President-elect Obama, Now What?
Posted in Public Affairs, Money Matters, Health, Terrorism, wordpress, Politics, election, Biden, Democrats, liberal, America, United States, obama, Opinion, Foreign Affairs, Military on November 5th, 2008 by Stanford Matthews 
Who will fill Senator Barack Obama’s (pardon me, President-elect Obama’s) US Senate seat for the remainder of the term? There was some noise that Valerie Jarrett would be the President-elect’s choice. Rather than a special election most reports indicate the Illinois governor will appoint someone to fill the seat. With Obama’s connection to the Chicago political machine and the same connection for many in or close to his campaign the person filling the vacancy will be someone favored by Chicago politicians.
This may be one of the earliest decisions as a result of the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Some speculation suggests the Illinois governor will fill the vacancy with a woman or an African American to shore up support for his re-election in 2010. Another suggestion was Jesse Jackson, Jr., and that would vacate his seat in the House, providing another vacancy to be filled and perhaps providing another golden opportunity for the Democratic party.
Of course the Obama transition team, high level posts in his administration, cabinet selections and the political maneuvers of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will provide some insight to what may occur or be planned for the first one hundred days and beyond in this historic election’s aftermath. The victory speech of Barack Obama and the concession speech of John McCain while eloquent were predictable and will have little impact on what really happens from this point forward.
An item at the Politico described the narrow re-election of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as positioning him to be the most powerful Republican in the country. That distinction would normally be attached to the Republican Commander-in-Chief, President George W. Bush. With the short time left in office to pursue any agenda items, President Bush may be reasonably viewed as relinquishing that role to McConnell. While the DNC was not successful in winning a 60 seat majority in the Senate it is safe to say with a Democratic party President and Congressional majority the GOP has their work cut out for them. However, the Congressional majority since the 2006 midterms can be defined as ineffective or impotent.
To be fair, the change that would have come from a McCain administration was no more guaranteed than will be change from the Obama administration. The type of change that will be pursued can be guaranteed with a Democratic party President and majority in Congress. Beyond legislative and executive agendas we come full circle to the matters of foreign policy and national security. How long before the big test for President-elect Barack Obama and VP-elect Joe Biden. Since polls have been cited indicating most Americans view Joe Biden as the superior candidate on foreign policy and the crutch for Barack Obama’s inexperience in such matters any test from sources outside the US may come sooner than expected.
Can the criticism during the campaign regarding Barack Obama become water under the bridge and have no lasting impact on the future of the United States? Or will his past choices, judgments and associations come back to haunt his administration?. Will they be rendered meaningless footnotes from a long contested Presidential campaign or will they have the influence over governing from the Oval Office about which opponents were concerned? This is one occasion the author of this log hopes to be proven wrong.
Nothing would be more rewarding than to have what may be the most historic Presidential election in US history result in equally historic advancements in political, economic, social and other measures of national success being achieved from this point forward. But to assume these things will happen after witnessing the feel good reaction by supporters of Barack Obama for President after his successful election would at best be premature and naive.
Good luck Mr President-elect. Now is the time where all the campaign rhetoric must be converted into action and results for which the American people can express their approval. Certainly you cannot please all the people all the time. No one can. But somewhere between that an a dismal failure is where you must land. The closer to the former the better. Along with an historic moment in US Presidential politics you may have inherited larger than normal expectations partly due to your eloquent oratory. You have talked the talk and you know what is required after that to achieve any measure of success. Not success for what you believe is right but success as measured by your constituents, all 300 million or more of them.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Rosemary’s Thoughts, third world county, and The World According to Carl, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
When the abstract alone of the candidate tax plans describes them as poor or poorly targeted a closer look would be needed to find support for the NYT claim that Obama’s plan is better for anyone. In the excerpt below one caveat comes from the NYT’s own description that ‘Mr Obama would GENERALLY cut taxes more’ and leaves one with the feeling someone is splitting hairs on this appraisal. And where does the so-called independent analysis state those under $250K would not see a tax increase? And this doesn’t even come close to explaining where Obama gets the money to pay for his trillion dollar spending proposal. Gouging the small group of wealthy citizens who pay the lion’s share of taxes in this country won’t cover it.
Amid all the videos presented on this blog recently and that will be from now on until the 2008 Presidential election has concluded a post from time to time providing some explanation of views should be presented. We are all familiar with the many arguments, campaign presentations, media reports and other sources offering attempts to persuade voters in the coming election. This blog has made an effort to convince people to vote for candidates also and will continue to do so. But a break from the usual or typical method may be useful.
John McCain on the other hand has been around for a long time and with varying degrees of familiarity to the details most people know him quite well. Simply because their careers have some similar details both McCain and Biden are frequently described by others in the business of politics as Senators in good standing with the typical number of glitches in their histories. Both McCain and Biden are known to irritate others from time to time and while Biden has more of a reputation for speaking before thinking, McCain’s temper has been known to cause him a problem from time to time. Biden is hamstrung to some degree by the plagiarism scandal and McCain although only mildly admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee has the Keating Five episode on his resume’. Beyond that the two Senators have what could probably be referred to as what one Democrat and one Republican would have for records after many years in Congress.
long. But most of her history minus the media and other sources who have muddied the water is not much concern for the voter. No one seems to have challenged her stature as the most popular Governor in the country. No one seems to challenge the fact that she is responsible for attending to her state constituents including negotiating significant annual residuals from energy revenues as income for residents. And there still are a great many people who view Sarah Palin as more like the ordinary citizen than the majority of those who populate Washington elected offices. And whether true or not most of her history is out there. The same cannot be said of Barack Obama.
Of the associations for which Barack Obama has received criticism why was he initially reluctant to respond? Why did he try to minimize his relationship with Rev Wright and only severed ties when the political liability became too risky? Why did he do the same about William Ayers in referring to him as just a guy in the neighborhood until the story grew legs? Even subsequent responses were less than candid and could even be characterized as lies when follow up reports were released. He shrugged off his ties with Tony Rezko and the real estate deal with him only to describe it as a bonehead move later on when he could no longer distance himself from it. These are just a few of the problems people see with Barack Obama. Not necessarily so much the associations and events but the way he responds to inquiries. Especially when those responses are later replaced with admissions of some guilt or error.
You cannot engage in politics only during an election cycle and expect things to go the way you want. Even if you are diligent year round this is a republic and we elect representatives who are not required to do as we ask. They are to represent us in what they believe is the best way. If we disagree we can vote for someone else. Rather than throw out the baby with the bath water as this author suggests, we need to retain the GOP in the White House and at least hold where the member numbers are in Congress. Along with that expressing our reactions to what happens in Washington as individuals must be maintained. It was in evidence in the summer of 2007 when Congress considered amnesty for illegal immigrants. The measure was soundly defeated due to an enormous public outcry rendering the Congressional phone system unusable from overload or simply being turned off to stem the tide. That is what gets the public’s opinion listened to in Washington.
What does it say when a Democratic party Presidential nominee has a ‘legal’ team that calls for a special prosecutor at the Justice Dept to investigate nine firings of US attorneys that already has a special prosecutor continuing to investigate the firings of nine US attorneys? It says that this information is already on the table and being handled by special prosecutor Nora Dannehy and the Obama legal team is simply playing their opposition card to investigations, charges, indictments and convictions of ACORN employees who committed voter fraud and have connections to Obama and likely the DNC.