Whatever you think about Clinton's Presidency, there's no doubt that he got off to a

[cali]

truly bad start. From cabinet appointments to naming Hillary as the person in charge of healthcare reform, to a premature attempt to allow gays and lesbians to serve in the military, his first few months were so disastrous that Clinton's move to the right and the loss of the House in 1994, can be directly attributed to them.

And one reason why, is the number of people surrounding Clinton who had no experience in the ways of the Executive branch.

Obama is bound and determined not to repeat that history.

[FSogol]

1. Clinton also picked his cabinet first and staff second. Obama is

picking his staff first.

[onehandle]

2. Yeah, that's been discussed on Rachel and Keith's shows repeatedly.

Obama will not go wild on core Liberal issues at first. Take care of the economy and hire the smartest people first.

There will be time.

And Clinton ended up with a lot of smart people in the end. I have always said that whichever Democrat won, they would borrow heavily from that pool.

[cali]

3. makes me wish I got MSNBC.

yep, and had Clinton not made those errors, I suspect he would have been more liberal than he was.

[onehandle]

10. I cannot believe that MSNBC isn't part of basic cable.

We have to pay Comcast a few more bucks a month for the package that contains it.

I hate Comcast.

On edit: You can download their shows every night for free after broadcast on iTunes! They only have the most current show for Keith and Rachel.
Since I started watching news for the first time in eight years last week, I've been putting their shows on my iPhone to watch at the gym if I miss the show live.

[cali]

12. I hate Comcast too. I have a couple of real doozy comcast stories

that I won't bore anyone with.

[pgh_dem]

4. Too bad about Lieberman then. Bad, bad, bad move.

You only get one chance to make a first impression.

The first impression should have been 'There are boundaries'. Established by offering Chuck Hagel a cabinet post, and supporting (even if only behind the scenes) the stripping of Lieberman's chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. Offering a big job to Hagel says 'We can disagree on a lot of things, but I value your input on these areas of your expertise', and working to oust Lieberman says 'parroting neocon talking points on foreign policy, specifically attempting to undermine President Obama's credibility and fitness to command the US military, means we can't deal with you. And we're surely not going to leave you in a position to start frivolous investigations and issue subpoenas to frustrate the agenda of this administration.'

Oh well. Cenk Uygar expressed it well on the Young Turks this morning. Said 'It's like the Democrats have a wired pair of Kings and Lieberman's holding a 2-4 offsuit, and the Democrats fold because they're scared Lieberman's got Aces.

[HeraldSquare212]

5. The don't ask, don't tell and throwing Lani Guiner under the bus were major screw-ups

and let the Reps know they could jerk him around.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Sam Nunn created "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," after opposing permitting gays to serve. nt

[Captain Hilts]

6. Dems had been out for 12 years and Conservative Dems did not support him from Day One

Sam Nunn started it the FIRST week Clinton was in office.

Clinton had a lot of conservative Democrats to deal with.

His first budget passed by ONE vote - Gore's. THAT's how Dems "supported" the first Democratic president in 12 years who unseated a sitting Republican. thanks a lot!

[Skwmom]

8. So he surrounds himself with people who were involved in helping lead this

country down the wrong path, NAFTA, deregulation, media consolidation, etc.

Yeah, that's really the smart way to go...

[Captain Hilts]

9. Are you referring to Obama or Clinton here? It's hard to tell. nt

[cali]

11. simple is as simple does.