Obama Cabinet Chess

Benen quotes a New York piece that makes a good point:
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“Clinton may be the bad cop to Obama’s good cop. Because she is trusted by Pentagon-hugging national security conservatives, she may legitimize his desire to respond to this pivot point in American history with bold strokes rather than incremental ones.”

Market rallied 500 points from when Andrea Mitchell announced it at 3pm. Great pick. Geithner was the one I was hoping for, but I had already resigned myself to Summers. This is a very good sign.

Do you think it might be vaguely possible that he is uninterested in identity politics and actually deciding who he wants based on their talents and not their demographic?

Don’t forget to mention Patrick Gaspard as political director. A nod to labor, and another heavy gun to tackle health care in a serious way.
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Both Richardson and Frederico Pena will be placed somewhere. Sounds like Richardson is going to Commerce, but wouldn’t he be well served as ambassador to Russia or back at the UN?

I heard Bill Richardson for Commerce. I think Politico. So there he is. Commerce. Bill Richardson. In Commerce.

Did that whole transcending race/gender/ethnicity thing just go right over your head?

This is kinda fun. Like fantasy football but with higher stakes.
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“Red rover, red rover, send ? right over.”

I can’t help but wonder: where did the Latinos go?
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That strikes me as a darn strange reaction. All the nominees have been pretty well-regarded people.
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Or, what Paul Dirks, dennisdenuto114, and alaskanturkey (the pardoned one, evidently) said.

Why the h3ll exactly does Obama have to pick a Latino? Seriously, wasn’t ending the stupidity of quota-based identity politics one of his campaign promises? Isn’t the fact that Obama ISN’T trying to shoehorn every ethnic and racial group into his cabinet one of the reasons his transition is going better than Bill Clintons did back in ’92?
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I notice that Swampland has four men and three women contributing to it. Do you think you were picked to blog here because you’re a good reporter or because you’re a woman? Y’know, to “even out” the balance.
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I don’t care what Obama’s cabinet’s eventual ethnic makeup is as long as everyone is qualified. But, I mean, if it makes you feel better, then sure, appoint someone just because they’re Latino. I’m sure the country will be better off.
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Asking where Bill Richardson and Al Gore are is legitimate because they’re qualified professionals one would expect to at least be given consideration for cabinet appointments. Bill Richardson has a long list of qualifications and accomplishments. That list doesn’t include the fact that he’s Hispanic.

And there ain’t no damn Lichtensteiners! Whassup with that?

Seriously, JN-S, hadn’t you ought to do something useful, like planing for Black Friday 5 a.m. doorbusters at IdentityPolitics-R-Us?

Come on, people, give off. It’s not just that Richardson is a Latino; he is OWED, for the endorsement. If Obama was willing to give Penny Pritzker a cabinet post, then he’s gotta find something for Richardson, who was not only a fellow candidate but is eminently qualified for a senior position. As is Frederico Pena, an early Obama supporter.

OK, OK – “Liechtensteiners.” Must have been thinking of the artist.

Moral: When snarking, get it right.

Do you think it might be vaguely possible that he is uninterested in identity politics and actually deciding who he wants based on their talents and not their demographic?
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No, it’s absolutely certain that the black guy insists on racial quotas in his cabinet.
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It’s hard to complain so far. Ideologically, I could be happier. But I’ll settle for grownups who could answer the question: “So what do you read to keep informed about the world?”

Intrepid Time reporter Jay Newton-Small asks I can’t help but wonder: where did the Latinos go?

There’s another, larger group that Obama has ignored, and they aren’t too happy about not getting their fair slice of the pie.

P.S. There are things Time’s hacks will never tell you about BillRichardson on these videos:

youtube.com/watch?v=i0YRHXoygRM
youtube.com/watch?v=MiszkrzoOs0
youtube.com/watch?v=CifLm6z32eA
youtube.com/watch?v=mN2o208PFhg

Note especially the first: even as he was running for president of the U.S., he was shilling for a group of foreign governments.

Everybody who is going off on JNS about the Latino comment should note that a lot of major Latino supporters had been making noise about Obama picking HRC over Richardson. And many of them were making veiled threats about whether they would continue to support the Dems and Obama if some Latinos weren’t named to Obama’s cabinet. Its the price you pay when you are all things to all people. Every single demographic that supported Obama is going to want representation at the highest levels. The next demographic I predict to be offended will be the LGBT coalition. It might sound wrong but much has been made about how the GOP are a white male party. If Obama doesn’t put some minorities in prominent positions he would be accused of white washing his Cabinet. I happen to think that qualifications should matter more than demographics but other folks will never see it that way.

Sean DeCoursey forgot his password Says: Seriously, wasn’t ending the stupidity of quota-based identity politics one of his campaign promises? Isn’t the fact that Obama ISN’T trying to shoehorn every ethnic and racial group into his cabinet one of the reasons his transition is going better than Bill Clintons did back in ’92?

I remember that campaign promise, as well as the one not to play the race card or have surrogates constantly do it, and BHO fulfilled it: his surrogates didn’t do it constantly, they took occasional five minute breaks.

Plus, this page at BHO’s site never existed:

my.barackobama.com/page/content/eahome

Also, I never wrote this in response.

I’m sorry JNS but I get a little miffed when people say things like that because Latinos aren’t the only ones who are responsible for getting Obama elected. He couldn’t have done it would a huge number of twenty somethings – so does it track that he should fill a few cabinet posts with college students?

Having a bad day, month, election cycle kattest?

There’s talk of Nydia Vasquez in Clinton’s seat. She’d be great. A pistol. Gave an intro for Marcy Wheeler when she was promoting her book here.
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And, sgw, ending this kind of nonsense is part of the point. Obama is uniquely able to say that we don’t do things that way anymore.
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This also would bode as a nice contrast to Clinton, who, as Sean pointed out, viewed the cabinet as a chance to make a political statement at the expense of a policy statement.
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Grownups. Jeez. Think of it. Honeymoon thinking, of course. There will be problems.

Andrea Mitchell. It takes a very special lady to get scoop after scoop in the highest stakes arena in the land and still keep that irrationally exuberant freak Alan Greenspan satisfied. Kudos.

hahahahahahahaha
[pointing]

Speaking of big names, what happened to Sam Nunn?

Sam Nunn was put into suspended animation years ago. No one noticed.

Remember last week when everyone was complaining Obama was choosing too many men and not enough women? What happened to that argument again? But, of course, Latinos are a different story…

SG – I get what you’re saying but at what point do we push back. the trouble with identity politics is that if the perception isn’t they are the most qualified then you set them for the media to take them down.
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JNS we’d be better off if part of your post also included this factor — it might give some people pause and make them question their assumptions.

Ask a stupid question…
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Note to self: Keep thinking aloud to myself.

Also, you know, the ethnic designations are increasingly blurry. We’re talking about William Richardson, latino. Not Emilio Estevez. No wait…..

Jay
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In theory it sounds good. But some how I doubt the first black president of the United States will be saying no to naming minorities in his cabinet. Besides that Obama is still a politician and he knows that if he snubs Latinos they may well shift to the right. So you can pretty much rest assured that there will be miinorities sprinked throughout his administration and Cabinet. Now that isn’t to say they wont be qualified but the truth is how do you say one person is more qualified than another when it gets to that level? Could there be someone better qualifed to put in at Commerce than Richardson? Maybe but I don’t think you could make a clear cut case of someone being better than him. So if 3 guys are similarly qualified I don’t see how anyone can say for sure that if he picks one of them that happens to be a minority that they would be a quota pick. But conversely if no or very few minorities are picked its a lot easier to say Obama white washed his cabinet because its right there staring you in the face.
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One thing that can’t be stressed enough is the meme that Obama’s election has made this country post racial is pure bullsh!t. And the one thing that will cause an uproar from the minorities in this country is if they get the impression that Obama is pulling a Clarence Thomas and by that I mean climbing all the way up the ladder only to pull it up behind him and close the door on other minorities who are trying to follow in his footsteps. Believe it or not the black community may well turn out to be the demographic that Obama has the most problems with because they are going to want to see that he has their interests in mind and at heart in some of the decisions he makes. Is it fair? Maybe, Maybe not. But it is reality whether anybody likes it or not.

Dee
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Fortunately you don’t have to worry about that, because those same media people will tear the minority picks down anyway whether Obama is using identity politics or not. Haven’t you heard, Barack Obama is an affirmative action president anyway!
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Seriously there is no way to win in this situation because of Obama picks too few minorities (in their opinion) he will be pilloried by many on the left and if he picks too many (in their opinion) he will be pilloried by the right. So he might as well hire whomeever the hell he wants and let everybody else sort out their feelings about it!

What does post-racial mean? Can I still be afraid of Kimbo Slice, because I totally am.

Yes, and where are the openly gay, they of the single testicle, transgenders, Asians, certainly the Asians, perhaps a few Arabs, a Persian, and partridge in a pear tree.

F-ck a duck woman, what kind of nonsense are you penning here. Could you raise your own bar just a bit.

She’s getting married, he’s a great guy, he loves her to death. They seem very happy, have a lot of common interests, are committed to family, are quite progressive and concerned about their community.

If Jay and her MSM cohorts were to announce this blissful union, it’d be “she’s marrying a Mexican–where did the all the black/white/yellow potential grooms go?”

I’d expect this nonsense from someone 30 years your senior but get your head out of your colored arse.

All I’m saying is that a little diversity would be good, to represent all cultures here in America… Also, my understanding of the negotiations was they wanted either one of the big 4 (treasury, state, defense or justice) or three of the second tier. Word is the Latino community is not very happy that right now it looks like they won’t get 3 of the second tier.

Politico is reporting that Rep. Raul M. Grijalva may end up at Interior.

Latinos delivered Indiana? Not being flip, just had no idea there was a large Latino population there.

my understanding of the negotiations was they wanted either one of the big 4 (treasury, state, defense or justice) or three of the second tier.
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I admit that I had no idea there were such negotiations, and I’m kinda surprised about it.

pourme
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You didnt see the little guy beat the sh!t out of Kimbo Slice a couple of week ago? It was EMBARRASSING!
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One thing that can’t be stressed enough is the meme that Obama’s election has made this country post racial is pure bullsh!t.
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Of course it isn’t. One thing his election does is make it easier to communicate the idea that worrying about race is a stupid waste of time. he can say that more persuasively the George HW Bush can.
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Look, he can certainly find qualified people with ethnically diverse backgrounds to fill these seats. It’s not that hard. There are only a few of these positions. So I’m not gonna get that worked up about it. If he’s got three equally qualified people and one is a LGBT female whose half asian and half Colombian, well fine. But the point is that this consideration should be utterly irrelevant to the job. In a business, it makes sense to encourage diversity for its own sake. For almost every job there are people of different backgrounds who can fill them, and a diverse work environment is a better work environment. Plus, as long as discrimination lasts, people discriminated against are cheaper to hire at a given talent level.
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But to make ethnic background a high priority criterion is the thinking that got us Clarence Thomas. I don’t need any more of that.

I demand Obama have some Indian (not Native) American representation. We make up like 46% of the smartest people in the country, but never get cabinet spots. HOGWASH.

All I’m saying is that a little diversity would be good, to represent all cultures here in America..
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This always makes me laugh, coming from members of the media. Check out the masthead up there, the photos.

they
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who is the they that wanted this?

“Word is the Latino community is not very happy that right now it looks like they won’t get 3 of the second tier.”
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“Word is”-What exactly does that mean? I’m not being snide.

hickory
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I am not trying to be funny but there was an Indian guy from Treasury testifying on the hill the other day about the bailout. Somebody had to appoint him or hire him.

sg, is that Kimbo Slice stuff just fake like professional wrestling?

PNNTO
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There was a lady on MSNBC who is an advocate for Latino causes and she said straight up that there is a growing displeasure in the Latino community over the lack of Latinos being mentioned as possibilities in Obama’s cabinet

I am not trying to be funny but there was an Indian guy from Treasury testifying on the hill the other day about the bailout. Somebody had to appoint him or hire him.
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That’s my point. We’re always relegated to underling status. They use our brains then kick us the curb.
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:p

formerlyjames
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Nope its true MMA but its a lower tier than the UFC. Actually they have some pretty big names in that outfit including Frank Shamrock but mostly they get UFC rejects or over the hill guys.

[...] Reines, Senior Adviser, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton I can’t help but wonder: where did thehttp://swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/11/21/obama-cabinet-chess/Penny Pritzker: Commerce Secretary?Penny Pritzker: commerce Secretary? – The Huffington [...]

Atheist, where’s the damn atheists. No Oriental, no American Indians, no one from Indiana, no Hawaiians, no gays, no cloned robots, what kind of administration is this? This is all so dumb. Here was have the nation’s first black President (Sorry Bill) and we can’t let him pick his own cabinet, to try to choose the best people for the job irregardless of race, religion etc. Everyone needs to just get a life!!!

jay
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Clarence Thomas was a bad move but don’t forget that before him was Thurgood Marshall who you would have to say was named to the SCOTUS in at least a small part because of his race and he turned out to be a damm good justice. Sometimes you can serve two masters and have it come out fine

JNS,
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Wait, what negotiations? Are you saying there is some mystical group of people that control how every latino in America votes? And Obama only got the votes of ANY latinos at all because he promised this mythical person(s) some specific ratio?
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Stupid me, I thought latino’s broke heavily Democratic for the same reason blacks usually do. Because the Republicans demonize them to rile up their rural white base.
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Also, what’s up with the racist spellchecker? It marks uncapitalized “latino” as mis-spelled, but is cool with uncapitalized “white” and “black”.
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Also, also, seconding jayack in #39, why don’t YOU have any latino’s on here? Surely there have to be SOME latino political reporters in the land who could do this job. Guess every latino in America will stop reading Time now because no one who looks like them works there. Because you know, people only do things so that folks they don’t know who have superficial physical resemblences to them can get ahead in life.

All I’m saying is that a little diversity would be good, to represent all cultures here in America

Which is of course why we should be insisting that at least one Cabinet post be reserved for a DFH blogger. It is well known that DFH bloggers were a significant force in assuring an Obama victory particularly in areas such as Indiana and North Carolina which could have easily flipped the other way. Its only natural to insist that we are not only represented in the Cabinet, but that this be provided instead of attention to our agenda and the issue we feel are important.

Makes perfect sense to me!

Tweety is acting like a total Dick Morris today

I seriously doubt that there will be any “Clarence Thomases”-style appointments coming from the Obama camp.
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I think this is a situation where many minorities for a long time have collectively been denied a say in what goes on in this country, and that now that that’s changed, there is a scramble to get in line for a share of the power.
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There will be more than a few elbows thrown…
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“Believe it or not the black community may well turn out to be the demographic that Obama has the most problems with…”
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I know that among the people I know, expectations are very high. The highest expectation I can think of right now is discrimination in employment. This will be an extremely tough nut to crack, particularly for those businesses below the EEOC floor. I don’t see the institutional racism and discrimination, even the taste I’ve experienced, going away in a flash. It’s going to take time.
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One thing I’ve noticed is, Black Americans are now “fashionable”, so to speak. It’s very early in the game, but I’ve seen a few places that are more open to hiring young Black men. I’m hoping that these kinds of things will continue, as it will help with the detrenchment of the ignorance that was widely broadcast the past 30 years by the GOP.

Thanks sg for helping with the “word is” question.

Market went up today when Obama suggested a “gasp!” white guy was going to be Treasury Secretary. Again who cares, I just wnat him to put adults in the govenment to undo all the damage the Republican idiots have laid on our plates.

By the way anyone out there notice that the major banks are all getting slammed going down approximately 30% over the past few days. A lot of short selling going on…. by who? Would it be beyond the possibility that foreign governments are trying to destablize the American financial system by trying to devalue our largest banks and send them into mergers with foreign banks (?) or just trying to destroy our economy to facilitate a weakened America. Not paranoid, but one has to wonder since there does not seem to be any material facts suggesting why the major banks like Bank of America, J P Morgan, Well Fargo, Citigroup etc. are cratering.

newfloridian:
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I saw that too. I’ve usually commented on how the Dow doesn’t really reflect the underlying economy as it is pretty much decoupled from it (except in extremes like this).
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One thing I can say about it, though, is that the Dow is like an election that goes on forever and reflects how the business community ‘votes’ on certain events.
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To get a jump like that, their confidence in the current Treasury people is very shaky…

floridian,
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Shorting stocks doesn’t make them go down. Being part of bad companies whose value is likely to drop is what makes stocks get shorted.

newfloridian
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Dont forget that even China is getting slammed in this global financial crisis to the point where they had to put there own stimulus package together. On the other hand there is a lot of talk on firedoglake about foreign companies chomping at the bit for the Big 3 to go into bankruptcy so they can buy them out.

Word is the Latino community is not very happy that right now it looks like they won’t get 3 of the second tier.
Word is? As someone who is a member of that community, I’m not really sure what you’re talking about. I haven’t heard much grumbling at all. Is this a Latinos-in-DC thing?

-sgwhite: I don’t think anyone is implying that they think the election of Obama has made “post-racial” (or whatever) a reality. Before it can become a reality, however, it does need to become an attitude.

-JNS: “my understanding of the negotiations…” Holy smoke! Is this for real?! Who is in negotiations with whom? Does each demographic have a representative at these negotiations? That’s just got to be a logistical nightmare!

Supposedly Manuel Diaz, mayor of Miami is under consideration for HUD. So with Grijalva and Richardson, that makes 3. Folks need to hold their horses before getting up in arms.

Actually,
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/20/navarrette.diversity/index.html
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It seems that disaffection may be “manufactured” somewhat like yesterdays msnbc article pitting the north against the south over the Big 3 bailout.
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Back at the ranch, and helping to back up my claim that detrenchment may be taking place:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27845030/

I seriously doubt that there will be any “Clarence Thomases”-style appointments coming from the Obama camp.
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Was that a purposeful misconstrual? The point is that the existence of a black seat on the court created an opportunity to put in a bad young justice. I don’t mean that in a partisan way. I’m fine with Scalia being on the court. But by making race a primary criterion, we got a bad appointee.

53_3, some story pulled out of thin air in order to give the appearance of turmoil and disaffection? I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.

Dirks–
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Pam effin’ Spaulding!! Hits several categories.
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Failing that, maybe Stengel should consider offering her a slot here. After all, a little diversity is a good thing.

A “Clarence Thomas”-style appointment is one in which race was considered more important that qualifications.
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The GOPers, in their infinate wisdom, felt somehow, since Thurgood Marshall was being replaced, that they had to choose a Black man, but in their inestimable stoopidity, failed to consider ones that were actually qualified. Instead, they decided to choose a parrot that seemed to be pining for the fjords…

hickoryduck:
I swear on my dear, dear, dead turtle’s grave!

Yes, 53_3 that is indeed the point. Read JNS’ post again. That’s what she is saying AFAICT. “They” insist that Obama appoint a latino to certain cabinet post. “They” are making that the first selection criterion on the list.
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JNS–
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It actually would be useful to know who the pressure groups are, who they represent, how they are funded, how much leverage they can bring to bear with the general populace.

Pam effin’ Spaulding!! Hits several categories..

Including ‘talented’

The GOPers, in their infinate wisdom, felt somehow, since Thurgood Marshall was being replaced, that they had to choose a Black man,
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And no, this is wrong. They saw they had a chance to fill the black seat with a stooge. A white candidate with those qualifications would have done as well as Nixon’s two failed shots at filling the sourthern seat with reliable segregationists.

I agree with jayackroyd johnson.
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The whole point was getting an unqualified ideologue in under the cover of a “black seat”. If it was Sandra Day who left the court, they would have picked the equivalent of Sarah Palin of the legal world to replace her. By picking on Clarence Thomas, it meant you didn’t want a black to have a seat.

“They” are the Trilateral Commission, of course. Do none you pay attention to all those telegrams?

–none OF you –. Gargle.

And now, an argument against my claims that some detrenchment may be taking place
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/21/texas.beating/index.html
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Um, jayack, that’s what I said. Little difference between a “parrot” and a stooge.
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As for a “Black” seat, I think it has more to do with Marshall’s very large shoes, and the GOP at the time, was speaking with a decidedly forked tongue on race. This was how the GOP percieved they could preserve their “credibility” on race.
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It has a surprisingly similar paralell with the thinking that led them to install Alan Keyes in Indiana to run against Obama.

Including ‘talented’
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Funny too. She’d kill at a roast.

“They” insist that Obama appoint a latino to certain cabinet post

Indeed. Absent any information on who “They” happen to be, the post is rather meaningless. After all, I have reason to believe that Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Puerto Ricans might have differing agendas between each other and among themselves.

Who is purporting to speak for all of them in ‘negotiations’ with the President elect?

I invite JNS to answer.

Not sure what we’re “debating” here, since we seem to agree…

No, because keyes couldn’t win. The existence of a quota system on the supreme court meant that they could lock in the black seat as a right wing parrot, if you prefer. Running a black guy in a senate race were he had no chance is not equivalent.

“They” happen to be, the post is rather meaningless. After all, I have reason to believe that Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Puerto Ricans might have differing agendas between each other and among themselves.
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Might? This did occur to me, which is why I asked who the they is.
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BTW,this is not just a who is the latino “they.” It would be good to name the theys in general. Any reasonably influential They would have a website, and you could assess how grass roots, how big, how “connected” They are.
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Course, in this case, “they” could just mean “Some say.”

Note too, just by the way, the hed represents people as pieces, of different types. Not checkers, where all the pieces are the same, but black horses, white queens, female bishops etc. It’s very clearly a reference to see people by their type, rather than their, can I say, content of their character.

The GOP was guilty of some very ignorant thinking at the time. They felt they had to run a Black candidate against Obama. Of course, anyone could see that Keyes wouldn’t win, but the operatives who put him there were ignorant enough to fool themselves into thinking that is what they had to do in order to have a chance.
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It is exactly the same mentality.
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The common denomenator?
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The consideration of race ahead of qualifications.
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Had they run a qualified White guy against Obama in Indiana, they would have done much better, but they were incapable of thinking outside their self-made box of ignorance.

jay, Paul D, et all.
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JNS isnt pulling this out of thin air. there are plenty of stories floating around about it. Here is one
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/11/AR2008111102941.html
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By Al Kamen
Wednesday, November 12, 2008; Page A17
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Latino political advocates, citing the importance of Latino votes in President-elect Barack Obama’s victory, are pressing him to appoint at least two and as many as four Latinos to his administration’s 20 Cabinet-level positions.

Here is another
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http://vivirlatino.com/2008/11/11/latinos-want-richardson-on-obama-cabinet.php
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Those “Hispanic activists” are actually a group called The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, made up of members of MALDEF, LULAC and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, among others.

And another
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/20/latino_leaders_looking_beyond.html
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By Philip Rucker
As Hillary Rodham Clinton inches toward the secretary of state chair, many Latino advocates are asking: whither Bill Richardson?

The New Mexico governor, who endorsed President-elect Barack Obama after dropping out of the presidential primary campaign, has been the most likely Latino contender for a high-ranking post in the new administration. But now Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the Untied Nations and energy secretary, may lose out to Clinton — and though the governor could land another Cabinet post, such as interior secretary, anxiety is high among Latino leaders that Obama has not yet named a Latino to a top White House or Cabinet position.

Senior transition officials — including Obama’s designated chief of staff Rahm Emanuel — are said to be aware of such concerns and considering Latino candidates for several other Cabinet posts.

“The Obama transition team and the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, understand the role that the Latino vote played in this election, and I think we will see representation in the Obama Cabinet and at the White House,” said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza.

sg:
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Maybe so. I’m not really qualified to say what is and what isn’t real in the Latino community, but it seems that there are some who also approve of what Obama’s doing.

And yet another
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081107/pl_politico/15375
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Weeks before Barack Obama won the presidency, he met privately in Washington with his former Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and Latino political leaders who had fervently backed her bid.
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The cards were laid upon the table, according to one of the participants. The Hispanic leaders said they expected at least two Latinos to be named to an Obama Cabinet — meeting the standard set by President-elect Bill Clinton in 1992 — but preferred three. Of course, they also wanted sub-Cabinet-level posts.
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In return, Obama needed assurances that Hispanics — who had overwhelmingly voted for Clinton during the Democratic primaries — would be mobilized in large enough numbers to make him the winner in the battleground states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida.

This one’s for you sgwhiteinfla, cops behaving in an illogical manner:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Deputy_takes_mans_Xbox_during_traffic_1121.html

Clinto accepts state
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7743113.stm

Last one for me
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http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/politics/2008/11/21/hispanics_in_obamas_cabinet_need_not.htm
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Organizations like the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) and the National Latino Congreso are all seriously involved in finding, vetting and promoting Latino talent for the Obama cabinet.

Speaking of being a “fly on the wall”…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27845644/

Because Cookiepuss asked:

Overview of Indiana’s Latino Population

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Indiana’s 277,558 Latino residents in 2005 represented the state’s second largest minority group and accounted for 4.5 percent of the state’s total population. Furthermore, census population estimates indicate that the Hoosier Latino population grew by 31 percent between 2000 and 2005 alone.

cinci
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You still dont understand and you probably never will because you would rather have something to rail about rather than talk rationally. Cops steal sh!t everyday and the average person knows and believes that. Cops don’t walk down the street everyday and say “Hey I am going to whup your azz over your NFL Pro Bowler son who did something to me in highschool 15 years ago” If you can’t see that then we can’t talk about anything.

wait, where did everybody go?

JNS
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Thats for asking my question the other day.

sg:
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They went to dinner, I think.
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I have to sit here, poring over 3,000 pictures of Spartina (smooth cordgrass) for a photo survey. Tedium extroidinaire!

53_3
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lol have fun with that

I post to avoid insanity…

lol Thats funny because I post to embrace insanity
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Fire Joe LIEberman!

Look on the bright side, it could be Zoysiagrass.

I’m in Texas and water-sucking lawns never made sense. Zoysia is one species that is drought resistant. We opted to tear out ALL the grass and plant yuccas and native plants and create pathways. As God as my witness, I’ll never water a lawn again.

Yes, i don’t doubt that JNS is getting this from source. I just would like to know who it is.
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This is traditional dem politics. You can identify a group that delivers votes, you get patronage.
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I’d also like not repeat the Clinton cabinet of dysfunction. Maybe they swap Nydia in the Senate for one of those posts. That would make me happy, and also would be a more prominent position, in many ways, than a cabinet post.
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You do realize that Obama doesn’t them now? So, if these stories are correct, and the sources are almost certainly the organizations pressuring, not the Obama team, then he can stiff them. If he actually made any promises. Which I doubt. Understandings like this are seldom explicit.

Fire Joe LIEberman!
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My opinion of him is the same as yours, really. If it weren’t for the extenuating circumstances, I’d be just as quick to sing that very same tune.
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In the meantime, I’ll just have to take solace in the fact that time will tell which decision was wiser…
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In the meantime, I wouldn’t wish this job on Karl Rove. Really! Looking at the same type of plant, over and over, just different settings and poses, and they ain’t even pretty!
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I’m in self-made hvelska…

@sg….
I know better than to think that JNS simply made stuff up but the bottom line is that you just did for us the job that she should have done. Plus, just because such horse trading goes on, doesn’t make it desirable.

davemc321:
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Be very careful what you wish for, davemc! I woke up from yesterdays bout of daylong photographic tedium to spy 5 foot tall Spartina growing all they way around my bed!
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They did dissappear after I rubbed my eyes…
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The tedium is that bad!

Latino, African American, Women, Pish-Posh, we all know the real voting block he is neglecting is the Youth vote and util a Jonas brother is elected to the cabinet they will not rest!

Just stopped by to catch up on sg’s response to the earlier scepticism. He/she wins, lol. I feel more informed now.

It’s good to see Richardson get something. Even beyond the Latino politicking, I’m glad to see him get something for sticking his neck out in the primaries. (This may have already been said, but hell if I’m going to read through 104 comments to find a little thing like that.)

Sweet! I can say hell and ass! Can I say damn?

I can! Well damn it to hell, the moderator bot can kiss my ass!
(Thanks, High Sheriffs!)

Lost in Transition is saying Cecilia Elena Rouse for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, rather than Austan Goolsbee:
http://lostintransition.nationaljournal.com/2008/11/goolsbee.php

President Obama is showing why people have put their confidence in him. Hillary will be excellent as Secretary of State. Leaders around the world trust and respect her. Love Bill Richardson. Market rallied after Treasury Sec. named. It’s coming together beautifully!

“I’m not one to promote quotas,” said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza and a senior aide in Bill Clinton’s White House. “But I think it would be difficult to see a Cabinet at this historic moment in the country that wouldn’t reflect diversity. So it’s our expectation that we would see a diverse Cabinet and sub-Cabinet.”
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From Kamen’s Post piece. How is this not promoting quotas?
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All I’m saying is that a little diversity would be good, to represent all cultures here in America
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Diversity is good when it arises organically. That may not mean appointing Bill Richardson to a key post: let’s be honest, he has a great resume but he was a terrible Presidential candidate, and he has a record of borderline sexual harassment. He’s better suited to Commerce than State. What’s important is that Obama is not judging prospective appointees on their race or gender; That will automatically produce diversity.
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That said, it’s fair to argue that journalism is very different than politics, in that journalists interpret and report on events that will be seen differently depending on race, gender, age, sexual orientation and socioeconomic background. Journalists are interpreters, not policy makers. I’d love to see the next Presidential campaign covered by more people who are not white male Ivy League graduates in their mid-20s to early-30s, whose careers – judging by the poor quality of their work – are owing to their irrational self-confidence in their own opinions, and a great high school record.

I had dreams like that before, 53-3. And I didn’t even know what spartina was.

rose–
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I’ve spent a lot of time at different organizations, and i can tell you that diverse organizations, organizations that pursue diversity, are healthier. This is especially true at a place like Microsoft or American Express, who sees their customer base as global.
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And it’s true at non-profits. Non-profits serve a diverse community, and so it helps to different voices in the room. .
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Also, you know, there are almost always a fairly large number of candidates good enough for a position, so as long as the candidate is capable, looking to see how that candidate would affect the diversity of your organization is a good idea.
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The place where this is most interesting, in my opinion, is elite universities. Such universities have literally 4 or 5 times as many candidates who can do the work than the have slots for those candidates. Harvard claims to reject an entire class-full of valedictorians and perfect SAT scores every year. The admissions office doesn’t try to pick the “best” students. It tries to construct a class that will make the experience rich and enjoyable for everyone. (In my view, this is because it is really all about the endowment.)
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Certainly many of those kids are the most academically successful. But the reason they make the fuss about other activities is they want campus life to be interesting with theatre and sports and newspapers and kids who can do the work and also participate in other activities.
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And they want racial and geographic diversity. A kid from Alaska has a better shot than a kid from NYC, all else equal. And a black kid has a better shot, all else equal. But that doesn’t mean that the black kid got the white kid’s slot who had the same relative performance. It may the tuba player who missed out. That was the fallacy of the Bakke case, that there is a single metric, and the students are lined up sequentially in order of some kind of qualification score. That’s not the case. They’ve 4-5000 good enough kids, 1000 slots, plus another thoussand or so who wouldn’t be good enough if they weren’t legacy or great in sports. (Again, it’s about the endowment. Sports create loyalty. Legacy has a history of giving, and of course, giving goes up when the kid applies. Stays up, if the kid gets in.)

I know this thread is deader than a doorknob but I have somethign to share.
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I swear sometimes I hate it when I am right. Sooooooo which political party do yall think the White House is blaming for not passing the auto bailout deal??? Ill give you two guesses but you only need one. As Congressman Elijah Cummings would say “Harry Reid is a CHUMP!”
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http://rawstory.com/news/2008/White_House_assails_mindless_Congress_on_1121.html

I’ve spent a lot of time at different organizations, and i can tell you that diverse organizations, organizations that pursue diversity, are healthier.
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Couldn’t agree more, and not just because of self-interest! But I don’t think that quotas not the most effective way to promote diversity, and I’m very skeptical about self-conscious selection for diversity. Educating people about hidden prejudices (something that’s usually neglected), and examining a large number of applicants to protect against a “white boys club” mentality is enough. We should trust that diversity will naturally follow. It will.
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Also, the students from Ivy League schools come from wealthier families than their counterparts at less selective institutions, so in spite of need-blind admissions and a focus on diversity, Ivy League universities are not that socioeconomically diverse. Selecting journalists from a pool of Ivy League graduates who can afford to take internships instead of getting the best paying job possible to pay off their debts is selecting from a very unrepresentative sample. (Michelle Obama has talked a lot about the issue of student loan debts furthering economic inequality and providing a disincentive for public service. I hope she keeps talking about it as First Lady.)
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One reason I feel so strongly about this is that I actually have a lot in common with the embedded campaign journalists. I’m not an Ivy League graduate, but I’m in my mid-20s and I have a good resume. And I know I don’t have an exceptional level of wisdom. I’m just a reasonably intelligent young woman who has had some good luck. People like me should not be shaping the perceptions of politicians and policies. I’m not saying that we should have no presence in journalism, just that we shouldn’t be dominating campaign journalism. In fact, it’s too important to let any one demographic dominate.
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Anyway, this article expresses all my concerns about the lack of socioeconomic diversity in journalism: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=32c1f37c-587d-44c6-937c-fc392cdab6ff
Of course, none of this is the interns’ fault. It’s easy to disparage them for being strivers; the implication is that other young people, who are truly intellectually curious, are out there grooming dogs and smuggling immigrants, Augie March-style. But that’s not fair. When we set up a system that rewards young people so disproportionately for behaving like strivers from the age of 14 on (or whenever they grasp the highly fraught imperative to get into college), it’s mean-spirited to then find fault with them for doing so. It’s probably safe to assume that many of this summer’s interns would rather not be photocopying expense reports. But the ones who opt out–the ones who work minimum wage jobs and learn firsthand something about how the other half lives, something more than what they learn just from reading How the Other Half Lives in American History class–well, check back in a few years. They probably won’t be working at a liberal magazine that covers poverty policy. That job went to someone who’d done an internship.

First there will be Richardson and Diaz in the cabinet.

Secondly, I would give my right hand that this means Sonia Sotomayor for the first SC opening.

iso in spite of need-blind admissions and a focus on diversity,
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This is much less the case than it was. Need-blind admission is rarely practiced nowadays. One of the downsides of the rising upper middle class among black and latino applicants (like my nephews, who can check off the Puerto Rican box, but are the sons of a doctor and a lawyer, grandsons of a doctor and a lawyer).
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IAC, we’re just agreeing. You can’t use blind quotas. You can’t use a BCS computer formula that ranks the top 1200 and take those, because some other formula would pick a different 1200 who are just as good.
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The conversion of journalism to a profession, well paid in the najor dailies, very wery well paid on the teevee, has led to the homogeneity of background you are talking about. I actually think that’s less of a problem than you do I think the editorial tone, “balance” and biases are set by management.
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Moreover, you’ve also got to deal with the reality thing. The source of many of these complaints about homogeneity of background is in turns into a demand to print stuff that isn’t true–more balance on global warming, covering abortion differently, and so forth.
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It’s a big problem when people are upset because the things their “leaders” tell them is not reflected in the newspapers when the the things they’re being told by their leaders are lies or terrible mistakes. A lot of the problems of the last eight years or so has been the printing of false, inaccurate stories that one side or the other is putting out.
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Now that doesn’t mean that just hiring Ivy leaguers makes sense. But reporters are now generally going to be formally trained at journalism schools, rather than working their way up from cub, with only a high school education. And there are other venues now. Ask Drudge.

I haven’t read this whole thread but I was curious about JNS’s claim about Indiana.
“Latinos provided the winning margin in Indiana, with 77 percent”
An interesting piece here-
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/cobble_velasquez

New Obama radio address fresh off the presses
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Just wondering if you all find this as lame as I did:
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DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination with the enthusiastic support of the left wing of his party, fueled by his vehement opposition to the decision to invade Iraq and by one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate.
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Now, his reported selections for two of the major positions in his cabinet — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and Timothy F. Geithner as secretary of the Treasury — suggest that Mr. Obama is planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues.
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Driven by CW much?

On diversity: I am looking at our MSM, not only at TIME. I see Fareed Zakaria. Chinese? Do we need Cajuns in just to make them feel not left out? Isn’t Bill Richardson a Latino? Up in Canada they have this kind of stuff and some dumbos have got into Cabinet and into Parliament over the years.

Obama should, first and foremost, pick the best people in the first tier In the second tier appointments he can bring in a broad representation of Americans from across all major ethnic groups, allow them to grow into their jobs and then pick some for first tier appointments. For now our problems are vast and we need the best. And cable tv gasbags like Tweety and Michele Bernard are not qualified to make any solid judgement.

Don’t tell me about the Ragin’ Cajun. He has enough on his plate with the Matalin.

In case anyone missed it, “The Tipping Point’s” Malcolm Gladwell and Maddow talked about experience and the 10,000 hour rule in the context of Obama’s cabinet picks. Tremendous interview.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/27831448#27831448

In case anyone missed it, this Maddow interview with “The Tipping Point’s” Malcolm Gladwell was tremendous. On the concept of experience in the context of Obama’s cabinet and staff choices.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/27831448#27831448

YouTube down?

wvng
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youtube is working for me

sg, always interesting when things get weird on the internets. Perhaps Senator Stevens is stuck in the intertube that delivers YouTube to my door. Cause I am getting nothing, just empty space where Youtube vids are supposed to be.

btw, Great News! Global warming is over! It’s been really cold here in WV for the last several days! So that’s one crisis averted already by our President-elect.
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Kidding of course, but I’m sure some wingnuts are saying this.

wvng
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Its cold in WV in the middle of November? Who woulda thunk it?

BTW
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I am going to consider this an open thread until anything new gets posted by the swamp folks
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This is a pretty good article written by a black woman who is also a republican talking about why she doesn’t feel like a part of the party and why she voted for Barack Obama. I personally don’t see why she just doesn’t switch parties. But hey why let common sense get in the way of party affiliation right?
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112002959.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

sg, thanks for the official word. I was treating it as an open thread, but feeling guilty about it.
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Maddow had an excellent segment on the SOFA last night with NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/27849381#27849381

More great appointment news. If you’re interested in health care reform, the appointment of Peter Orszag to be director of the Office of Management and Budget is second only in importance to the the elevation of Tom Daschle to health czar and HHS secretary.

btw, I’ve tried posting two links to Rachel interviews, and they are getting eated. Time doesn’t like the competition?

Check out this line from Sully today that shows how self aware he is.
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“I defer to no one in Clinton Derangement Syndrome, which is why I believe it’s good for them to have their hands full and to be kept under surveillance.”
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http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/clinton-accepts.html

There is a very good article about why Tom Daschle has put the fear of God in all Republicans and why they are going to fight Obama’s healthcare plan tooth and nail, not because its wrong for the country, but because if passed it will dismantle the Republican party for at least a generation.
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http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/11/21/how-tom-daschle-might-kill-conservatism.html
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I certainly hope some of our good Swamp folks will call the GOP on this when it happens!

Here’s Benen continuing on the right and health care theme. I think this battle will be THE story over the next two years. I hope Reid’s need for comity in the Senate can be contained in the national interest.
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Remember, for Kristol then and Pethokoukis/Cannon now, it’s not about the quality of the policy — it’s about political survival. If Democrats deliver, they’ll be positioned to win over a generation of voters. Blocking (or "killing") a reform effort may undermine the public’s needs, but it would also block Democrats from winning a historic victory.
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With that in mind, the right will likely aggressively resist healthcare reform because, as a matter of electoral strategy, conservatives probably don’t have a choice.

I can assure you that MS will “call the GOP”, the “on this” part, not so sure.

Swampland, Can we do something else besides play cabinet chess all weekend?

The rooks just piss me off, they have limited functions, seem to get in the way and rarely are there in the end… opps…. I just described Republicans!

Maybe Palin can entertain us over the weekend with a few more of her ghoulish holiday messages…

It pisses me off that Rachel Maddow didn’t include her footage in her “holy mackeral” section.
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Hawee! Assess and elbows to the front!

Lets see if empty lines

will be kept.

“…they are going to fight Obama’s healthcare plan tooth and nail”
sg:
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Not to pick an open wound on the Liebermann issue, I know how you feel. This is what that tool will be used for.
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When healthcare comes into play they know, and the GOP knows, what they will do. There won’t be any appeals. They will attempt to filibuster, and Obama will marshal a cloture vote.
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Blam! Done deal…

wvng, thanks for the Orszag link. That’s great news. That’s actually the best news I’ve seen since Obama won.
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jayackroyd, yes we are agreeing. And you’re right about the quality-control aspects of journalism – e.g. the importance of fact-checking, and skepticism. It’s yet another reason to open up the applicant pool for journalism jobs. Intelligence, curiosity, a reasonable degree of objectivity, the courage to report unpopular things, the ability to stay focused on the big picture while making sure the details are right – all these things are required in good journalism. Unfortunately intelligence, a decent writing style, a good undergraduate degree/great high school record and the money to either get an expensive graduate degree in journalism or take unpaid internships often seems to be enough to get the job. One of the things I was most surprised by in this whole campaign was the low quality of journalism. I knew about editorial bias, but it was amazing to see the intellectual shallowness and lack of fact-checking. (And not just in politics where you could argue that weak reporters are selected for editorial reasons. I also did some work this year that involved dealing with another area of journalism, where the quality was just as low, which caused me to question my previous thinking about the importance of editorial bias.) Something is seriously wrong with the profession and they need to think about new solutions. Expanding the applicant pool to attract better talent seems like a good first step.

Rose–
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My coda.
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this is nothing new. the reason there are publicity departments and press releases is to take advantage of lazy reporters. those weren’t invented in 1998. Nor was contempt for readers. I’ve been reading Rex Stout lately, who evoke his time (bracketed around WWII) very well. His reporters are as contemptuous of his readers as anybody around today. And they’re as lazy. Only difference is they’re more corrupt.

jayackroyd, at least we have blogs now. Although maybe the decline of regional newspapers has worsened things. Less competition, etc.

53_3
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You ASSume that Lieberman will vote with the Dems on healthcare. But you forget that he gave a full throated endoresment of McCain’s health care plan which is the antithesis of Obama’s. In a perfect world yeah it would go like you say but Lieberman said he wasnt even punished. What motivation does he have to vote with the Dems?

I’ll add one more article to sgw’s link deluge, and that is the op-ed by Mr. Personality himself, David Broder.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/21/AR2008112102651.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Mostly that the two Repub impediments against health care back in 93 — Bob Dole and Gingrich — may now be on board for reform.

“But you forget that he gave a full throated endoresment of McCain’s health care plan.”
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Actually, sg, I’m not “ASS-uming” anything. I’m assuming he will to the line as far as Obama expects him to, which is to stay in the fold on domestic issues. He’s a sh!t shovel, and the sh!t hasn’t been washed off, but he’s still a tool.
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I recognize the stuff he said during the campaign, and it’s hard to justify or even characterize what Joe really intends.
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I think the base data is this:
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Obama is a lot closer to the political sceneray than I am, and I’m not trusting Liebermann, I’m trusting Obama’s judgement.

“Word is the Latino community is not very happy that right now it looks like they won’t get 3 of the second tier.”

I gave money, blogged and voted for Obama. Word is I’m not getting a pony.

shepherdwong Says:
” .. I gave money, blogged and voted for Obama. Word is I’m not getting a pony. “
And word is – you won’t be president nor will you be Mrs. Obama #2 either.
We are talking of “no taxation without representation” while you would suggest “live and let live” with our ancestors’ WASP criteria – a la Bill O’Reilly. Americans don’t agree with you.
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Dee in Columbia MD Says:
(Obama) couldn’t have done it would a huge number of twenty somethings”
“couldn’t have done it”? Look at the many analyses of the polls and the voting demographics.
If you mean that the vote of that demographic of the 18-to-30-year-olds was a significant in Obama’s victory – wrong! But they sure were excited about the election and Obama got a majority of THEIR vote.
Obama did not get a majority of the white vote. But his candidacy garnered about same as (or slightly more than) Kerry did in 2004 and Gore in 2000.
But Obama could not have succeeded without the overwhelming majority of Latino and African American voters.
So far, the whites are reaping the benefits. What is new?
[The primaries were more than enough. I shall believe in 'passover' - if the omnipotent Unumbotte does not saddle the land with the curse of Clintons in government one more time. What did we do to deserve a repeat punishment?]
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Paul Dirks Says:
“.. deciding who he wants based on their talents and not their demographic? ..”
Forgive us, if we seem to be preoccupied with the nagging flashback of the times that the ‘black’ demographic was considered to be devoid of talent. The primaries served to remind us that many of those Southerners and the Appalachians still subscribe to that notion. Come to think of it, many in Europe would swear that Europe’s ‘godless’ (WHITE!) Gypsies, or rather the Roma, have only one despicable ‘talent’ – thieving.

The issue is: Do you believe that there is a demographic, a race, lacking in talent?
[ Warning: The Nobel prize people seem to ferret out now and then and triumphantly parade around fellow Caucasian 'scholars' (like James Watson and William Shockley) who subscribe to white supremacist notion.
Occasionally such creeps embarrass their benefactors by 'proving' that Asians are superior to the Caucasians.
"DAMM! Perish the thought!" you can almost hear those hard-working, very hard-working Americans, white America Appalachians swear.]

“suggestion of the development of racism as a justification of the slave trade misses the point about the quotidian horror of slavery. The definition of slaves as private, alienable commodities and their definition by race were two aspects of the parallel and interconnected emergence of capitalist social relations and racism in the 17th and 18th centuries .. “
Williams, E. 1944. Capitalism and Slavery. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Paul Dirks Says:
“.. deciding who he wants based on their talents and not their demographic? ..”
Oh. And when did we begin to think that that demographic of females had any useful talent outside the home? In business? In the military!
And have they suddenly become intelligent? If it is so sudden, can it really be innate/evolutionary or is it just a flash in the pan – to disappear soon as Obama leaves the stage?

Are ‘talent’ and ‘capability’ and ‘intelligence’ are primarily or to some extent, in the eyes of the beholder?

cfukara Says:
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 5:51 pm Dee in Columbia MD Says:
(Obama) couldn’t have done it would a huge number of twenty somethings”

Boy did you ever take my statement out of context. I was saying that since a significant portion of his overall vote which was approximately 18 percent 00 and this cohort voted for him 2 to 1, did that mean that he should appoint students to reward this groups for their vote. Obviously I know black and Latinos voted for him in huge numbers. In fact not enough has been said about the near universal turnout or support among black voters — but that doesn’t mean since 13% of his vote were black voters for that his cabinet should be 13 percent blacks

Dee in Columbia MD Says:
” .. that doesn’t mean since 13% of his vote were black voters for that his cabinet should be 13 percent blacks ..”
Why not?

Suppose Obama’s cabinet turned out to be 90% African-Americans, would you become suddenly quizzical? Would you sufficiently rationalize a predominantly African-American US cabinet to the hard-working, very hard-working Americans, the white Appalachians?

OK. Since you brought it up, we may then ask:
What percentage of Obama’s vote came from the loud Jewish-American demographic?
Can you guess how many Jewish-Americans we will end up with in that Obama cabinet? [Pray, suspend any notions of racial supremacy for the moment.]

cfukara says:
“We are talking of “no taxation without representation” while you would suggest “live and let live” with our ancestors’ WASP criteria – a la Bill O’Reilly. Americans don’t agree with you.”

No, I’m suggesting that Latinos (along with everyone else who voted for him) had better have voted for Barack Obama because that’s who they wanted to be the next POTUS, not for any other political reward. Most Americans most assuredly voted for Obama for that reason alone. The rest can be pissed-off for whatever stupid reason they wish, ego-driven identity politics included.

shepherdwong Says:
” .. had better have voted for Barack Obama because that’s who they wanted to be the next POTUS, not for any other political reward. ..”
“had better” – agreed.
“who they wanted”? why? What were the motivations?
We are tempted to surmise that (female) voters who clung to the dream/nightmare of Hillary’s candidacy long past its due date expected certain (political, perceptual/psychological, monetary, enfranchisement/”coat-tails rides” etc) rewards accruing from a Hillary administration.
In 2008, the American voter became the consumer of the most expensive hype and brand marketing in the history of USA presidential campaigns. And consumer behavior is rarely THAT rational.
Have you sent in your 63-point questionnaire to the Obama group?
[I wonder: Where is Mike Murphy?]

“”who they wanted”? why? And consumer behavior is rarely THAT rational.”

Rationally, politics is always the choice between the lesser of evils. Personal motives are irrational but they are also irrelevant when consumers make the right choice.

“”who they wanted”? why? And consumer behavior is rarely THAT rational.”

Rationally, politics is always the choice between the lesser of evils. Personal motives are irrational but they are also irrelevant when consumers make the right choice.

“And, on a separate note, where’s Al Gore…?”

Making billions of dollars and saving the planet. Call me crazy, but I don’t think Al Gore is really in the market for a new job at the moment. He now has a degree of non-partisan cachet, and freedom to focus on his passions, both of which he’d lose if he accepted a job at the EPA or something. It’s possible he’ll join up; I just don’t see it happening.