Hard Times For Lefty Peaceniks
Tragic irony alert. They hated Hill because she hearted the invasion of Iraq, and only turned against it in a naked bid to become president. They even bared their venerable breasts at her in their rage. They loved Obama because he was pure. He always hated the Iraq war, even before anyone cared what he thought. It was going to be a shining city on a hill, where AmeriKKKa would be Goddamned and humiliated in the world. Surrenderpalooza. But the standard bearer of change … has changed. How long now before the Change-Hoper is confronted with the breasts of wrath?
UK Telegraph reads the lefty blogs so we don’t have to:
Mr Obama has moved quickly in the last 48 hours to get his cabinet team in place, unveiling a raft of heavyweight appointments, in addition to Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State.
But his preference for General James Jones, a former Nato commander who backed John McCain, as his National Security Adviser and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, a supporter of the war, to run the Homeland Security department has dismayed many of his earliest supporters.
The likelihood that Mr Obama will retain George W Bush’s Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has reinforced the notion that he will not aggressively pursue the radical withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq over the next 16 months and engagement with rogue states that he has pledged.
Chris Bowers of the influential OpenLeft.com blog complained: “That is, over all, a centre-right foreign policy team. I feel incredibly frustrated. Progressives are being entirely left out of Obama’s major appointments so far.”
Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos site, the in-house talking shop for the anti-war Left, warned that Democrats risk sounding “tone deaf” to the views of “the American electorate that voted in overwhelming numbers for change from the discredited Bush policies.”
A spokesman for the President-elect was forced to confirm that Mr Obama holds to his previous views. “His position on Iraq has not changed and will not change.”
UK Telegraph posits that there is a “fine line Mr Obama must walk between appearing to reach out to former opponents and keeping his grassroot supporters happy.” Sounds like a polite way of saying he’s a gutless wonder, who got scared when he suddenly realized he actually was stuck with a war and had two choices, keep winning or start losing. What would a mandate holder with a Congress in the hands of anti-war Dems need to placate the warmongers for? As for placating his primary opponent, get a room already!
As heartening as it may be to see evidence of common sense, the concern going forward is that Obama has shown himself to be lacking principles as well as a spine. Not good traits in a wartime president, particularly in times of economic turmoil.
His return to prominence in Washington represents a resurgence of the old school conservative realists, who were largely eclipsed during this Bush administration by the neoconservatives.
They place US national interests above the quest to defend human rights or to spread democracy.
Actually, spreading democracy and defending human rights … ousting Saddam, ousting the Taliban … was only ever a happy side effect of defending vital US interests. See, there were these attacks on US soil. Carpet-eating nuke-seeking madmen couldn’t be tolerated anymore … never mind.
Progressives and liberals see Mr Scowcroft’s hand in the move to retain Mr Gates, an old friend, at the Pentagon and also in the expected elevation of Gen. Jones.
Others are troubled by an announcement on Friday night that Mr Obama will retain the White House political office, an institution recently associated with George Bush’s adviser Karl Rove, who has been blamed for running government as a permanent and highly partisan election campaign.
During the campaign, Mr Obama pledged to end “politics as usual” and the “perpetual campaign”.
But a spokesman for the Transition team said: “An Obama White House will be focused on meeting the next challenge, not winning the next election.”
That’s nice, but clearly the 2012 campaign has already begun, and Obama doesn’t want to go into it as the president who bollixed Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to saddling voters with and/or bungling whatever Frankenstein’s monster of nationalized health they come up with, introducing America to Massachusetts gun controls or worse, and removing all restrictions on abortion, etc. Though maybe, if he’s lucky, the economy will turn itself around enough by then that he can claim a win there.
More from UK Tel on disillusionment within the Obama camp:
Most shocking to Mr Obama’s team is the loss of discipline and control that they have experienced since coming to Washington.
The President-elect’s campaign was tightly controlled, with very few uncoordinated leaks. The candidate was known as “No Drama Obama.” David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief of the left of centre magazine Mother Jones, summed up the problem: “The presidential transition of no-drama Obama became infected by the never-ending soap opera of the Clintons. And it really is time to turn that programme off.”
The Washington Post columnist and Clinton sceptic, David Ignatius, added: “The idea of subcontracting foreign policy to Clinton, a big, hungry, needy ego surrounded by a team that’s hungrier and needier still, strikes me as a mistake of potentially enormous proportions.” It is a view that many around the President-elect now share.
The transition team has policy as well as personality concerns. Mr Obama’s allies on the left, who think themselves responsible for his victories over both Mrs Clinton and John McCain, are in despair at the long line of ex-Clinton administration officials awarded top jobs in the Obama team and rumours that he will keep Bush-appointee Robert Gates as Defence Secretary.
Mr Obama also incurred their wrath for intervening to protect the Senate committee chairmanships of Joe Lieberman, the Democrat who supported his Republican rival John McCain.
By appointing Mrs Clinton, some aides fear the new president will also water down his commitment to withdraw quickly from Iraq, to talk to leaders of rogue states and to get tough with Pakistan, all policies Mrs Clinton has spoken out against.
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, the dean of Washington’s foreign policy writers, warned: “When it comes to appointing a secretary of state, you do not want a team of rivals. Foreign leaders can spot daylight between a president and a secretary of state from 1,000 miles away.”
It’s not just the lefty bloggers, Obamist hardliners, and deep-thot ditherers like Friedman and Ignatius. Washington Post: Some in the Arab World Fear Hill’s Hawkishness. It’s the pro-Israel, Iran-obliterating thing, which frankly was one of Hill’s more charming campaign moments. Sadly as SoS, like Condi “Punish France” Rice, she’s more likely to soft pedal.
NYT, whose rueful art that is above: Change is landing in old hands.
ChiTrib: Obama’s Frenemy of State
The sockpuppet also known as Greenwald is genuinely mystified by all the progressives who thought all that wealth-sharing, peace-love-dove change-hoping meant Obama was a progressive, too.
But I don’t think even Obama thought he was this moderate. Reuters: Obama may delay tax-cut rollback for the wealthy. You know, if I had known this is what he meant by change …
Treacher encourages you to vote in the Philly Inquirer poll for RFK as the former president Obama is most like. Yes, he knows …
Threatswatch: Credit where credit is due.
With thanks to Memeorandum and RCP on the roundup.
Welcome, Protein Wisdom, Instapundit, Patterico, etal. Always good to see you. Come on in. You heard about the Frenchman who was forced into the company of U.S. imperialist war criminals? He fell in love with them. What’s this world coming to, when the corrupt have become stupid? Holiday time, better learn how to carve a turkey like a man.
Topics: Obama
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:17 am on Sunday, November 23, 2008
20 Responses to “Hard Times For Lefty Peaceniks”
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November 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
[...] Jules Crittenden: Hard Times for Lefty Peaceniks. [...]
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 am
It appears Mr. Obama molds himself to whatever political circle he finds himself in. He’s left behind the radical sleaze of Chicago and joined the Old Boys’ sleaze of Foggy Bottom.
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Oh, man. I was consoling myself with these very things. The pro-Israel, Iran-obliterating thing. The cold-water-in-the-face common sense thing. I hadn’t made the Rice connection. Obama may very well be assuming Hillary will get bogged down in the tar pit that is State. Heavy sigh.
That particular Freidman quote is pretty good, I’ll admit. But it’s a sad commentary if I-dare-you-to-read-the-whole-chapter Thomas Freidman, founder of the Molehill School of flabby, stultifying prose, is considered the “dean of Washington’s foreign policy writers.”
Off topic, but check out the comments in the breast-wrath thread, there’s some vintage salty there–did you see that, Rebecca, where she’s welcoming you back? Good old saltydog. Three cheers for her wit and generosity, and hugs all around.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos site, the in-house talking shop for the anti-war Left, warned that Democrats risk sounding “tone deaf” to the views of “the American electorate that voted in overwhelming numbers for change from the discredited Bush policies.”
Dear Kos:
The Dhimmicrats have been tone deaf to anything but their own ambitions for years. And the last thing they want to do (including The Mighty O!) is fail while they are in charge. That makes for angry voters.
Although it’s debatable that O! truly has his heart set for any success in Iraq, after his mind numbingly stupid rejection of the surge.
So welcome to reality. You’ll come to like it; we certainly do.
Sincerely,
The American Electorate
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
[...] Update again: And here. [...]
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
“the dean of Washington’s foreign policy writers”?
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
“the dean of Washington’s foreign policy writers”?
Yes, he of the mighty cheer.
Cheers
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Maybe it’s just me, but who, exactly, did the Nutroots want for these jobs? The Pink Code ladies? Juan Cole? What sort of expertise did they expect the appointees would have? Is simply opposing the War (or war in general) or anything Bush ever did, said, or thought enough?
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
[...] –Jules Crittenden wonders if storm clouds are coming in from the left for Obama: Tragic irony alert. They hated Hill because she hearted the invasion of Iraq, and only turned against it in a naked bid to become president. They even bared their venerable breasts at her in their rage. They loved Obama because he was pure. He always hated the Iraq war, even before anyone cared what he thought. It was going to be a shining city on a hill, where AmeriKKKa would be Goddamned and humiliated in the world. Surrenderpalooza. But the standard bearer of change … has changed. How long now before the Change-Hoper is confronted with the breasts of wrath? [...]
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden has a great roundup of reactions. [...]
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I will believe in the Centrist Obama Presidency when he stiff-arms carbon regulation off to at least 2011 (by which time I’d like to think we’ll have discredited anthropogenic global warming utterly.)
If his administration ends up in a multiple-front shooting war with the Dem House as intense as anything going on overseas, I might just vote for him in 2012.
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
sarah rolph, I did see it, and I’m sure that wherever saltydog is now, she’s having a good laugh at our foibles and follies.
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Jorg:
One group (the publishers of The Progressive) suggested Dennis Kucinich for Secretary of State.
My guess is that they’d probably like Medea Benjamin (founder of Code Pink) for National Security Advisor.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:51 am
[...] Hard Times For Lefty Peaceniks. Category: Obama, Idjits, ‘08, Wackjobs, GWOT | Comment (RSS) | Trackback [...]
November 24th, 2008 at 7:08 am
I must respectfully submit that anyone who thinks they know what Obama thinks about any foreign policy issue, or, for that matter, most domestic issues as well, is guessing.
Mr. Obama has very little in the way of opinions himself, apart from the importance of his being elected.
On the rare occasion something like a stand has leaked out, it’s been made inoperative, declared inartful, and recast within hours.
Underneath there is indeed a far-lefty, but with so little of that leftishness being anchored in any practical reality, it just pulls loose from the weeds and floats away if there’s any sort of stand being made upon it.
And for heavens’ sake, he’s appointing Hilary Clinton to Secretary of State? On the basis of what qualifications? What experience?
Is this who he thinks is the right person for the job? Or is it just Axlerod and Emanuel paying something back?
Darned if I know, but two Chicagoans at the wheel of the US foreign policy car?
November 24th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Obama-Biden — Hope! Change! Clinton Retreads!
Seriously, what did these people expect? There are two sets of elites in this country, one that runs things when a Democrat is President and another that runs things when a Republican is president.
The only reason I am somewhat disappointed is that I hoped Obama would be the end of the Clinton-Bush cycle we are trheatened with.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:30 am
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 11/24/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
[...] mejor lo ha recopilado es Jules Critteden (a través de Patterico). Primero recoge la visita a blogs liberales que ha hecho el Daily [...]
November 25th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
[...] Come on Leftys, is this not the CHANGE® you voted for? 25 11 2008 Jules Crittenden: Hard Times For Lefty Peaceniks Tragic irony alert. They hated Hill because she hearted the invasion of Iraq, and only turned [...]
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:57 am
[...] your fears dashed, it turns out, is a pretty cool thing (with hopes, however … it’s not so great.) I said a couple times I would love to be proven wrong about my assumptions that Obama’s [...]