Forgiving, savvy, or something else? Obama is showing he's not a stubborn Polack - we are famous for our stubbornness. He's picked Hillary Rodham as his Secretary of State. I heard a BBC commentator yesterday say "this silences one of his potentially largest critics" - which May Be true. I'm baffled. If I were running for office (which I won't be doing - running for my HOA back in South Carolina once was enough to tell me I don't enjoy that) ... and I had my opponents say "Shame on you!" and mock me, reprimand / scold me, tell me my foreign policy was naive, and be pretty un-neighborly to me with personal attacks, I would not consider that person (or their handlers) for any political position, even "dog catcher".
I've got relatives who've held grudges for decades. Maybe it's genetic, but personal insults that are hurled with the intent to harm or defame or seriously injure, don't roll off my back like water on a duck. Petty little stuff, sure, let it be forgotten, but character assassinations, are harder to forget. We'll see how well this works out for the Executive Branch in 2009 and beyond.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/12/01/obama-picks-muscular-national-security-team-including-former-rival-hillary-clinton.html
8 years ago
See, I'm honestly concerned about the large number of recycled Clintonites he's appointing. A man who campaigned on change, who won election in large part because the old free-market socialism-for-the-rich policies have catastrophically failed, should probably not be appointing imperialist free-marketeers to his cabinet...even if they're free-marketeers-lite. The minds and philosophies that got us into this mess are inadequate to get us out of it. We voted for change, let's have it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the vitriol, running for office may indeed be hell and our politics have devolved over the years and become quite impolitic, but that's something you have to expect when you declare your candidacy. The left is rightfully crowing: we placed our trust in a man we thought was a progressive, and it seems like he's violating that trust. Making noise is, at this point, our only recourse.
The fact that Obama can 'overcome' what was said in the election is part of what makes him exceptional. He is looking at the big picture and putting the COUNTRY before his personal interests. As for former Clinton-ites--I would guess that with the country in such dire straits he's looking for some people who have done this before--and done it well. OR this is the deal he had to make with the Clinton political machine.....BUt I'm staying with the idealistic view! That's what got him in office.
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