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President-elect Barack Obama will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009
In a move that came as a surprise to almost no one, earlier today the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the court case against Barack Obama, charging that he is ineligible to take the oath of office as president on the grounds that he is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States of America.
Despite the Obama campaign having released a copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate on the internet and the state of Hawaii verifying that Obama was in fact born in Hawaii, the nut-jobs continue to cling to this ridiculous internet hoax in the hope that somehow, someone will do for them what an honest and fair election process could not.
Truly sad. Perhaps now these folks will allow the reality of the election results to set in and join the rest of the nation in at least giving Obama a chance as he tries his best to solve our nation’s daunting problems.
YEAH RIGHT!!!
.chris{}
Hillary Clinton was named Secretary of State
As expected on Monday morning, Senator Hillary Clinton was named Secretary of State in President-elect Obama’s new administration.
While the Obama and Clinton camps had feuded during the primaries, this represents a bold leadership move by Obama in appointing a former rival with whom he has not always seen eye-to-eye.
I’m a pretty level-headed guy and I have to admit, I’m not sure I could be as magnanimous as he has been. On this very blog, on Nov. 5th I was calling for Democrat-turned-McCain supporter Sen. Joe Lieberman’s head. And while I like Sen. Clinton and have voted for her twice, I’m not sure I”m mature enough to appoint such a recent bitter rival to such a key cabinet post. A friened texted me last week and marveled that Obama is assembling a “dream team” of advisors to serve in his administration. Of this kaleidescope of stars, few shine brighter than Senator, soon to be Secretary, Hillary Clinton.
.chris{}
President-Elect Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton
Sen. Hillary Clinton will accept the offer to become Secretary of State. I know that there are many fans of Sen. Clinton who think she either will not, or should not, take the position but I think that even though it hasn’t “officially” been offered, she will “officially” accept it and for these 5 reasons:
- The prestige of the position — Despite her having come extremely close to winning the Democratic nomination and garnering 18 million votes in the process, Senator Clinton does not have seniority in the Senate. She’s actually years away from being in a position where she has any. Sen. Edward Kennedy has already stated that HE intends to lead the way on health care reform and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said already that there is no committee chair for her in the immediate future. Becoming SOS, while it would cause her to give up her autonomy as a senator, she will have a much higher position as the nation’s top diplomat than she will as a senator in only her 2nd term.
- 2012 isn’t likely — Many think Hillary won’t take the SOS position because it would lessen her ability to start running — essentially in 2 years — for the Democratic nomination for the 2012 election. It would take an extremely unusual set of circumstances for the atmosphere to occur in 4 years where it would be politically acceptable for Hillary to mount a primary challenge against then Democratic president Obama. I know that the cries of 2012 began in earnest after she did not become the party’s nominee and there were some democrats who supported Hillary that did not think Obama could beat Sen. John McCain in a general election. Now that Obama is the president-elect, I can’t imagine that the way will be clear for her in 2012 to run against him, without great political consequences.
- She can make a difference — As I stated before, Hillary is not even the senior senator in her home state of New York, let alone senior in the senate as a whole. She serves on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; the Special Committee on Aging; as well as the Senate Armed Services Committee. She does not chair any of these committees and is not in a position to lead many bold initiatives. As SOS, with her familiarity with many world leaders, Hillary is in a position where she could make a difference in ways she will not be able to do so in the Senate.
- 2016 — OK I’m grasping bit here but consider this: sure Hillary will be 68 in 2016. That’s younger than John McCain is now. And after 1-2 terms of being what I’ll go ahead and assume will be a very effective SOS in a very successful Obama administration, she’ll have burnished her credentials as not only a Democratic visionary but also a world leader. I think Hillary has the smarts, respect and toughness to become one of the best SOS’s our nation has ever had. Someone who is talked about and studied for decades after she serves. If she wants to run for president after making that kind of impact, it will be easier for her.
- Pragmatism — Add reasons 1-4 and even though SOS would have to seem like a consolation prize, it just makes the most sense. She win the nomination, she didn’t get the VP spot but SOS is the most prestigious position left out there. I know some have mentioned her name as a Suprem Court justice but that would slam the door on any possibility of a future presidential run. SOS would combine all of her immense talents at the exact time when the U.S. needs its best and its brightest minds. It’s the best thing out there and she’d be great at it.
.chris{}
Party Identification Among 18-29-Year Olds
After sifting through all the exit polls and data from last week’s Democratic route of the GOP, someone somewhere was bound to find a silver lining that points to some optimistic microtrend that the GOP could take solace in and build on as they look toward the 2010 mid-terms and the 2012 presidential election. This entry does not contain any such silver linings.
Obama won young voters 2-to-1 vs. McCain, as opposed to 2004 and 2000 when the vote was very close to even. If that’s not absolutely frightening to the Republican brass, they need to have their heads examined.
Forget losing an election, the GOP could lose an entire generation of voters to the Democratic party, as its base grows older and smaller in numbers.
The challenge for the GOP now must become, how do they craft ideas and solutions that are relevant to a young, tech-savvy generation? On the surface, it would seem that the tactics and strategies the GOP uses most effectively are outdated and completely ineffective to younger audiences.
The GOP is all about robocalls while many under 30 don’t even have home phones.
The GOP uses conservative talk radio very effectively to spread its message while many under 30 don’t listen to the radio at all, preferring to listen to their iPods instead.
In Obama, young people had a candidate who connected with them via text messages, Twitter and podcasts while allowing them to self-organize through social networks. In McCain, young voters had a candidate who admittedly didn’t even know how to email.
So I’m sure there are some in the GOP who will come up with the very simple solution of running a younger candidate next time. Maybe that will succeed in lowering the age of the candidate but the problem is that it likely won’t succeed in lowering the age of their ideas.
.chris{}
The War Against Science
After the euphoria of the triumph over the McCain/Palin ticket has worn off and reality sets in, Obama’s victory is almost like the gift that just keeps on giving!
One of the first great things about Obama’s convincing win on Tuesday — no President McCain and (thankfully) no Vice President Palin.
But what sinks in after the fact is that the best aspects of an impending Obama presidency is the undoing of the myriad of misguided and failed policies of current President George Bush. None of these failed policies is as pronounced or as ready to be undone as the unofficial war on science!!!
It’s no secret that the Bush Administration has waged a war against government scientists where science conflicts with the stated theological ideology of the president as well as the extreme religious right. This has led to severe restrictions of funding for stem cell research, the denial of global warming and numerous conflicts with government agencies like NASA.
No more.
It seems like the last three weeks leading up to election day dragged on and couldn’t go by fast enough. I’ll tell you, I think the next three will drag by even more slowly! January 20, 2009 — the end of our 8 year, “long national nightmare” as blogger SusanG of the Daily Kos called it — can’t come fast enough!!!
.chris{}
Sen. Joe Lieberman
OK, I’m not usually a vindictive person and I don’t normally hold a grudge. But it’s time for some post-election payback and there is no better place to start than with Sen. Joe Liberman (I, CT)!
It wasn’t enough for him to stand against the Dems and emphatically back President Bush on Iraq.
It wasn’t enough for him to endorse Sen. McCain for president and stump with him all over the country.
But when he appeared and spoke in favor of McCain and trashed Obama in prime time during the GOP convention, he had to know that if McCain didn’t get elected, there would be serious consequences to his actions.
Today starts the first day of those consequences, as the AP reports that after a 45 minute meeting with Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid (D, NV), Reid is leaning toward stripping Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
I’d feel sorry for him but (a) he really deserves it and (b) he had to know it’s coming.
Payback is a biyatch!
.chris{}
I Didn’t Vote For Obama Today by Boyd Reed.
Please go to TPM and read it, it’s a wonderful piece.
.chris{}
I hope I never hear about that myth again!!! Obama is cleaning up!!!
.chris{}
The first of the hotly contested states goes to Obama and, frankly, a state that McCain HAD to have.
Yes we CAN!
Change is upon us!!!
.chris{}
Obama illustration by Charles Tsevis
I can hardly believe it’s come to this. One more day until CHANGE! We’ll finally put America back on the right track and be in a position to realize the dreams of all Americans!
With less than 12 hours left before polls open on the East Cast, Real Clear Politics has Sen. Obama leading Sen. McCain by an average of 7.4 pts (51.6% to 41.3%). Even I have to admit that in my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have anticipated that the polls wouldn’t have tightened as we got closer to election day.
At the battleground state level, Obama is either tied or ahead in 7 of the contests; up in FL (1.8%), VA (4.3%), OH (3.2%), CO (5.5%) and NV (6.2%); and within one point in NC (0.6%) and MO (0.5%).
He’s also up by 7.6% in PA, where McCain made one last and very expensive and time-consuming push to try to flip one of Obama’s states.
At this point, it will take some sort of national event for McCain to generate enough momentum to come back and win all of the states he needs to win in order to get to 270.
PLEASE, get out and VOTE tomorrow morning!
.chris{}
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