Lefties on the other hand will always slam anyone in power - until they get into power themselves.
True. And, in that case, a new group of Lefties will slam the newly-empowered Lefties. It's part of our charm, amigo. ;)
I've always said: Liberals are the Mets fans of politics. When our team fucks up, we boo them and start throwing things. To the extent that it goes well beyond constructive criticism, and we only finally feel like we've fucked ourselves with our pants on after it's too late.
Which is why I've preached that folks need to calm down right now and not get worked up over the presence of Rahm Emanuel or someone like him unless there's something concrete that Obama does on policy to warrant getting worked up. It's of no use and without merit until then, so sit back, give'em a chance to prove themselves, and rule afterwards. Suspicion? Totally understandable. Endless OHNOEZICANHAZPANCAKEZ!@ diaries on Daily Kos? No, those folks need to get a grip.
I stopped worrying about Obama quite a while ago after coming to the conclusion that he'd consistently thought stuff out well ahead of how far ahead I'd thought stuff out. He assembled probably the greatest campaign staff in American history and took down two of the greatest names in American politics, the Clintons and John McCain. I'm not sure people appreciate how amazing a feat that truly is. I like to think of myself as someone who understands the mathematics of campaigns pretty well, but I'm not fit to shine these guys' shoes. Obama's earned a little leeway from me. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
The economic advisory board is a decent cast of characters, but he probably wasn't being given too much differing advice. There's been a unifying of the two wings of the Democratic Party's economic people over the last few years. Whereas under Clinton, you had two camps --the Public Investors/Economic Activists (Reich, Krugman, Stiglitz) and the Budget Hawks (Summers, Rubin) -- you now have a group that largely agrees and fits more with the former category. Summers has talked a great deal about fighting wage stagnation. Rubin has 'fessed to Reich being right about public investment.
So, on the economic front, I'm optimistic. I think there's plenty of agreement on the critical stuff. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
