From Scott Martin
Conservatism Today
http://www.conservatismtoday.com/my_weblog/
In Hillary Clinton's lust to be remembered as something other than the most cheated on First Lady ever, she has made a deal with the Devil, an odd sale of her soul where she doesn't even get to be President. I guess you have to take whatever you can get for your soul nowadays, what with the post-Obama market collapse we're going through. And what she could get was a job as Secretary of State, a job that would seem perfect for the woman who guaranteed that if the phone should ever ring at 3 in the morning, she would be there to answer it.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama has answered the call the same way he always seems to. He has thrown his rhetoric of "change" under the bus, where it lies trampled next to campaign finance, his grandmother, Reverend Wright and anything else that has stood between him and his laser-like focus on gaining power.
Barack Obama can't change the way Washington DC does business by bringing back all of the Clinton's old friends. He certainly can't do so by naming a Clinton his Secretary of State. This is not change. This is buying the next eight years. Barack Obama has ensured that he will face no Democrat opposition by buying out the only people who were a danger to him. Now he just needs to avoid becoming Jimmy Carter and he's got his eight years.
If this is the change America wanted, change back to 1992, why not just vote for Clinton instead of Obama. Oh, wait. It did.
Oh, the story:
Mrs. Clinton came to her decision after additional discussion with President-elect Barack Obama about the nature of her role and his plans for foreign policy, said one of the confidants, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the situation. Mr. Obama’s office told reporters Thursday that the nomination is “on track” but Clinton associates only confirmed Friday afternoon that she has decided.
“She’s ready,” said the confidant. Mrs. Clinton was reassured after talking again with Mr. Obama because their first meeting in Chicago last week “was so general,” the confidant said. The purpose of the follow-up talk, he added, was not to extract particular concessions but “just getting comfortable” with the idea of working together.
Yeah, I could see how that could be difficult. How do you get comfortable with the thought of working for the unaccomplished, smooth talking, male, affirmative action recipient who just stole the job you've been working for your whole life? I guess a life's worth of practice makes it a little bit easier every time.
Just when I had begun to respect her. No more.
So do you think Obama will make any of his own decisions as President? It looks like Bill and Hillary picked his entire cabinet for him. We all know that Obama and Hillary have major differences on Foreign Policy. So either he was lying to get the nomination during the primary, or he's planning on throwing Hillary under that bus first chance he gets.
Waking Up From Woke
7 hours ago
Great points - all of them. Seeing the appointments of Chief of Staff, Chief Counsel, Attorney General, Sec. of State - these are all Clinton people. Even Bill Richardson's on the cabinet. This isn't new change, its change back to the 90s.
ReplyDeleteLet me make this clear to you, genius. Anyone of any competence who had been interested in Democratic politics would have worked at some level within the Clinton administration. And let's be honest, if Obama were picking inexperienced hacks, you'd be hammering him for that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you really think Obama was worried about a Clinton challenge in 2012? Do you know how rare it is -- virtually unheard of, in fact -- for a sitting president to face genuine competition in a primary? We'd have to go back to 1980 when Kennedy challenged Carter to find such an event, and Kennedy lost that challenge.
Do you really think Clinton would earn any goodwill by challenging Obama? Do you think Clinton is so stupid that she thinks she might have a chance as a challenger in 2012? You're reasoning here is absolutely asinine.
He's only thrown his "change" rhetoric under the bus if you think that change meant he needed to appoint a bunch of people who've never worked in Washington before, which given how serious he seems to be about passing universal health care, would be incredibly foolish. You need to have people with contacts, people who know how to craft and pass legislation to get something like universal health care through. And look who he's surrounding himself with: Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, a man with Congressional contacts coming out of his ears. He put Daschle at Health and Human Services for one reason: to get health care passed. He's got Joe Biden as his VP who will also serve as a great liason to the Senate. And now with Waxman at Energy and Commerce, the biggest obstacle to real climate change policy, auto-industry BFF John Dingell, has been eliminated and now this adminstration is poised better than any other to implement new aggressive energy policies.
I'll agree that Hillary as SoS seems like Obama's riskiest move, but I've got to give him slack on that pick as he's run one hell of a campaign and all other signs coming from his transition period point to the fact that he's ready to pass some serious health care reform as well as a hefty economic stimulus package.
You can always find some among the base willing to bitch about everything, but this idea that Obama's transition is showing how moderate he's going to be is a figment of right-winger's imagination. This guy's gonna have universal health care -- basically the holy grail of progressive politics -- passed within his first hundred days. He'll also push through a more aggressive stimulus package, and begin to take on a cap-and-trade system in order to deal with pollution.
All he needs to do is add comprehensive immigration reform to that and you guys will be sitting on the bench for at least the next decade. The demographics are already turning against you, and once we shore up the Hispanic vote, you're pretty well screwed.
But keep having your fantasies of some Obama betrayal of his progressive promises. Nothing I've seen thus far supports that.