More Election Post-Mortem: Spin Zone RIP

As observers have noted, one of the deserving casualties this election cycle has been the “spin zone.”

In a remarkable ceding of their authority as journalists who should report and analyze, media outlets have often allowed party hacks to “spin” the news and shape the message that went out from the media. This was especially egregious after presidential debates when whatever first messages came out often became accepted as conventional wisdom. I often found it appalling that news organizations would happily report these spins as fact. While the media often rather humorously noted the obvious biases of the spin zone, they nevertheless happily submitted to the system. It’s yet another example of how media has become part of the establishment rather than a critical check on government.

The rise of “snap polls” immediately following the debates have fortunately neutralized the ability of pundits and party hacks to shape the message to their liking. While the talking heads, of course, are free to make pronouncements on their thoughts, they nevertheless risk losing all credibility and being seen as seriously out of touch should their comments be completely at odds with what the instant polls of ordinary citizens are saying.

Right wing conservatives have always been notoriously adept at “truthiness”—stating outright lies knowing that if it’s said enough times it becomes accepted truth. But, again, snap poll technology has served to counteract such tactics because of the danger of making the pundit look seriously delusional.

The Consequences of Building a Team of Rivals

By now, President-Elect Barack Obama’s plan to model his Cabinet and senior staff team after the “Team of Rivals” approach used by President Lincoln has been well documented. This strategy was the focus of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s celebrated book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, which describes how Lincoln persuaded many of his political rivals to join his Cabinet believing the country needed to benefit from the brightest minds of his generation. Lincoln’s enduring legacy as one of the nation’s greatest presidents is a testament to the success of this strategy. Goodwin’s book not only shows how Lincoln successfully managed the varied egos and opinions of his Cabinet, but ultimately also gained the respect of men who initially dismissed him as an experienced backwoodsman.

Obama's desire to adopt such a leadership style says much about the confidence and self-possession of the President-Elect. Such a strategy ultimately requires a strong leader at the helm who is able to get everyone to work from the same page and accept his lead as chief executive.

The Team of Rivals approach may also have some additional side political benefits. Bringing in rivals from the opposition party into his inner circle—particularly those considered more moderate—also allows him to broaden his political base and reach across the aisle, while simultaneously pushing to the fringes the more extreme conservative wing of the opposition.

More Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Here's an eerie coincidence: The “Permanent Majority” envisioned by the GOP (as strategized by Karl Rove, President Bush and minions) lasted exactly as long as the 1000 Year Third Reich: 12 years.

With all the recriminations and soul-searching going on within the GOP, here is an objective outsider’s view of where the GOP has gone wrong:

One of the cornerstones of classic conservativism is small, limited government. It’s ironic then that this Administration, with the support of a Republican-controlled Congress, squandered a record surplus left to them by the previous Democratic administration, produced record deficits, and turned out to be the highest-spending administration of all time.

What happened?

As the minority party, it’s easy to say you are against spending. But once you are in power and have greater control of the purse strings, it takes great discipline and self-control to put your money where your mouth is. Obviously, the GOP failed to live up to its own principles and fell prey to the temptations of power, showing that they too could be profligate spenders when given the keys to the coffers.

In addition, the Republicans have been taken hostage by a minority fringe that is too far right and out of step with the rest of the country. Admittedly, this minority fringe exercises power by voting in high numbers, making noise on the issues that are important to them and contributing money. Ultimately, however, as a voting block, they are not sufficient enough in size by themselves to put national candidates over the top and can only succeed by creating coalitions with other groups, often using fear, hate and divisiveness to carve up the opposition.

As issues more important to the rest of the electorate emerged during this election cycle (such as the economy), these coalitions collapsed and exposed the rhetoric of the far right as devoid of positive ideas and thinking, and full of nothing but negativity. There exists in the far right a seething anger and resentment (evident even when they are in power) that really showed its teeth during the election through its nasty race-tinged smears of the opposition, and which showed a true contempt for the rest of America. While they give lip service to “Country first!”, it’s clear they mean “Ideology/Christian values first.” Which is ironic and unseemly given the intolerance and hate that emanates from this fringe wing of the party.

Amazingly, the response of much of the right has been that they failed because didn’t veer rightward enough! Talk about out of touch! On the one hand, I would love to egg them on knowing that such a scorched-earth policy approach will only serve to push them further to the fringes. On the other, I find it disconcerting knowing that they will work to field even more far right candidates. I truly believe such candidates—as epitomized by the woefully ignorant, superficial and callow Sarah Palin—represent a real danger to the security and future of this country, and don't want them anywhere near a stone's throw of real positions of power.

Predictably, rather than working on new ideas, the far right is counting on the new President and his Democratic-controlled Congress to “overreach” by going too far to the left.

Fortunately, I think the President-Elect, who is a student of history, a pragmatist, and a consensus builder, will avoid that. Even the Democrats (including Speaker of the House and liberal stalwart Nancy Pelosi), who remember the humiliating losses of 1994, seem to understand that moving to the far left immediately out of the gate would be playing into the GOP’s hands.

I’m a pragmatist myself, not an ideologue. Hopefully, the Democrats will be disciplined and patient, and look at ensuring Obama’s chances for re-election in 2012. As any student of presidential history knows, it’s the second term when Presidents have more leeway to pursue bigger issues that require harder decisions since they no longer have to worry about re-election.

Your Fifteen Minutes are Up

The main reason Sarah Palin created so much excitement among her Right Wing Christian Talibanist GOP base was because they were desperate for their own “rock star” to counteract the clear charisma of the rival ticket. Palin was physically attractive and sassy, yes, but other than that she was a blank slate on which a disheartened fringe electorate could pin their hopes on. Their disappointment with the ticket they were stuck with was exposed in the “Palin/McCain” bumper stickers that cropped up which flipped the ticket, reflecting the preference of the Christian Talibanists.

As Palin became better known to the rest of the country, however, her appeal and poll numbers plummeted. It seems agreed now that Palin's selection was a disaster for the ticket, piling on top of the campaign's poor decisions and execution, as well as plain bad luck.

In deference to her popularity among the right wing faithful, Palin was a keynote speaker at a recent GOP meeting of governors. The invitation, however, appears to have been a bit pro forma and simply a nod to one wing of the party—her speech does not appear to have been very well received by her fellow governors or consistent, and some of her colleagues grumbled about the attention she received, whisking her away from her press conference after less than 5 minutes.

It's clear that Palin is ambitious—I presume she would not have reached the governorship of Alaska without some intelligence. (She certainly has the political shrewdness). Still, we're talking about Alaska here, which despite what the Governor says, apparently engages in the very socialist ideal of distributing oil wealth to its citizens.

To give Palin the benefit of the doubt, one explanation for her poor performance during the election was that until she had been plucked from the tundra to run as vice president, running for office at the national level was not yet on her radar and she hadn't had the years of preparation and education many candidates undertake when running for national office. Frankly, asking anyone to make the leap from governor of one of the least populated states in the union to vice presidential candidate is a huge one, and not something a few weeks of coaching would necessarily solve.

If Palin is serious about running for office in the lower 48 that would raise her national profile, I would suggest she prove herself as governor and develop some substance. Until then, she is doing nothing but wearing out her welcome and showing herself to be the empty suit she was during the presidential election.

Sarah, please go back to Alaska!

What Makes Us Great

Plenty will be written about the magnificent campaign Barack Obama ran to reach the White House, and of his soaring, inspirational election night speech.

But for now I'd like to give props to John McCain for exiting on a high note and delivering a concession speech that was gracious, healing and unifying. I am astounded McCain chose to run such a nasty campaign and did so to the bitter end despite the polls, partly because it was so contrary to what he seemed to stand for in the past. Nevertheless, at the very end he deserves credit for moving quickly to step aside for the new President-Elect in order to unify the nation behind their new leader.

While it's all part of the theater of American politics, to me it nevertheless underscores what makes the United States so great and unique among modern nations—that even after a bruising political battle, opponents can come together, shake hands, and re-affirm their mutual dedication to protecting and advancing the best interests of our great country.

God Bless America