Ok. Now that we’ve celebrated, let’s move on to what’s next.
I’m ok with Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff. It shows that he really is looking to be a compromising guy with a spine. I’m really glad that Axelrod is sticking around. He’s just awesome. Rahm’s strengths are well known. Consumate insider, experience in the private sector, close to his Congressional district, hard nosed, but realistic.
I remember, very well, the opening days of the Clinton transition. it’s a lot of fun to compare the two. I’m sure that Obama remembers as well as he’s my age (almost exactly!)
Clinton disappeared for 2 days and then gave an impromptu brief news conference. I recall later some announcements. And, then the roof fell in. Sam Nunn made a tour of some navy ships and loudly, oh so loudly, ripped Clinton’s plan for a ‘Don’t ask. Don’t tell’ policy in the military regarding gays. Nunn seemed to have no problem ripping an incoming Democratic president.
Clinton didn’t get to a majority vote only because Perot came (back) in at the last minute and threw down a ton of money (I forgot how much, but I’m guessing $60M). He ended up with 19% of the vote. This allowed the gop, Limbaugh especially, to claim that the majority of people didnt’ vote for Clinton. (It’s not like bush would have won as most pundits believed that Perot took equally from Clinton and from bush).
But, the ongoing problems after his election continued. Nunn started the ball rolling. And, then, Nannygate happened. It turns out that his first choice for AG hadn’t paid taxes for her nanny. And, his 2nd choice had the same problem. And, then, Bob Dole decided that he was the opposition party and had the responsibility to kill everything that Clinton wanted to do, even though Clinton had just been elected on a platform that included a bunch of stuff that he tried to do.
Dole filibustered Clinton’s stimulus package (which was, anyway, woefully small). So, Clinton’s first 100 days were ruined by his own party and the opposition party.
The thing about Clinton’s tenure though is that Democrats were fat and happy in 1993. They had been in power for so long that they never thought that they’d give it up. They didn’t like this hillbilly president and so they figured that they could get away with treating him like crap.
And, then 1994 happened.
People blame Clinton for 1994. But, Clinton passed a brilliant budget in 1993 over the ‘no’ votes of every single member of the GOP. That budget laid the groundwork for the massive economic expansion that occurred over the next 8 years.
So, that precedent having been established, Obama is such a better position. He’s got similar numbers of Democrats in both houses. But, these are new members of Congress. In fact, some of them owe their political tenure to Obama. They will not oppose him and back-bite him the way that the 1993 Democrats did to Clinton.
And, Obama is really different than Clinton. Clinton ran against Bush sr. And, he ripped him pretty good. The Bush people were really not happy with Clinton and so they didnt’ help with the transition and they cleaned out every single thing by January 20, so that the Clinton people had to start from absolute scratch. It led to a very slow start by Clinton.
And, Clinton himself has a completely different persona than Obama. Obama is really calm, cool, collected, and cerebral. Clinton just runs hot with wild mood swings. Obama ran a real middle of the road campaign. He tried not to attack Republicans. Clinton attacked Republicans right and left. Obama’s approval ratings are in the 60s. Clinton’s were in the high 40s, low 50s.
Obama has Clinton’s transition experience as evidence of how not to do things. Obama is a great study.
There is no reason why Obama cannot flow into his presidency pretty easily. he’s got serious problems to solve. But, he’s the right guy, with the right personality, with the right people, and the right experience, and the right political situation to do the job.
Speaking of the political situation, with bush at 20% approval, McCain held in distaste by the gop, and the gop in the minority with no clear leader and in complete disarray, Obama really has a clear field to get some stuff done. When Clinton took office, the gop had been in the minority for decades, so were used to attacking from that position. This gop is still getting used to being the minority party and they just lost a ton more seats. They’ve had serious resignations recently and there will be more.
Obama should have no serious problems, politically, for quite some time.
Obama has real timing in his opponents. He went against Keyes in his bid for US Senate. He went against McCain for president. And, now, he’s president when the gop is in disarray for hte first time in quite awhile (decades.)
It is a great time.
No Responses »