This is idiotic
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, according to people familiar with the plan. - New York Times, February 3, 2009
This is idiotic. I wasn't aware the TARP was intended to be some sort of virtue exercise. Let the U.S. come in and buy shares if it wants, and then attend to executive compensation concerns like any other shareholder, by voting at the appropriate times.
It's not clear where the people will come from who will take big pay cuts to do these jobs, which are not jobs that anyone off the street could remotely perform. The President, smart as he is, knows this and ought to do a better job of moderating the Committee-of-Public-Safety wing of his party. He should also be smart enough to know that you can't force people to be responsible. You don't see parents saying "son, I'm going to force you to be responsible." What has suddenly happened to the power of words?
Labels: Barack Obama, things that seem stupid to MWR (abridged version)
Madame Secretary
Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned. - The Guardian, November 17, 2008
This really does seem like a brilliant move, if the Guardian story is true. It beautifully neutralizes Hillary as a divisive figure. She knows Biden isn't likely to be running in eight years, and that she can have an inside track on the heir apparent role if she plays the good soldier. (And, of course, she'd be fourth in the line of succession . . . not that she would ever think of such a thing.) Meanwhile, Obama gets a surrogate of unprecedented recognition and more stature going into the job than anyone at least since George Marshall.
Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
Two random campaign thoughts
- I love the media trope that starts out "Since Obama was only eight when Ayers . . . ." If, as an adult, I decided to "pal around" (outings, Mariners games, dinners) with Pol Pot, how would it be a valid excuse that he killed all those people when I was a kid? Would calling attention to my activities really be "classic guilt by association" (E.J. Dionne)?
The line of attack on Ayers is silly, but not because of how old Obama was when the bad things happened.
- Why has NO ONE made the point that there is a problem with McCain's celebrated correction of the woman at the rally who said Obama is an Arab? McCain's answer amounted to "No, he's not an Arab, he's a decent family man."
Labels: Barack Obama, Obama vs. McCain
And there it is
Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.
Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.
"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.
Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.” - The Hill, September 4, 2008
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama
Biden
I think Biden is a decent choice, but certainly not audacious. Just as Obama's ability to secure the nomination attests (among much else) to the shortage of compelling figures in the Democratic Party, so also does the fact that in the end he was choosing between Biden and a pair of relative nonentities.
It's a safe choice, a playing-not-to-lose choice, but still not too bad. Biden won't be bad at the bulldog role and is well situated to go after McCain. It's likely that average voters couldn't even tell you the difference between executive and legislative experience, so it probably was wiser for Obama to plug a different resumé gap with this selection. Now, at most, the two tickets will have one person with executive experience, and it will be interesting to see how McCain and others pay attention to that concern.
It makes sense for Obama not to rock the boat with his selection, since the swing voters he must court already find it peculiar enough to see a 46-year-old black man at the top of the ticket. It wouldn't have worked well in this situation to choose, for example, a nationally-unknown woman (and they all are nationally unknown with one exception who would have been an insane choice for other reasons). Obama has all kinds of unique challenges as to how he pitches himself for the rest of the race. Choosing Biden is one more way this candidate is coming down to earth for what will be very recognizable as a standard-issue stretch run. I would not put this selection in the same league with the only two inspired running-mate choices of the last quarter century: Gore and, yes, Cheney.
A lot of what Biden brings to an Obama administration could be secured by making him Secretary of State. It would be interesting to know how much the Obama camp considered an economy-centered choice for running mate, and how much the brushfire in Georgia—something of a blip, really—swayed the final choice. Any "home run" (or "swing for the fences") choice would have been an "economy" choice. Bloomberg, for example. Jon Corzine would have been quite an interesting choice in a parallel universe where he wore his seatbelt and didn't have a messy personal life (and where Wall Street experience didn't impute complicity in the mortgage/credit mess).
A final note, the text message thing was a complete bust, even in terms of what the expectations should have been that were dashed. The media consistently called them "text messages", but when I visited the Obama site and filled out the "be the first to know" page, all they asked for was an email address. In any event, my email arrived at 7:34 a.m.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Obama-Biden 2008
I'm hardly the first, but . . .
I'll put my money on Biden. He appeals to the much-needed British-coal-miner demographic.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama
"Get off the fence and join me in my ivory tower, where we can debate the finer points of tort law"
“I don’t think anything that went on in these chambers affected him,” said Richard Epstein, a libertarian colleague who says he longed for Mr. Obama to venture beyond his ideological and topical comfort zones. “His entire life, as best I can tell, is one in which he’s always been a thoughtful listener and questioner, but he’s never stepped up to the plate and taken full swings.” - New York Times, July 30, 2008
There's something priceless about reading quotes like this from someone whose idea of "mixing it up" is editing a torts casebook, at a time when Obama is A NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, irony
Get over yourselves, losers
Mr. Obama has asked his top donors to help raise money for her debt, and so far they have come up with less than $100,000 (though more in pledges), Clinton campaign officials said — a “paltry sum,” in the words of one.
Clinton donors and campaign officials say they remain surprised — and, among some, offended — that Mr. Obama has refused to ask his entire list of donors, more than 1.5 million people, to send $5, $10 or more to chip away at Mrs. Clinton’s debt. (Obama officials said they did not want to distract their donors for the main task at hand, raising money to defeat Mr. McCain.) - New York Times, July 9, 2008
What sense of entitlement?
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
Hillary VP Deathwatch: 0.1%
I don't think it bodes well for Hillary's (nonexistent) chance to be on the ticket that the Obama campaign yesterday tapped Patti Solis-Doyle to serve as the running mate's chief of staff . . . considering that Hillary and Solis-Doyle have not spoken since Hillary flung Solis-Doyle from her campaign's balloon gondola.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
What should be Hillary's . . . compensation?
I forget which moronic Op-Ed contributor suggested Obama should publicly promise to nominate Hillary to the first open Supreme Court seat. Whoever it was had evidently forgotten that Obama's goal is to win the election (apart from the impropriety of promising to nominate a particular person to the Court.
However, I was just reading about the meaningless results from Puerto Rico, and Hillary's pointless comments thereafter (“In recent primary history, we have never nominated someone who has not won the popular vote.”) and reflecting on how nice it will be to finally have her gone. And I thought of the perfect way for Obama to . . . compensate . . . her for dragging out the nomination process beyond the limits of common sense and, from time to time, decency.
He should do to her (ahem, I mean
for her) what FDR did to/for Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., offer her one of the greatest meaningless plums the Executive Branch has to offer, the Ambassadorship to the Court of St. James's. And figure out the details of the offer so that if she turns it down, she really has to come across as snubbing the President-elect. I'd enjoy watching those machinations.
Of course, despite its historic primacy, that ambassadorship isn't what it once was, and she has that delightful (or repellent) "Hillary grit" that might be put to good use in some other diplomatic settings. So, Russia could be an option (and if there weren't a bond of mutual respect forged between Hillary and Putin, it would only be because Hillary longs to rule a country and Putin only likes winners). However, as a poetic posting for Hillary, Russia is mere blank verse to the iamabic pentameter that is . . . Saudi Arabia. Oh, yes. She could see about solving our energy problems at the source, perhaps shaming the House of Saud into giving something back to hard-working white Indianans. For its part, the repressive, socially backward kingdom deserves to have someone like Hillary to deal with. And what a wonderful repository Riyadh would be for Bill.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, a modest proposal from MWR, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
Obama was from the Illinois State Senate untimely ripp'd
I don't remember which writer recently made this point, but I'll elaborate on the beautiful irony that Hillary wouldn't be having her current troubles if her ambition hadn't impelled her to throw a few things in her carpetbag while still living in the White House. Her material connection to New York was never anything more elevated than the target lock achieved between her ambitions (presidential) and the Senate seat Moynihan was vacating.
If she'd been willing to wait a while and run from her actual home state, the seat Obama now holds would have been hers for the taking. And right now she'd be the one who wasn't around to cast an Iraq vote, and in every sense the Clintons cared about, there would be no Barack Obama.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, irony
Roll on VH Day!
With the exception of two good friends—normally pictures of charm and sense, now showing odd transference issues—everyone seems to be relishing my upcoming Hillary Drops Out! party. Just when it will happen is anyone's guess, but the writing has been on the wall since
Valentine's Day or thereabouts. I'll be setting the party for the day after she pulls that ripcord, and the nice thing about Seattle is that it hardly matters whether VH Day is a weekend, because my guests can't be relied on to stay past 11:15 even on a Saturday night.
I'm having fun putting together the
iTunes playlist. As you would
imagine, the
challenge is deciding whether and how to cull the list (current size: 65 songs). When you factor in
irony and the need for an occasional
sop, the list just takes wing.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Obama vs. McCain
Terry McAuliffe to Tim Russert on Meet the Press
Do you think it's impossible for Hillary Clinton to be the nominee? Impossible?
Nice standard. Try living your life by that one.
He goes on to concur with Russert that "you would need an act of God or for something catastrophic to happen to the Obama campaign": "Sure, something big would have to happen, I'll give you that."
So, then, why not "suspend" the campaign, a sure loser unless there is a catastrophe? She could pop back in if necessary to save us all from an Obama meltdown or whatever. (By the way, "suspending" counts as dropping out as far as my forthcoming party is concerned.)
I hope Hillary Clinton pays a lasting political price for her increasingly insane unwillingness to leave the race. I hope this unreasonable stubbornness brands her the way indecision branded Mario Cuomo.
If you have some weird lingering respect for the Clintons and their "right" to prolong this contest absurdly, be sure to read the current columns by
Bob Herbert and
Maureen Dowd.
Final random thought: putting aside everything else, isn't it amazing in a way that there are 300-plus million people in this country and only 16 million and change have affirmatively supported either Obama or Clinton?
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
Think about it
On Wednesday I became the first person I know of to draw a likeness between Barack Obama and Mikhail Gorbachev. I see there have been
others.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama
"Gary ain't come in yet."
As the fate of a nailbiter Indiana primary -- and possibly the course of the Democratic race -- hung on his city, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said just now that it might take a while yet to finish counting the vote in Lake County, which includes Gary, and said tonight his city had turned out so overwhelmingly for Barack Obama that it might just be enough to close the gap with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"Let me tell you, when all the votes are counted, when Gary comes in, I think you're looking at something for the world to see," Clay, an Obama supporter, said in a telephone interview from Obama's Gary headquarters. "I don't know what the numbers are yet, but Gary has absolutely produced in large numbers for Obama here." - Washington Post, May 6, 2008
This bit is interesting: "In 2004, 188,000 voters turned out in Lake County, with 61 percent voting for John Kerry."
So right now the NYT has it this way with 92% reporting:
Clinton 588,823 50.9%
Obama 568,156 49.1%
So 10,334 votes would swing it Obama's way. Let's assume everything remaining besides Lake County splits 50/50, and further assume 100,000 of the 2004 voters voted in today's Democratic primary in Lake County (a very conservative assumption, it seems to me). Obama would need a margin of just over 10% to gain his needed 10,334 votes. So, on these assumptions, if Obama gets 56% of the vote in Lake County, he wins Indiana. Drudge quotes Mayor Clay saying "We're seeing numbers as high as 85 to 90 percent."
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
The race for the Presidency
About one in five voters said the race of the candidates was among the top factors in their vote. About as many said that about the candidates' gender. White voters who said race was a factor supported Clinton over Obama by 3-to-1, while whites who said race wasn't a factor divided between Clinton and Obama more evenly. Associated Press, April 22, 2008
And so Indiana becomes the next Rust Belt state whose blue-collar and older-woman white voters can avoid embarrassing themselves.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
TiVo blogging the Pennsylvania debate
I shall give it a shot. However, if it becomes tiresome I may abort the mission. By the way, are you getting excited about my "Hillary Drops Out!" party? I am, although I kind of hope she persists for a while longer so I don't have to worry about neatening up just yet.
So, on to the latest bout between the elitist and the brave, impoverished woman of the people, hosted tonight by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. I'll be looking for any hints about other countries Stephanopoulos can't distinguish between.
Charles notes that he and George will be "lenient" about time rules, but not "permissive". As the rabbi said, if you ask, the answer will be "it is forbidden."
Obama starts with a riff on his bit about why Joe Sixpack is too alienated and moronic to vote in his own economic interests instead of for Republicans who would enslave him. He puts it more diplomatically, of course.
Hillary has some platitudes. Was I paying attention? Not really. Her boring remarks afford me a prime opportunity to finish any typing I may have been doing when she began speaking.
Hillary has a nice normal outfit on in a nice shade of greyish teal.
Charles asks about that dumb "dream ticket either way" idea that Mario Cuomo floated. Why would either one want the other as a running mate? To his credit, Cuomo had a much easier time deciding how to resolve this contest than deciding whether he even wanted to run for President.
Charles is a f***ing idiot. He cites Article II, Section 1: "In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President." He says "if it was good enough in colonial [
sic] times, why not in these times?" Um, because we don't want McCain to be the Vice President. Of course, Hillary has not corrected him. And, really, "colonial times"? Like, when George Washington was the colonial President? Is this the best our news media can do?
Now Obama is having to make his point again about Joe Sixpack being alienated. Come on, Barack—call it "false consciousness." It was good enough for Marx.
Hillary is the granddaughter of a factory worker from Scranton, who worked six days a week in the lace factory under intermittant sniper fire. There are no atheists in foxholes. She can see why people "would be taken aback and offended by the remarks"—especially if that will help her cling to her DOA candidacy for a few more fortnights.
George asks Hillary for a simple yes or no on whether Obama can beat McCain. She ignores the question. Finally says he can win but she "can do a better job." How do you do a better job of winning?
Obama says he's a man of faith and a lover of sportsmen and gun owners. But God and guns won't pay the bills. He brings up Hillary's "baking cookies" remark and the crap she took from it, and how she learned the wrong lesson from it. I'd like to see what Obama would do if his advisers took the wraps off and told him to go ahead and rip her a new asshole. My guess is that she would have several new, fully functional assholes. Just a hunch.
Hillary has a passion for empowering people . . . (people named Clinton).
Can we give the Jeremiah Wright business a permanent rest? I'm not convinced a white candidate would be needing to take this crap. Hillary pretends to be taking the high road . . . and has the gall to say that the [9/11] attack "happened in my city of New York" (forgetting that (a) it's not her city and (b) suburban Washington is more of her city, and there was an attack there too).
God, they are still talking about Wright and that stupid church. Who cares? Uh oh, he just said Wright is a "former" Marine. Even I know there are no "former" Marines. He just lost the 1% of the Marine vote he was counting on.
Man, Hillary won't let this go. If Rev. Wright were a young child blocking Hillary's route to a lifeboat, I would hope that young child could at least have a merciful death in the icy waters below.
Now she's been asked about Bosnia. She will either "get more sleep" or travel everywhere with an amanuensis who will remind her of what the truth is about her former travels (I'm only sort of twisting what she said. She did kind of say that.)
A voter from the glass-lined tanks of Latrobe, Pennsylvania wants to know if Obama "believes in the American flag." Answer: he reveres the American flag.
Now Obama is asked about some other unpatriotic person he knows. Does he agree with the guy? No. Does he agree with his friend Sen. Tom Coburn? No. No one is asking Hillary about her pal Denise Rich, or Marc Rich. Oh, but she's making the "fully vetted" argument again. Obama notes that Bill Clinton actually pardoned Weather Underground members.
Discussion of Iraq. Discussion of other foreign policy matters. Obama is not well prepared to answer how we would treat an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel. His internal computer tells him that there is a formulation he is supposed to recite, but he's not sure what it is. Hillary says an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel would trigger massive retaliation from the U.S. I doubt that is current U.S. policy. Something tells me Israel could take care of itself.
Hillary pledges no middle-class tax increases. Obama would lower some tax burdens on the middle class.
Well, sorry, that's as far as I got. I guess you'll have to speculate about who won.. Maybe Hillary scored a knockout blow and that party of mine will never happen. See what happens when you rely on blogs instead of legitimate news outlets?
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
Quick campaign notes
- I love that Obama can make a remark that is both obviously true and that owes something to Marxian notions of "false consciousness", and this makes him an elitist. Maybe to the extent he assumes rational people in economic distress ought to be voting their economic interest instead of on non-pocketbook issues.
- The latest good delegate stat I ran across is that if Hillary were to win every remaining contest by a 10% margin, she would still need to collect 70% of the remaining "uncommitted" superdelegates. So, yeah, all the superdelegate are free to change their minds, but she really just needs to get out. She's just being tiresome at this point.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
