2009

As the new year rolls into town, most people are ready for change. Even those who still have some admiration for George W. Bush seem ready to accept new leadership. The latest poll shows that 80% have some or a lot of approval for Barack Obama's performance thus far.

Richard and I have decided to let TwoGuysSpoutingOff become dormant. It's been fun, stimulating, rewarding; but, with the political campaign over, Richard has moved on to other interests and responsibilities. I still want a place to occasionally spout off in my own fashion, so I'm beginning a new blog with a title that I have long thought of as mine: ShrinkRap. It captures both the teasing reference to my profession (shrink = psychoanalyst) and the idea of talking (which shrinks don't do much of; we do more listening). And all of it packaged in a neat blog format (shrink wrap).

So, for anyone who might want to check it out, go to: http://shrinkrap13.blogspot.com/

And (with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore):

But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy New Year to all, and to all a good-night."

Ralph

Obama stumps spinners

It's really hard being a Republican these days. They're having trouble figuring out how to attack Obama and how to spin their defeat. So far, Obama is out-Tefloning Ronald Reagen. They tried so hard to make something out of his connection with Blagojevich. Then, when they had not a shred to challenge his statement that he hadn't talked with him, they tried to insinuate something sinister out of the delay in releasing the internal review of his entire staff's contacts with Blago and his aides. Turns out there was nothing there either. In fact, the report was so comprehensive, even including minor meetings like Valerie Jarrett's chance encounter with Blago at the governor's conference, that the report reeks of transparency rather than cover-up. So now the FOXNews and talk radio guys -- as well as many of the MSM -- have eggs all over their faces.

Now the Repubs are really reaching to spin their own demise. My two finalists for the prize, so far, go to: (1) the pundit (I've lost the source) who claimed that the Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at Bush is proof of the success of the Iraq war. See, he was exercising his freedom of speech that is the result of toppling Sadaam, who would have had him drawn and quartered on the spot. Of course, the fact that he was exercising the Iraqi's worst insult to the person who ordered their 'liberation,' and that that sentiment has been echoed and celebrated not only in Iraq, but all over the Muslim world, is beside the point.

And (2) Karl Rove for his claim that Joe Biden has demanded more power as VP than Cheney ever did. See, Biden "demands" that he be in on every major discussion and be part of every major decision. Cheney never "made that demand." No, he didn't have to "demand" it; that's not his style. He just slyly insinuated himself and took advantage of a clueless Prez, besides ordering that all emails to the National Security Adviser be routed, first, through his office. Cheney did it slyly behind everybody's back, including Bush's. And Cheney claimed that his office was not even in the Executive Branch, and therefore he did not have to obey laws governing record-keeping -- prompting jokes that he was creating a fourth branch of government.

In contrast, Biden quite openly and up front, told Obama that if he were his VP, he would want to be sitting at his side in every major decision and have the opportunity to give his input -- whether or not it was accepted. Obama agreed that he wanted that, too -- and they announced it openly in the press. So Cheney grabs power by subterfuge and secrecy (Condi didn't even know her emails were first being read by Cheney); Biden and Obama made their relationship transparent in defining Biden's role.

Cheney, for his part, is throwing caution to the winds in his exit interviews -- seeming to dare his critics to hold him accountable. In short, he has admitted to rewriting the press talking points that indicated Valerie Plame was a CIA operative, thus blowing her cover; he has acknowledged his role in the torture debates but still insists that "we do not torture;" and he has claimed that "anything the President does in a time of war is not illegal." Not quite as sweeping a claim as Richard Nixon made, since he limits it to "time of war." But the thinking is the same: the President is above the law and above the power of Congress and the Courts to overrule him. And then, in his customary arrogant assumption that he knows better than anyone else, he predicts that the Obama team will, in time, come to appreciate the enhanced executive power they have forged, "once they see what we were dealing with." Get the message: our critics are just naive, uninformed; if they knew what we know, they would agree with us -- and they eventually will. Because we are, of course, right.

I don't think any thinking people are buying this malarkey; unfortunately, not many are even paying attention, when we should be running them out of town with tar and feathers.

Only 27 more days !!! Happy Days Are Here Again !!!

Ralph

Fake smoke doesn't mean there's a fire

My trying to ignore the blaring news of the day didn't last long. Today it's back to my rant against the sorry state of journalism: TV news is the worst (right-wing radio doesn't even count as news; it's entertainment), with newpapers next, and even the liberal blogosphere is beginning to slip.

The latest example of that is a headline on Huffington Post: "Obama tainted by Blagojevich scandal." In fact, from the article itself, the headline should have read "Obama had no connection with the Blagojevich scandal." When even liberal voices feel the need to sensationalize, we're in deep trouble.

Last night, I was eating dinner in a cafe where I couldn’t avoid the TV screen, with Wolf Blitzer doing the news. This was CNN — not FOX News — but they couldn’t stop speculating about the motives behind all this. “What’s Firzgerald up to, asking Obama to delay releasing his internal review?" But they went on and on about how this delay will be to Obama's advantage because it allows them to release the review on Christmas Eve, when no one would be paying attention. And of course we know that this is the tactic of those with something they're trying to sneak past the public's attention. And did Fitzgerald really make it that specific as to how many days to wait, or did the Obama folks ask him to say that, so they could release when it would make the least news?
Obviously newspeople have been trained to be suspicious and cynical by past experience with politicians, especially in the Bush/Rove years. So who is now piously pronouncing moral judgment? Karl Rove chimed in from his perch at Fox, saying Obama has not been transparent enough in this affair. Who annointed him spokesman for moral rectitude?
I just hope Obama releases the report and there’s absolutely nothing in it of any concern whatsoever. News people need to have repeated experiences of winding up with egg on their faces from trying to make something out of nothing.
The problem is that, when the newpeople create smoke, people begin to believe there’s a fire. Now there's a poll out showing that nearly half believe that Obama or his aides were involved with Blago and his crimes. And that will stick in minds long past the exoneration of this made-up "taint" of scandal.
Bah, humbug, indeed !
Ralph

Interesting idea

The news cycles never cease to amaze: an Iraqi newsman throws his shoes at Bush, shouting "Here's a goodbye kiss, you dog!" A respected financier turns out to have been a major fraud and bilked the rich and powerful of billions. A disgraced and perhaps deranged governor defies calls for resignation. Bush continues to spin his legacy. Obama continues to amaze with his appointments.

We've heard enough of all that. Here's an interesting idea from Steven Kornacki, writing in the New York Observer, "Here's How McCain Could Break the Presidential-Loser Mold." http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/why-mccain-could-break-presidential-loser-mold

Unlike others who recently lost their presidential races, John McCain is both still in office and too old to consider running again (John Kerry was still in office but kept running). This gives him a freedom to concentrate on rebuilding his reputation as an independent, non-ideological senator who can truly be a bipartisan bridge. He has already taken some steps, chiding his Republican colleagues for trying to tie Obama to Blagojevich.

What an opportunity both for McCain to redeem himself after a very ugly Rove-style campaign and to be a real asset across the aisle to help get Obama's agenda passed. And wouldn't it be ironic if he became the 60th vote that would allow the Democrats to move some crucial legislation, after he campaigned in Georgia to help defeat Jim Martin, the Democrat's last best hope for that 60th vote?

As their losing candidate and as one they never much liked anyway, he will not be the leading Republican voice. And it would burnish the image he seems most to cherish: maverick. It's up to McCain himself, of course. But, if he's a wise man and wants to be remembered for something other than his nasty smear campaign and for giving us Sarah Palin, he would do well to consider this way back to respect and self-respect.

Ralph

New hero

OK. I know Richard and I said we were going to downsize to a once-a-week, Monday blog. But Obama is creating such excitement (forget the troubles Rod Blogojevich has stirred up) with his cabinet and other top choices that I don't want to wait until Monday to comment.

My new hero is his choice for Energy Secretary: Nobel Prize winning physicist Dr. Steven Chu, who has impeccable credentials as an academic physicist, a world-class researcher in alternative energy, and an experienced administrator of high level physicist/energy/research organizations.

He's also a clear thinker and a practical innovator. In a talk he gave last year about the importance of simple energy efficiency, he described what happened when California passed a law requiring manufacturers to make more efficient refrigerators. They initially said it couldn't be done for a price people could afford. But California imposed the standards anyway. It was so successful that now those standards have been adopted nationwide. The result? Refrigerators are now 10% larger, energy used has dropped by 67%, and prices have been cut by 50%.

And Chu summarizes: What happens when manufacturers realize their lobbyists are not going to be able to sway the lawmakers, they shift their funding to their engineers instead of their lobbyists -- and they get the job done. The new efficient refrigerators have saved more energy than extra energy developed by all the wind turbines and solar cells in the country. It's important to do those too, but don't underestimate how much energy we can save simply by efficiency.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/tny/2008/12/note-to-detroit-consider-the-r.html

What a difference it's going to make to have this man in charge instead of a Bush Energy Secretary who tries to sabotage any effort to require energy efficiency.

I'm waiting for Ralph Nader to eat crow and retract his statement that there's not much difference in the Democrats' and the Republicans' policies, so you should vote for him.

Ralph

More right notes from Obama

President-elect Barak Obama continues to amaze me by hitting almost all the right notes in the planning for his presidency. Although some progressives are disappointed by some of his nominees thus far, I think Tom Daschel is a great choice as Secretary of Health/Human Services with his ability to get health care reform pushed through Congress.

Obama seems to be choosing experience and stability for national defense and the economy. If his picks for those spots tended to be establisment, at least it's Clinton establishment, not Bush establishment. And his picking Rumsfeld's nemesis Gen. Shenseki for VA chief is very satisfying. I fully expect to see more progressive picks in his nominations for the other domestic policy posts: Energy, Labor, Interior, Environment, HUD, Transportation.

He continues to amaze with his latest announcement, this time by reaching out to the Muslim world. From today's Chicago Tribune:

Barack Obama says his presidency is an opportunity for the U.S. to renovate its relations with the Muslim world, starting the day of his inauguration and continuing with a speech he plans to deliver in an Islamic capital.

And when he takes the oath of office Jan. 20, he plans to be sworn in like every other president, using his full name: Barack Hussein Obama. [He later explained that he was not trying to make a statement one way or the other; simply that it's traditional to be sworn in using your full name, and he's not concerned about what people try to make of his middle name.]

"I think we've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular,'' Obama said Tuesday, promising an "unrelenting" desire to "create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens and ours to prosper together."

The world, he said, "is ready for that message."

What a world of difference from divide-and-conquer, with-us-or-against-us, bring-'em-on George Bush. The contrast makes him look worse by the day, despite his pathetic but despicable attempts to create a positive spin for his legacy: Iraq was a success, No Child Left Behind was a great boon to education, he is most proud that "I did not sell my soul," and -- get this -- he says he restored dignity to the Oval Office. Well, if your only criterion for dignity is not having sex with female groupie-interns, maybe so. But otherwise, I just don't see any dignity in his performance or his image. How can a frat-boy impersonating a president create a sense of dignity? Obama has already, pre-inauguration, restored dignity to the office that George Bush could never accomplish.

Ralph

Echoes of Camelot

With our wise choice of Barak and Michelle Obama as our new First Family gradually becoming a reality, we're beginning to see with stark clarity what we've been missing in the White House. Not that Laura Bush didn't represent segments of Middle America -- she even had poetry readings (although one of the best, Sharon Olds, refused to participate because of Bush's Iraq war).

But it is so refreshing to look forward to the elevation of knowledge, science, and art again and also to an emphasis on a different kind of family values and national character. And to a President and First Lady who can articulate these things. It reminds me of the heady days of Camelot, when Jack and Jackie Kennedy turned the White House into an intellectual and artistic center following the days of Ike's decent ordinariness.

What Barak Obama said at the end of his Meet the Press interivew with Tom Brokaw yesterday literally brought tears of joy to my eyes and to several other friends:

MR. BROKAW: Let me ask you as we conclude this program this morning about whether you and Michelle have had any discussions about the impact that you're going to have on this country in other ways besides international and domestic policies. You're going to have a huge impact, culturally, in terms of the tone of the country.

PRES.-ELECT OBAMA: Right.

MR. BROKAW: Who are the kinds of artists that you would like to bring to the White House?

PRES.-ELECT OBAMA: Oh, well, you know, we have thought about this because part of what we want to do is to open up the White House and, and remind people this is, this is the people's house. There is an incredible bully pulpit to be used when it comes to, for example, education. Yes, we're going to have an education policy. Yes, we're going to be putting more money into school construction. But, ultimately, we want to talk about parents reading to their kids. We want to invite kids from local schools into the White House. When it comes to science, elevating science once again, and having lectures in the White House where people are talking about traveling to the stars or breaking down atoms, inspiring our youth to get a sense of what discovery is all about. Thinking about the diversity of our culture and, and inviting jazz musicians and classical musicians and poetry readings in the White House so that, once again, we appreciate this incredible tapestry that's America. I--you know, that, I think, is, is going to be incredibly important, particularly because we're going through hard times. And, historically, what has always brought us through hard times is that national character, that sense of optimism, that willingness to look forward, that, that sense that better days are ahead. I think that our art and our culture, our science, you know, that's the essence of what makes America special, and, and we want to project that as much as possible in the White House.

Ralph