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Baaing In The Ranks

Obamists don’t like the boss’s flirtation with Hillary. They don’t trust the She Wolf and wonder why she is being let into the sheepfold. Politico: 

Barack Obama’s serious flirtation with his one-time rival, Hillary Clinton, over the post of secretary of State has been welcomed by everyone from Henry Kissinger to Bill Clinton as an effective, grand gesture by the president-elect.

It’s not playing quite as well, however, in some precincts of Obamaland. From his supporters on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, to campaign aides of the soon-to-be commander-in-chief, there’s a sense of ambivalence about giving a top political plum to a woman they spent 18 months hammering as the compromised standard-bearer of an era that deserves to be forgotten.

“These are people who believe in this stuff more than Barack himself does,” said a Democrat close to Obama’s campaign. “These guys didn’t put together a campaign in order to turn the government over to the Clintons.”

An overlooked theme in Obama’s primary victory was his belief that the Clinton legacy was not, as the Clintons imagined, a pure political positive. The Obama campaign had no compunctions about poking holes in that legacy and even sent out mailings stressing the downside of the last “8 years of the Clintons” – enraging the former president in particular.

And the clearest opposition to the Clinton appointment comes from Obama’s backers on the left of his own party, whose initial support for him was motivated in part by a distaste for the Clinton dynasty, and who now view her reemergence with some dismay.

“There’s always a risk of a Cabinet member freelancing and that risk is enhanced by the fact that Hillary has her own public and her own celebrity and that she comes attached to Bill,” said Robert Kuttner, a Clinton critic and former American Prospect editor whose new book, Obama’s Challenge, implores the
president-elect to adopt an expansive liberal agenda. “The other question is the old rule – never hire somebody you can’t fire. What happens if her views and his views don’t mesh?”

What do you mean by if? A number of voices on the right have been welcoming the Clintonward shift in the Obama transition, as a sign he is waking up to some hard realities and veering toward the center. Personally, as you know, I’d rather see the Valkyrie as War Czar. Exactly what Obama’s game is, is not clear. Mend rifts, neutralize opposition, and put an attack dog on tough foreign policy issues? As noted above, he does so at his own risk, and as George Bush learned with Colin Powell, taking on a secretary of state who is not on the same page as you, whom you cannot trust, is a critical mistake. That said, given that we are stuck with an Obama administration for the next four years, an administration that at some level, in some of its parts recognizes the true nature of the world and has acted forcefully against its dangers, is perferable to one that baas in unison with Obama’s stated views.

Topics: Clintons, Obama

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:15 am on Tuesday, November 18, 2008

4 Responses to “Baaing In The Ranks”

1. RebeccaH Says:
   November 18th, 2008 at 10:50 am

   I don’t welcome the Clintons back into positions of power, but if President-Elect Obama needs an eye-gouger in his administration, let it be the Eye-Gouger Extraordinaire.

2. Sean Bannion Says:
   November 18th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

   Rebecca stole my thunder.

   A more earthy way of putting it would be to note Hillary’s cojones are an order of magnitude larger than Obama’s.

3. Ric Locke Says:
   November 18th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

   Be realistic. Who’s he gonna call? Who does he know? Ayers as SecDef and Rezko at Justice? Not even Barack (May His Glorious Name Be Praised) Obama has that much brass. Basically it’s a choice between Clintonistas and Chicago ward-heelers, and not many people are stupid enough to choose the latter.

4. WP Zeller Says:
   November 19th, 2008 at 6:51 am

   With all due respect to Mr. Locke,
   “…Chicago ward-healers, and not many people are stupid enough to choose the latter.”
   Well, we already did.

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