When John McCain and Sarah Palin lost their bid to bring (chump)change to America and Obama/Biden were declared winners I knew that no matter how bad things would look at first, in the 9th inning America, all of us, would be in good hands. By the professional, intelligent and classy way that the Obama campaign was ran I knew that we would not be duped with uniter/divider malarkey. We were never brushed off with fuzzy math answers, if Obama was confronted with a question he would do his best to answer, hell, even Joe the Plant/Plumber got a fair shake. Though usually I am a skeptic, so far I have high hopes.
More after the fold.
I have high hopes because as of now I truly believe that Barack Obama is everything that George W. Bush is not and could never be. I believe that Barack Obama is intelligent, creative, resourceful and competent. I believe that Barack Obama has the best interest of the citizens in mind first and foremost in his decision making. I believe that Barack Obama will have even larger majorities of better Democrats in both legislative bodies to back him up in the next two years. Most importantly I believe that Barack Obama is a shrewd and deep political thinker who relies on others for sound advise but makes decisions on his own, thoughtful and informed decisions. For these reasons and more I propose that we as a community of Obama supporters take a deep breath over the appointments to his cabinet and just chill.
Since November 5th I have felt very optimistic about the future of my nation. Despite the world wide financial disaster, despite two quagmiresque military deployments, despite budget deficits and environmental disaster and legalized civil rights atrocities and more I feel that no matter how bad it is going to get, and it will get much much worse, things will get better and things will be made right. Not even Brittany Spears coming back again could get me down. Hey, I had to find something I can not partially blame on conservatives.
I understand why I, and many others today are skeptic. Over the last twenty years Americans have accepted the fact that our leaders lie to us, from Bush 41's "No new taxes" to Clinton's "relations"(which pale in comparison to every other issue) to Bush 43's "everything". So it comes to me as no surprise that many diaries here on the subject of cabinet appointments seem so ready to assume the worst when it comes to which appointee might not be progressive enough, who might get what job, and who is outright unacceptable, be it the SoS, SecDef, The AG or the guy appointed by someone else to pray the day of the inaugauration.
When George W Bush was searching for a VP his staff named Richard Cheney to head his VP selection team. In my mind this marks the occasion where George W Bush stopped making informed decision and began following advise. At least, I can draw the line officially there, though there might not have been a threat in the first place. As a man who has yet to exhibit the ability to judge any talent other than loyalty, a man who lacks the core intellectual curiosity that is necessary to form your own ideas and a man who has surrounded himself with ideology and dogma, I think most people who disagree with/dispise George W. Bush understand that he was never calling the shots as much as he was following the plan. Who was writing the plan during W's reign has always been more important than the public face announcing it.
Under George W. Bush the lobbyists were appointed to regulate the industries they represented. Science was discarded in favor of belief, such as in the case of global warming. Policy writing became one more job that got shifted from government to private ownership. Bush has been called the CEO President and has been quoted saying that he prides himself on his ability to delegate responsibility. When I find the exact quote I will post a link to it.
But by delegating responsibility we risk avoiding it. The current administration is certainly guilty of as much. Consider the fact that the only way someone gets fired by Bush is by screwing up royally, whether it is HeckuvaJob Brownie or the resignations of Rumsfeld,Gonzalez, VA Sec Jim Nicholson, or many others, the question was not whether Bush disagreed with his apointees implementation of executive policy, rather it was a reaction to their own colossal incompetence (Excluding US Attorneys, of course. ) Besides Karl Rove was there a single member of W's Administration that left on their own terms who could hold their head up high? Of course, we could not consider Rove here either, considering he carries his head deep inside his own ass.
Just as Cheney's job was to take care of Bush, Rumsfeld's job was to take care of the military. Brownie's job was to take care of disasters. Ashcroft's job was to take care of justice, which he promptly did by covering her face so she wouldn't see what he was about to do to her. What was Bush's job in all this? To be elected, in a wow he seems like a nice guy kinda way, and then to be the face of the administartion. Without being responsible for anything else his approval ratings are twice as reflective of the job he has done.
Almost eight years later and 34 days left to go I am not surprised that many of us have a strange sense of impeding Deja Vu when we see the likes of Clinton, Summers and now LaHood joining the team. We feel a sense of betrayal and await the seen before told you so when the previous career of an apointee has chapters we do not want to see repeated. There are a few picks that drive me nuts, but I will wait until all the cards are on the table before I call Obama's bluff. Here is why.
First off, Obama is the anti-Bush. If he has styled his team after Lincoln's team of rivals than lets not forget that Lincoln did fire people who did not do the job he gave them to do. General George B. McClellan was a Lincoln apointee who mismanaged the Civil War so poorly that Lincoln once said that
"If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."
. After being relieved of his duties McClellan went on to run against Lincoln for the Republican nomination in 1964. Lincoln went on to win the Civil War and the election of 1864 without him. Another Lincoln nominee was SecTreasury Salmon P. Chase, one of the chief members of the team of rivals, who ran so far afoul of Lincoln's origional game plan that he was hamstrung and stonewalled by Licoln so many times that he offered his resignation, several times in fact, and each time Lincoln refused until he was ready to accept, not Chase to offer.
Had Lincoln been Bush Jr, who knows? I am betting on the fact that Lincoln had more in common with Obama than Shrub.
Instead of leadership coming to each department from that departmental head and/or industry lobbyist President Obama will be leading from the top down. His decision, his idea, and you get hired to make it happen. Do you really think that if HRC runs amok with the SoS position her chair won't still be spinning before she leaves the building? I know we are conditioned to expect the opposite of what we are told, but the appointments of people like Mr. Chu, Shineski and Daschle have to point us in a direction that someone like HRC or LaHood can not throw off course single-handedly. If Obama was going to do that, why wouldn't he just appoint the corresponding CEO or lobbyist of that industry correlating to that department and have done with it. It is because HRC, LaHood and the others are going to be mostly the face, Obama is going to be the brains behind it all. If this is not the case we are screwed anyway, but with the mess Bush is leaving behind, that would've been the case, and worse if Grampa Munster/ Miss Alaska had won.
They, thank Jebus, lost of course. And they will continue to lose. What chance do House Republicans stand after they vote against whatever Obama does, as we all know they will. Do any of us think a politician who votes against economic relief/healthcare/getting out of Iraq or any of the other changes we can't do without will stand a chance in hell in 2010 with that kind of record chained to their ankles. The Rethuglicans will shrink or splinter off, the powersthatbe and the 1%ers will find some other tool to do their bidding, and they will fail. By then this will all hopefully be water beneath the bridge . I hope that by then we will be on the way to real change and making a real difference. Even though it is certain to get worse from here (and Bush seems to be ensuring that with each passing day) I believe that President Barack Obama has the leadership skills, the ideas and the basic intelligence that will surpass the mere competence we need to survive as a country, but to make us stronger than we ever were before. Hopefully that will lead us to make not just a stronger, better nation, but a better world.
When we trash a nominee for a cabinet position before they accept or are even offered the job, or begin the administration even takes power on Jan 20th, are we not so different from those Republicans who blame the problems of today on a President-Elect who has yet to even become involved? It's something worth considering. Why don't we leave the skeptism and fears of Deja Vu aside until these guys begin their new jobs. Than we should judge them, not on their words, but on their actions.