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Let's talk about the first 100 days. Before I bullet point my list, I'll talk about the Congressional Makeup.
We'll have an overwhelming majority in the House. Pelosi may not be beloved by the left but in reality she has really gotten a bad rap. She is extremely well organized. Despite her shortcomings as a speech giver she has actually logged more speech time on the House Floor in the last two years than any other House member. The first two years of her leadership she did pass two separate bills calling for a pullout in Iraq on a timeline. Both were vetoed by Bush. Many would argue she should have impeached Bush. Perhaps, but the truth remains that the trial in the Senate would have resulted in an acquittal and Bush would still be in office. In addition, we'd have fired up the Republican base. What was better, dragging the country through an impeachment with a known outcome or let Bush destroy himself day by day by day and virtually lock up a Democratic President in 2008. Besides, you don't think we're about to see an avalanche of investigate hearings after January 20th? Target Bush Administration? I do.
The Senate will increase to a minimum of 57 votes. That is if Lieberman leaves the Democratic Caucus. We've won Alaska already. If Franken wins his recount we would be to 58. I do not think we can carry Georgia in a runoff with depressed turnout. Maybe I'm wrong. So best case scenario we're at 58 votes without Lieberman. HOWEVER, I think Lieberman remains in the caucus. I think he'll be stripped of Homeland Security Chair, but he'll still remain. I digress! The whole OMG WE NEED 60 meme is complete bullshit. There are at least a minimum of half a dozen sitting Republican Senators who have a longtime history of breaking fillibusters. Off the top of my head I can think of one in particular. Prepare to be blown away. McCain. Plus the other usual suspects, Olympia Snow, Specter, Voinovich, and Graham. There are some others I can't think of at the moment but they are out there. So, legislation getting through the Senate won't be hard. Judicial nominations will be more difficult but we'll get what we want. Reid's also stronger than many of us give him credit for. It was one thing to have a 51 seat majority with 2 independents, it's another to have 57,58, and 59. Much easier.
So Obama appears to be going with a "Dream Team Cabinet." He comes out with the Emanuel pick for Chief of Staff. Fucking brilliant move. Pick a longtime friend with a longtime history of kicking Republican ass. Plus he's got balls of steel and he's a real character. You want someone who wants to win so bad that he mails dead fish to his enemies? He's our fucking guy. Here's a guy who was working at Arby's as a teenager and badly sliced his middle finger. Rather than getting medical treatment he went swimming in a river in Chicago. His middle finger became infected, he almost died, and part of the finger had to be amputated. With the loss of his middle finger he was rendered MUTE for almost a year. I joke, but it's really not that far off. BTW, Rahm doesn't read books, he just stares at them and demands answers until they give them up. Fuck you Chuck Norris! I digress! So now they want Hillary as Secretary of State? Why? Because they agree on 98.4% of everything. Guess what people, primaries are over. It was all in good fun. Get over it. They don't take it personally, do you still? That signals they want BIG NAME people in as many positions as possible. You think Clinton can't go to Russia and grab Putin's head before he rears it over Alaska? Think again! Shoutout to the Queen Bee of Alaska, I hear the honey is drying up though. What I'm getting at here is that the Obama administration wants the BEST OF THE BEST in ALL THEIR CABINET SPOTS! He wants winners and he wants influence. Cronyism? Sorry. Not gonna work. We're talking Lincoln governance. Hillary fits the bill for that spot. NOT SAYING RICHARDSON OR KERRY WOULD BE BAD CHOICES. Obama just wants to win. And we all know, he is good at winning.
So, what will be on the agenda first?
• TAX POLICY. Little Known Fact. Obama doesn't have to raise personal taxes. He just has to let Bush's tax cuts expire. Don't need a bill. Don't need a debate. Just sit back and watch them go back to 39% from 36%. The middle class tax cut will be easy. No problem. They will have to raise capital gains tax. That will be bad press. So how to overcome this? START INCORPORATING REAL TAX BREAKS FOR AMERICANS WHO BUY AMERICAN. Tax breaks for fuel efficiency. Tax breaks for investing in American companies. Tax breaks for keeping jobs in the US. Tax breaks for voluntary service programs. The list goes on and on.
• IT'S THE ECONOMY YOU COMPLETE FUCKING MORON. Look, I live in SW Florida. We are top 5 in the nation in terms of foreclosures. Retail is dead. Mortgage industry doesn't exist anymore. Retirees who had money in the stock market (Almost all of them) lost anywhere from 20% to 40% of their entire savings in two months. It's fucking massacre. I am originally from Akron, Ohio. Guess what. WORSE. Everyone is fucking broke. Somewhere around 2000 people a week move away from Ohio. Hundreds of thousands of job losses in the last 8 years. It's Detroit Lite for the most part. Many areas mimic Ohio, but that's where I'm from and what I know. What was Obama's campaign pledge? To pour money into manufacturing, retool our car builders, build new technologies, create jobs. The problem he faces right now is people who oppose any further "bailouts" with government money. They aren't "bailouts" they are investment in our futures. Bush demanded 700 billion to bailout the banks. We can't spend 25 billion to save the American Auto Industry and the 3 million related jobs it supports? How about you pick up the 100 billion in unemployment benefits and pension insurance the government will be stuck with if we do nothing? Seriously, get a grip. The era of big government is back, and it needs to he back. If Obama says he needs a stimulas package, start understanding he's talking about something a LOT different than what Bush did. I'm not even going to rant about the unions who FUCKING DESERVE OUR SUPPORT PEOPLE.
• OBAMA VS OSAMA. I just have a feeling about this. But I believe that Osama Bin Laden will be captured or dead by 2010. We will ramp up our support in Afghanistan and we will have heavy diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to give up the goods. I'd rather save this for another journal post though.
• TWO YEAR PULLOUT PLAN ON IRAQ. Sorry guys and gals, can't just put everyone on a plane in January 2009. Doesn't work that way. This will be at least a two year transition outbound. We'll never have everyone out but we can reduce our presence to desert mega bases with maybe 10,000 to 30,000 permanent stationed to combat hot spots. We have to put the Iraqi government on the spot, but we can't do it overnight or even in a few months. Like South Korea basically. We can't just leave but we can reduce our presence to a small fraction of what it could have been under McCain. Regardless, it will be increasingly ugly as we complete our pullback. That is unless Obama can inspire the Iraqi's like he has inspired us.
• HEALTH CARE. Such a nightmare to get this right. I'm not a health care expert. I don't understand anything other than wanting cheap affordable health care. But that will be the final first year agenda item.
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