It is a relief of the first order not to have that incredible buffoon, George W. Bush, sitting astride so of much power. Bush was such a perfect paragon of ruling class arrogance and privilege combined with a studied and refined indifference to the complexity of the world. He was the worst product of Texan oil ‘n cowboy culture, a little man with a big cowboy hat – as they say 'all hat and no cows '(or common sense.) And the damage he has left behind is immeasurable and serious. Stinking heaps of GOP/Bushian feces surround on all sides. Third Reich type legislation firmly in place like the rush-to-judgment Homeland Security Act (the name “Homeland”, so very close to the Germanic “Fatherland”) and the inexorable and fascistic Patriot and the Military Commissions Acts. And who will ever forget his a monarchical (and criminal) habit of simply ignoring any laws passed by Congress that he didn’t like by issuing so-called “signing statements.” And, of course, the US already in many quarters under suspicion for trying to run the world for its own economic and political advantage, was plunged into further disrepute by starting two seemingly endless wars. Also there is Gitmo, extraordinary rendition, torture as standard interrogation policy and so on. Add to that a full decade lost in confronting the world historical crisis of global warming. And finally by having his ideologically driven de-regulatory hacks allow the US financial and banking establishment go bananas with greed eventually shoving the global economy over the cliff.
Anyway we now have a shiny new president, Barack Obama ,who is refreshingly different from the Bush in every way possible to the extent that he is viewed by many as some sort of messiah. We will soon learn that, while Obama may indeed represent a quantum leap from his hapless predecessor, he, too, has feet of clay. But for now with only a few days into his reign, things already feel a lot better as he begings knocking down some the bulwarks of Bushland like closing Guantanamo, reversing some of the last-minute Bush federal regulation changes, allowing stem cell research and so forth were - all good but expected.
Yet we must brace ourselves for disappointment. No one can turn so much that is wrong around overnight. It will be a long hard many year slog through waist deep offal. And, to make matters worse his team so far is not exactly chock-full of "progressives", free thinkers or fresh new outsiders or whatever.
Here is a list of disappointment so to date:
Hillary Clinton: Secretary of State, Ugh! Her voice is annoying, and remember she was of one the more powerful members of Congress to be fooled by the Bushian full court press leading up to the Iraq invasion. Furthermore, her hubby, Bill Clinton’s foreign policy record was not exactly stellar. Bombing the bejesus of Serbia and blaming them for trying militarily to forestall Yugoslavia from disintegrating as a nation, bombing Iraq every week or so and wiping out the sewer system leading 100,000 (by UN estimates) children’s deaths there, making zero real progress on the Israel/Palestinian mess with the less than useless Dayton Accords, continuing with the irrational blockade of Cuba, AWOL on the Kyota Treaty and so on.
Robert Gates: Secretary of Defense. A case might be made that continuity will help with the complex problems of disengaging from Iraq and confronting failure in Afghanistan. But Gates is a Bush appointee and will lead to too much continuity. A clean break is demanded. Surely there are some centerist Democrats with a military background that would be better and would send a strong signal to the world that the bad old days of neocon Bushian adventurism by the US are over.
Laurence Summers: Chairman of the White Economic Council. Where did that choice come from? Larry Summers is most well remembered as the erstwhile President of Harvard cashiered for some ill advised speech he made in which he posited that woman had an inherent gender disadvantages in math and science. But apparently he is also an economist of some repute and served as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury. Is that good? Clinton left office with a rare accomplishment, a budget surplus. His administration is also up to elbows in responsibility for the deregulatory mania of the financial sector that is the source of our present world economic meltdown. With all the smarties around why choose a Clinton retread?
Judd Gregg, Secretary of Commerce. This bipartisan bullshit is going to bite Obama in the ass. This Judd Gregg character is Republican Senator from New Hampshire. Surely he could have found a pro-business Democrat for that job. Gregg won't even vote for Obama’s economic stimulus package while he is still in the Senate. Also environmental groups are opposed to his support of fish farming.
There are others that reflect a center to center right position like the very Clinton-esque choice of Richard Holbrook as special envoy Afghanistan. But other choices are good like Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor.
Obama was carried into power by a broad coalition of center-left types but he has never pretended to be any more than a centerist, himself (who had the good fortune to not be in Congress when the Iraq war was voted on.)
Nevertheless, Barack Obama is the best chance we have had in long time. I just hope he can play hardball effectively against the very ruthless, intellectually dishonest, highly influential, inveterate rabble rousing, Clinton-crippling American right wing. They may be wounded and they may be in pain, but that makes them all the more dangerous.
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