Obama Administration

Pundits and analysts are digging for clues about what an Obama administration will actually look like. Here's a post from Marc Ambinder trying to tea leaf read using Biden's new chief of staff appointment as his starting point, and here's a long article from the New Yorker using a variety of sources to try and figure out how Obama might change things.

Really silly

This game is scarily like Super Mario Brothers, it's even a little fun

Ok... this is getting silly

Ok, a little background first.
1. According to Slate the idea for Congressman Santos's character on the West Wing came from a series of conversations that West Wing had with David Axelrod about Barak Obama. Barak Obama has gone on to win the election in a very Santos-like fashion
2. Some sources say that the character of Josh Lyman was modeled on the very real life Rahm Emanuel

We now learn that Rahm Emanuel has been picked to be Obama's chief of staff (for those television trivia nuts Rahm's brother Ari was the model for the Entourage character of the same name), WTF?????? This is life imitates art going nuts (if Maggie Williams becomes Michelle Obama's chief of staff and marries Mr Emanuel I will hide under a desk)!

I'm actually not very glad about this, for why start with this NYT article. Here's what I think.

1. After looking at the profiles around I think you could safely characterize Emanuel as a partisan hack.
2. He is fairly high drama, just look at the press around this announcement as an example compared to "No-drama Obama".
3. The chief of staff is an incredibly important position in the White House, s/he determines who gets access to the President and often gets in the last word in any debate (Cheney being somewhat of an exception in recent years). Maybe Emanuel has changed, maybe Obama will choose other moderate advisers who will counterbalance him. However, having disclaimed myself, I don't think is the pick of someone who genuinely wants to reform. Think of Josh, when he talked about reform and how Washington needs change, he often simply meant Washington needs more democrats. I knew that Obama would have to pick people I don't like, but as someone who supported him for his post-partisan rhetoric, this bothers me.

On the bright side Emanuel is intelligent, experienced, talented, and relentless. With him in the White House, things will get done. Whatever Obama sets as the agenda, it will be a lot more likely to become reality with Rahm as the chief of staff.

I'll be watching this

If Obama wins on Tuesday I think that his supporters will inevitably be let down (he isn't perfect and he's working within an imperfect system). In particular I think he might disappoint supporters on how he deals with the presidential power policies established by the Bush administration. I do think he will reverse some things, like torture, Guantanamo (although probably not as soon as you might think). However, there will be a great deal of pressure for him to "stay the course" in some areas. TNR has a good article about one area: authorizing strikes in other countries. So I'll be keeping an eye out for reports of special forces strikes in countries that don't make sense.

Bruce Springsteen fans pay attention

How Bruce Springsteen's songs have helped Obama, particularly "The Rising"

Good Obama Acceptance Speech

Really good speech, not as much soaring rhetoric but it did exactly what I've been looking for. One of my major complaints about Obama is that he hasn't been able to connect (for me) the message of change and his specific policy proposals but this time he did it and did it well.

More to come on VP stuff later

Cute political ad

I'm sorry, I try not to give into Obamamania too much but this ad is actually pretty good.

Interesting Obama post

I've read many profiles of Obama; long ones, short ones, friendly ones, unfriendly ones and I actually found this profile of him as a teacher more compelling that almost any other one. Thoughts?

Umm....isn't it a little early for these stories

Obama post warning!

Here are two articles analyzing what an Obama administration would look like. One from TNR focusing mostly on foreign policy, and one from The Economist focusing more on what his agenda might be.

Good Writing

Tale a look at this insightful post from Al Giordano about the implications of Obama's speech on Patriotism and what it means about his style of leadership.

The Patriotism Speech

Sullivan has the full text of Obama's recent speech. If you're a fan it's worth a read, if not you can skip (nothing you won't have heard before). At some point I'll post on how much I love Obama's speeches and why, but not today. Suffice it to say that I found it beautiful and very moving.

Obama letting down his supporters?

Check out the newest column from David Brooks and an editorial by the NYT
I have to admit I'm disappointed. I agree in principle that the public financing system needs to be fixed but I don't think this was the time or the way to do it. No matter what his actual reasons for doing this were this damages Obama's image as "above" politics. He never could possibly have kept that anyway, not and actual govern, but part of me is disappointed that his most blatantly political decision so far was around money.

How could he have done this better? I can't really think of any proactive way. I suppose he could have waited until some 527 came out with a really nasty ad but that's reactive and not really a good strategy.

Update: I agree with Andrew, if was going to do it, better to take the image hit now when he has more time to work on PR.