin Hussayn Muhummad Ubambi, has never delegated and is already floundering to recruit anyone he has ever experienced to even the lowest rungs of the presidential appointments’ ladder.
B Hussein Chauncy Cardener’s not knowing anyone from his own absolutely zero executive experience explains the (office of the) already failing Chance “administration’s” having taken on the appearance of Billy-Bubbah Blythe’s (“Clinton”) also failed (incidental) “presidency.”
And before long will explain his having signed up a considerable chunk of the catastrophic Cartah crowd, too.
Brian Richard Allen
Los Angeles – CalifUBAMAcated 90028