Good idea. Bad Idea. Why is Obama so desperate for Conservative approval?

[Mugsy]

Via "Mugsy's Rap Sheet":

Many pre-inauguration decisions & statements made by President-elect Barack Obama have me seriously concerned. Mindful though, after eight years of George W. Bush, Barack Obama could be caught red-handed drowning a sack of puppies in the Potomac and I'd still wait for him to explain before condemning him.

With that said, listening to Obama repeat such questionable Bush-era assertions like "Iran is still pursuing a nuclear weapon" when much of the intelligence we've received up to this point all argue otherwise, and trying to expand his tax cuts... which run a serious risk of derailing any economic recovery... simply to attract Republican support that he doesn't even need (not with the huge majority in the House and a near filibuster-proof 59-vote majority in the Senate), gives me great pause. Americans voted those Republican clowns out of office for a reason. They've seen what Republican policies do to the country and they want change. Why Obama is so desperate for their approval is beyond me. Perhaps he seeks to be the "Uniter, not a Divider" that Bush promised to be in 2000, but abysmally failed at becoming?

(...)

Then there are his appointments. While I could... if pressed... make a case defending each choice, on balance, I see more downside than up with so many of these choices:

1. West Virginia Gov. and V.P. finalist Tim Kaine to head DNC. - That's right. Obama will be replacing Howard Dean, the man whose "50 State Strategy" led to...



2. Leon Panetta to head the CIA. - While I can definitely make a case FOR choosing Panetta (...) the biggest negative is that he is a bureaucrat with no experience in intelligence gathering or operations...



3. Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State: This pick just makes no sense all the way around. While Hillary and Obama were closest in agreement on domestic policy, the thing they probably differed on most was foreign policy...



4. Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary: Long-time readers of Mugsy's Rap Sheet know what a fan of Richardson I am. (...) appointing Richardson to Commerce Secretary seemed a huge waste and little more than a "consolation prize"...



5. Rick Warren to give the invocation: This one probably received the most public outrage. I can understand Obama "reaching out"...



6. Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General: Every bit as bad a choice as Warren above, but worse because this is no two-minute gig. We're talking about making a Conservative critic of National Health Care to be Obama's chief adviser on health care issues...



7. Allowed Joe Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Security Counsel: There are few people outside the Bush White House that Democrats outright despise more than "Traitor Joe" Lieberman...



8. Cass Sunstein as "Regulatory Czar": Though it hasn't been publicly announced yet, it now appears that Obama will be nominating someone that repeatedly puts feux financial concern over much needed, reasonable and rational government regulations...



9. The nomination of Timothy Geitner to be Treasury Secretary, who is currently answering question about failing to pay taxes, is still a giant question mark...

(...)

Postscript funny: I caught this image as it whizzed by on the side of a Turkish bus during the Oct 10th edition of BBC World News but never got around to posting it:

Photo on the side of Turkish bus (10/10/2008)



Reminder: BI30.org gets a major facelift when it becomes "MugsysRapSheet.com" next Monday! See you there!

Read the full story on "Mugsy's Rap Sheet".

[cali]

1. lol worst piece on Obama I've read in a while.

desperate for conservative approval? Hardly. He's determined to press his advantages and build on them.

[natrat]

3. whatever--and who knows, i give up trying to figure out "democrats" in washington

[bertman]

2. Yesterday some pundit pointed out that 46 percent of Americans DID NOT vote for Obama.

And that our new President will be facing the worst situation a U.S. President has faced since FDR. Given those facts, it is fitting that he attempt to get as many Americans behind his agenda as possible.

I agree with that summary, but I hope he is able to do it without giving away the farm. He seems to be a very shrewd, smart individual with good advisors, so I'm thinking that he will do very well.

[FiveGoodMen]

10. MORE than 46 percent of Americans DID NOT vote for Bush either time

And that didn't make him the least bit timid about implementing his gawd-awful agenda.

This meme has to go! Pandering isn't leadership.

[madrchsod]

4. confronting the enemy face to face

he`s showing them he`s not afraid to meet them on their own turf....charm and wit can go a lot further than anger.

or ...here i am mf`s ..you go`n say it to my face?

[tom_paine]

5. Hypothesis: Beause Bushiganda and the Toady M$M, which is "the world pulled over our eyes"

has trained the Democratic Leadership to despise their own "brand".

And "brand" is all it is, little or nothing more.

After 28 years of watching these Bushie Successes, I think it is evry possible that the reason Obama is seeking consrevative approval is the same reason every other Nancy Pelosi Democrat (which is to say 80% of them) alternately cower and fawn before Bushie Power.

Well, it's time for Good Cop in our National Good Cop/Bad Cop Drama that is going to change our sex and drugs culture into one of service and sacrifice...by looting it.

Under this hypothesis, what Obama is doing makes perfect sense. When Bushies win, they abuse Democrats, when Democrats win, they cower before Bushies and bend like reeds.

Don't gte me wrong. I am looking forward to 4 years of "Good Cop", because it will be a joy compared to the looting that has come before.

But I have no illusions about Good Cop. NONE.

[pipi_k]

6. I think he's merely realized...

or probably knew all along, that in order to really get things done, it takes cooperation from everyone.

Honestly, sometimes it seems to me that rather than wanting real change, a whole bunch of people just want the bipartisan bickering to keep going on and on.

Conservatives don't have to be his best buddies...they only need to be on the same page in order to accomplish some of the goals he's got in mind.

[Cha]

12. Exactly..I just got on here to

see if anyone actually got it.

[TankLV]

7. I think I'm gonna puke if I hear one more example of obamas capitulating to the repukes & right wing

obama becomes more of a disappointment with every fucking day - and he's not even official yet...

[TheWraith]

14. Then you should stop reading outrage-junkie blogs which don't know what they're talking about.

99% of the "examples" out there exist only in some people's fevered imaginations.

[Doctor_J]

8. Obama isn't "desperate" for anything except to get the country on the right track

53% voted for him. If he can bring 7% of the ones who didn't over to his side, he'll have an overwhelming majority with which to rescue us from Bushworld.

How the hell can anyone complain about having Hil (and Bill) be our face to the world? This is a terrific move.

Obama is a very good man, an a very good leader, and a very good politician. Thins are about to turn around

[Jakes Progress]

9. Like a lot of people,

I've decided to just let this conservative flirting go for a while. Maybe he has a grand plan. Maybe conservatives will like him so much they change.

Either way, my having a problem with this (or any of us having a problem with this) seems to have no effect, seems to be of little concern to those now in control.

But I do have a problem with the argument that I keep seeing that he must court their favor to "get things done". Tell me just where georgie bush or karl rove ever did anything to court the progressives. Tell me how they kow-towed and included the left wing so that they could "get things done."

Because, damn them for it, they got things done. The last 8 years have been a wed dream realized for right wing ideologues and greedy corporatists. They got everything, everything they wanted and more. They never made nice, they never consulted, they never called for group hugs, and they have wrecked the country getting what they wanted done. They got tax breaks. They got wars. They got a flat broke government that will have to cut medicare and social security and can't even start to think about universal health care. They got record, I mean world record, profits for the oil cartels. They got laws passed to listen to you phones. They got women's rights rolled back. They got your civil rights narrowed.

So why is it that we think that we will "get things done" by all this niceness. The last 8 years are proof that being nice isn't how it gets done.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. That's for sure

In 28 years of Republican rule, they NEVER ONCE bothered to court the Democrats, much less the left wing.

We're represented by a bunch of wimps, that's for sure.

I think a lot of them, being wealthy themselves, deep-down agree with the notion of having the country be set up for the convenience of the rich and powerful, no matter what they say.

I believe what they do, not what they say.

[DFLforever]

15. Did you ever hear of Ronald Reagan?

He specialized in coopting Dems
which is what I believe Obama has in mind for Repubicans.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Coopting?

No, I remember Ronald Reagan very well. He did what he wanted to do (or more likely what his puppetmasters wanted him to do), and whenever he met Congressional resistance, he went on TV and asked people to pressure their Congresscritters.

I differ from you on who's being co-opted, since I'm extremely cynical about the possibility of any who actually represents "real change" being allowed past the early primaries.

[DFLforever]

17. Lydia I was thinking specifically of the MN Senate race in the

early 80's where the Reagan Democrat Bob Short ran for US Senate against Repub Dave Durenberger (whom Reagan wanted defeated, so it was said).
Nearly the entire DFL deserted Short (who had defeated the liberal Fraser in the primary) to back Durenberger.

I also think Reagan while a vile president was an unusually skilled politician. As you mentioned, he was able to appeal directly over the heads of legislators to the American people.

I tend to think for anything to be 'real', it must happen, so that an idea of change or anything else in the political realm is just that, an idea, until it takes place.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Sorry, I wasn't in Minnesota then, but I

do remember Mark Dayton running against Durenburger.

[TheWraith]

13. This is what I hate about blogs--it makes anybody think they're qualified to comment.

Hell, just the numerous and very obvious factual inaccuracies should get this ignored.

[grantcart]

18. Were there alot? I stopped when he got Kaine's state wrong.

[Captain Hilts]

20. He used NRA language to describe his view on gun control.

and folks said Hillary would "say anything" to get elected!