The AP reports that Obama's team is devising a strategy for closing the stain that is the Guantanamo detention center.
Also, Obama's email list is bigger than anyone imagined and their team is crafting ways to use the web to keep their supporters engaged and active.
And, 51% of Americans would rather see Tina Fey as Vice President than Sarah Palin.
My nomination for the best news of the morning? The AP reports that the Obama team is quietly crafting a strategy for closing down Guantanamo Bay:
Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.
A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks.
also:
The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Obama legal adviser, said discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been "theoretical" before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished.
I am very, very happy that this remains a top priority. Your thoughts?
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Interestingly, this news comes on the same day that the ACLU will unveil a full-page ad in the New York Times:
Half of the ad is a photo of Obama, and recounts the president-elect’s campaign pledge to close the prison camps and abandon the special Sept. 11 war court established by the Bush administration. The other half is an indictment of Bush administration detention policies.
This is not the ad in the NYT - this is a web ad on the ACLU's website - but it sounds pretty similar to the description.
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And, in a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial this morning:
People all over the world are celebrating America's new president because they expect him to take a new, better approach. Perhaps the best early indication he could provide that it is indeed a new day would be to declare immediately a ban to all torture and close the Guantanamo prison. That will help open doors to other advances in foreign relations.
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The New York Times reports that an order signed in 2004 by Donald Rumsfeld gave the U.S. military the authority to attack al Qaeda anywhere in the world:
Apart from the 2006 raid into Pakistan, the American officials refused to describe in detail what they said had been nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks, except to say they had been carried out in Syria, Pakistan and other countries. They made clear that there had been no raids into Iran using that authority, but they suggested that American forces had carried out reconnaissance missions in Iran using other classified directives.
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A fun little blast from the past, courtesy of Salon's Joe Conason:
Five years ago the Republican Party and the conservative movement thought they were poised to monopolize power in America well beyond the political horizon. Epitomizing their hubris in those dark days was Grover Norquist, the conservative leader who liked to say that "the Republicans are looking at decades of dominance in the House and the Senate" and of maintaining regular control over the White House as well.
Decades, huh?
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I'm having poll withdrawal, so here is a tasty morsel from a Roll Call poll conducted after the election. Would you believe that more Americans would prefer Tina Fey as Vice President than Sarah Palin? I would!
Two-thirds of voters saw the “Saturday Night Live” election parodies during the campaign season and 10 percent said the program had an influence on their vote. Asked whether they would prefer Alaska Gov. Saran Palin (R) or actress Tina Fey — who portrayed Palin on the show, to hilarious effect — as vice president, 51 percent said Fey.
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The Washington Post looks at how Obama will utilize the web to keep his supporters engaged:
Obama aides and allies are preparing a major expansion of the White House communications operation, enabling them to reach out directly to the supporters they have collected over 21 months without having to go through the mainstream media.
Obama's email database contains 10 million supporters, including 3.5 million who donated:
The campaign employed 95 people in its Internet operation, building a user-friendly Web site that served as a platform for grass-roots activities and distributed statements, policy positions and footage of Obama events. The White House Web operation will follow a similar but probably more ambitious path, transition officials said.
Put us to work! If you want some numbers comparison, John Kerry's list included 3 million supporters and some had previously speculated that Obama's list could contain up to 5 million people. Those predictions weren't even close!
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Obama is meeting Bush today in the Oval Office. TIME Magazine looks at some other President meets President-elect meetings that didn't go very smoothly.
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Also in the Washington Post, E.J. Dionne Jr. urges Obama to govern boldly:
The worst advice will come from his conservative adversaries, the people who called him a socialist a few days before the election and insisted a few days later that he won because he was really a conservative. The older among them declared after the 1980 election that the 51 percent of the vote won by Ronald Reagan represented an ideological revolution, but argue now that Obama's somewhat larger majority has no philosophical implications.
These conservatives are trying to stop Obama from pursuing any of the ideas that he campaigned on -- universal access to health care, a government-led green revolution, redistributive tax policies, a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, more robust economic regulation.
Republicans don't want Obama to follow through on his campaign promises because they know these ideas are popular. So don't listen to conservatives who warn of "overreach" - their primary concern is not to ensure Obama has a successful presidency.
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Nate Silver of 538 fame has definitely made it into the super big leagues now, as evidenced by this write-up in the New York Times.
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So what's on your mind this morning?
Morning Reaction is taking a little vacation for the rest of this week. But, I'll be back next week to with lots of good reaction!