Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

The news outlets are mostly reporting rumor and innuendo about Obama's moves

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU
 
ProSense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-12-08 09:48 AM
Original message
The news outlets are mostly reporting rumor and innuendo about Obama's moves
Edited on Wed Nov-12-08 09:53 AM by ProSense
WaPo: Obama To Replace Intelligence Heads
The Washington Post reports that CIA Director Michael Hayden and Director of National Intelligence Robert Mueller expect to be replaced by the new president, and that there is a political consensus among Congressional Dems that they should be replaced. The big issue: Both of them have backed the Bush Administration's policies on wiretapping and torture.

Hispanic Leaders Pushing For Richardson At State
The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda has called upon Barack Obama to appoint Bill Richardson as Secretary of State, which would pit Richardson against John Kerry and other prominent names believed to be in competition for the post. "By all accounts, Latinos were a key part of President-elect Obama's historic victory," said NHLA chairman John Trasviña.
link


Here is what WaPo reported on Monday:

Obama will rely upon “a trio of Bush appointees” to “tackle the country’s most serious challenges.” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Michael Mullen and FBI director Robert Mueller “will likely stay in place for at least the first year or two of Obama’s presidency.”

link


The WSJ has been pushing a lot of stories that amount to guessing.

The Lazy No Change Stories

Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

One obviously easy and intellectually lazy thing to do when a new President is elected is to start complaining about how difficult things are and how there won't actually be any real change. It's much easier to imagine the status quo world than it is to think about the dramatic changes a President might make, and thus pretty easy for reporters to write stories about how nothing is going to change. The other option is to speculate about how everything will be turned topsy turvy on day one, which is equally unrealistic. Thus, we end up with two articles declaring simultaneously that Obama will instantaneously close Guantanamo and not really change the Bush administration's torture policies.

Let's take a deep breath and figure out what we actually know:

A. Until the past week Obama has been fully focused on the campaign. Obviously robust preparations were being made for a transition and that is good news for all of us. But it's hard to imagine that as a candidate President-elect Obama was making any major policy decisions. He hasn't even picked his cabinet yet. After all, you'd think he'd want to get recommendations from the people he is bringing on to run things before making final determinations on major policy questions.

B. The best predictor of the new President's policy priorities are the plans and agenda he laid out on the campaign trail. They aren't a perfect reflection of where things will end up. Agendas change, reality changes, and governing is different than campaigning. But when you see a candidate lay out some pretty clear differences on issues like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, proliferation, torture, energy policy, etc... Well, you expect that there will be some pretty clear changes from how things are being run right now.

C. The world is a messy and complicated place. Government moves slowly and you can't change everything in a day. Obama said as much during his speech at Grant Park. Major initiatives take time. They don't breezingly pass through congress. Complicated diplomatic negotiations with a country like Iran might take some time to develop and there will undoubtedly be hiccups along the way. Misunderstandings and stalemates but hopefully also points of agreement and progress.

So please no more uber lame stories about how absolutely nothing is going to change or everything will. Reality doesn't work that way.




edited title
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
Captain Hilts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-12-08 09:52 AM
Response to Original message
1. and also Clinton Admin "vandalism" of the White House. nt
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Marsala Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-12-08 09:53 AM
Response to Original message
2. So what else is new? n/t
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ProSense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-12-08 09:55 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. Well this:
the handwringing even among Democrats at some of these reports, especially about policy.



Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
zbdent Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-12-08 09:56 AM
Response to Original message
4. hmm ... "plans and agenda he laid out on the campaign trail"
like the CO2 standards, using the surplus to fund the tax cuts he planned, not being the "world's police" ...

Oh, wait ... that was Bush, right?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Thu Apr 25th 2024, 11:40 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC