Divine Comedy

Well, let’s see, it took 49 days (maybe less) for the honeymoon to come to an end.  During that time, in my view, Barak Obama formed a pretty good cabinet (at least for a Democrat administration).  He’s taken a pretty moderate path so far.  And, he’s taken on the challenge of having to arbitrate amongst some pretty powerful personalities.  So, far, so good, one would think.  But, now he’s off in Hawaii trying to relax a little before is given the “reins of government”, and the children back home are getting restless.

Already we have the gay community upset that Rick Warren will do the inaugural invocation.  To Obama’s credit he simply said you can’t please everybody all the time, and stuck with his original pick.  That shows me something.  Not that I’m a huge Rick Warren fan.  I’m just glad Obama’s not being pushed around (yet) by the various fragments of his party.

However, now I read that the women’s groups are unhappy because they only got five of the twenty cabinet level jobs. That’s not enough seats at the table, claim the women’s groups.  In one article, Amy Siskind, co-founder of the “nonpartisan” group New Agenda, accuses Obama of taking "shocking steps backward" and said "this constituency does not matter to the president-elect."  Wow, that’s quite a slam!!

Here’s another one from NOW - "When you are looking at a Cabinet and you have such a small number of women in the room when the big decisions are being made, there need to be a lot more women's voices in this administration."  Some of these same women were complaining loudly about the potential – not reality – of Larry Summers being given the job at Treasury.  Apparently he will never be forgiven for his remarks at Harvard (which were not sexist, by the way).

Well, gee, there are only five of twenty.  But 2 of the big four (State, and Homeland Security) are women.  That seems pretty substantial to me.  A couple really heavy hitters.  They will be in the room when lots of the other 16 aren’t even invited.  But, apparently, that doesn’t matter.  Now that the Democrats are back in power, body counts, and tokenism are back in vogue.  And, we’ve still got 29 days to Inauguration.

It just could be that President Obama will have more trouble with his own party, than he will with the Republicans when trying to govern.  Governing requires more than warm bodies.  It actually requires people who can produce, and get along.  Sometimes that may create some imbalances.  But apparently, imbalances are not to be permitted in the Democrats’ world.

Well, who knows, if Obama can just keep all of the very demanding constituencies in his party from blowing up over purely parochial interests for another 1400 plus days, he may be able to win reelection.  In the mean time watching the divine comedy will be a real hoot.

Comments

[Populista]

Maybe people are complaining now because they actually believe that this president will listen to them.

[Timo Kokko]

Pops,
Course they may be complaining now because Obama is acting more like W than he did during is primary and general campaigns.

[Bob Kelley]

Meh. I think there's some wishful thinking going on. Remember how giddy Republicans were over the Obama-Clinton primary battle? These little petty rifts won't last long and once the new administration is in place we'll quickly forget about them.

[Populista]

Nothing Obama has done has been even remotely like anything Bush has ever done. Bush, for instance, never reached across the aisle in the way Obama already has. Name any democrat W appointed to anything of importance. Name any liberal W allowed to be involved in his inauguration. Name any sentence W was able to complete with correct grammar. The list of ways Obama is not like Bush goes on and on. And as for the imbalanaces of which you speak, I am glad that Obama is not surrounding himself with "yes men" like Bush did. Bush didn't even realize he was so hated until recently, only because his people kept him so sheltered from the truth. That will not happen with Obama. He's not afraid of the facts, nor is he afraid of a good argument, because he actually can win it, unlike Bush.

[Andrew Smith]

I wonder when OBJ finally does assume office, if the liberals will still be playing the old "Well Bush did this..." card with every criticism instead of addressing the facts. The fact is that the size of the Cabinet could be cut in half and would still be doing too much. The fact is that OBJ campaigned on the issues with some very clear positions and now is backpedaling. The fact is that he promised to have a diverse Cabinet that spanned party-lines and didn't pander to Washington, but he's loaded it with Washington insiders and power players which agendas more compatible with lobbyists than the American people. I see no change about which to be excited. Continually comparing him to Bush is not going to work if he doesn't deliver the real, fundamental philosophical change that he committed to deliver in getting elected. That's what people voted for and that's what they want. He's given the impression of getting down to business but has yet to offer any substantial proposals that will affect either short-term or long-term economic growth, or address any real issues. I find it funny that you would claim that Obama is not like Bush, Pop, when no significant differences between them have been illustrated.