GOP's Worst Nightmare

After years of portraying themselves as the party of the alpha male and the Dems as effete, whimpy wonks, the GOP clearly feels stymied.

For what they now face in the White House is a youthful, vigorous and energetic black male, who is not only smart but incredibly athletic as well, with street cred who is comfortable in basketball pickup games.

Driving the point home is the swift, decisive action that brought a close to the Somali pirate hostage situation. Regardless of whether the President deserves "credit" for the outcome, for now he is inexorably tied to the daring action of the Navy SEALS and U.S. military who took their action with his executive decision and under his watch.

And as the usual whiny, crybaby reaction of many in the GOP show, they can't even show class in the happy outcome and are positively flummoxed on how to deal with this president.

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.

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.

I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself….

Amid all the sturm and drang of this election campaign, here are a few noteworthy and eloquent endorsements for Barack Obama, some of which are significant given their sources:

• The New Yorker
• Endorsement from National Review columnist Christopher Buckley, son of the late leading conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. (Buckley was forced to resign from the magazine afterwards)
• A follow up piece from Buckley discussing the epic failures of the Bush Administration and GOP
• A piece from conservative founder Barry Goldwater’s granddaughter
• An endorsement from Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hutchins
• Endorsement from Republican and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld
• Endorsement from Reagan appointee and former McCain Adviser Charles Fried
  

And from Sarah Palin’s home state of Alaska, an endorsement for Barack Obama from the Anchorage Daily News.

As of October 27, the total number of newspaper endorsements received by Obama is 180, versus 75 for McCain. These include at least 35 papers that endorsed George Bush in 2004.

Bring It On

Barack Obama has just brought the fight to John McCain.

After weeks of McCain baiting Obama, Obama used his youth and vigor and defied McCain to come at him.

By the very fact that he came out strong, willing to stand up and go toe-to-toe against an opponent who has positioned himself as the tougher fighter, Obama proved he is ready for the Oval Office.

The McCain campaign's pathetic response shows they were caught flat-footed. Reports say that McCain's campaign will try to resist the bait, which only affirms that they have been cowed by what they witnessed tonight.

Bring it on.

Where's the Love?

What's with all the fucking whining about the media coverage Barack Obama has been receiving?

One would think such coverage only fitting to balance out the Pravda-worthy lovefest that the GOP and George W. Bush have enjoyed the past eight years from party flacks like Fox News and Fat Fuck Drug Addict Rush Limbaugh the last eight years. It must be bad when even they're abandoning you though.