I would have selected a different national security team. But I can see what Obama is doing. He has effectively sidelined critics of his foreign policy vision to the kiddie table over there in the corner. You can take a look to see who’s at the kiddie table. There’s Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. There’s Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer. There’s Joe Lieberman and John McCain. There’s even Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney. They will all continue to screech now and then, and the adults will look over condescendingly and tell them to pipe down or there’s no dessert.
In saying this, I’m not suggesting that Barack Obama’s foreign policy and national security team is going to be right about the policies they pursue, or that they shouldn’t listen to anyone screaming from the sidelines. My greatest concern with the team is that it doesn’t (so far) include any of the strong voices that bravely opposed George and Dick’s excellent adventure in Iraq. My point, though, is that Obama has just carved out a huge swath of territory within which he can safely maneuver.
The Clintons are now inside the tent. The bipartisan Realist School is now inside the tent. The center-left Establishment is now inside the tent. And most of the left is pleased about the selection of Eric Holder to Justice and Susan Rice to a cabinet level ambassadorship to the United Nations (that bypasses Clinton and reports directly to Obama).
Concerns remain, and anti-war progressives are still looking for seats at the table where their superior judgment will not only be rewarded but put to good use going forward. But progressives can take comfort in the fact the field has been cleared politically to such a degree that they can move freely. If they remain marginalized, the neo-conservatives are newly marginalized, and to a far greater degree. Additionally, progressives are now empowered organizationally and have a far greater ability to mobilize public opinion than their opponents on the right. Palinists are truly out in the cold, and will remain there until there is some glaring failure or crack in the new governing coalition.
Obama has successfully disarmed an opposition (at least for the time being) that has dominated the public discourse in this country since (at least) September 11, 2001. No, they won’t go away. McCarthyite/Palinism has been with us since shortly after World War Two. But they are returned to the sidelines of history…even their media outlets now left without a core mission or cohesive message. What will Fox News do now? Is that Bill O’Reilly I see over at the Kiddie Table?
It’s a short term strategy, that may have dramatic consequences. Naturally, I wish him all the best. But I have many fears. I outlined how this parallels some of Kennedy’s mistakes today over at ConsortiumNews.com
my concerns too. Lincoln’s circumstances were entirely different. And I don’t trust the Clintons — a huge distraction. So, I’ve met heads of governments — that does not qualify me to run or be SoS.
nice guys finish up in the soiled hamper.
Soon Obama will be sending out an SOS.
Give Obama a break. Alright, you have it.
But to what end will this new, old foreign policy team come? Have we even seen a plan with goals? Have the members of the team given up their own agendas? And since when was Hillary ever a team player?
Plans are non-specific.
Overall theme is a massive shift from military to diplmatic power projection.
No doubt that the Neocons are out. But who can trust Hillary’s dabbling in Kristolite stock during the past six years? And how will Obama control her if he is taking the position: my portfolio is thin?
that’s an administrative problem. I don’t see it as a big deal.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaawn.
i think sirota’s got it correct:
Obama doesn’t have to appoint progressives to anything.
I’d also like to point out that “the adults” have been wrong about a lot of things recently, with deadly and life-destroying ramifications.
I don’t agree with Sirota on most things, and this is no different. It sounds like a lame Britney Spears attack-ad dreamed up by Rick Davis. Truly lame.
If it were me, I would have appointed Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island (who voted against the war) to head the Pentagon and I would have appointed John Kerry to the State Department.
If I really wanted to send a bipartisan message, I would have appointed Hagel or Lugar to State and then let a Democratic undersecretary actually run the day-to-day operations.
For me, that would give me more confidence. I’m very concerned about the corruption and rot inside the Pentagon’s procurement offices as well as privacy violations from its intelligence arm, and that, more than any animus for Gates, is what makes me uncomfortable with retaining him. Gates didn’t create these problems, but now we’re hamstrung in our efforts to fix them. The obvious solution is to let Gates take the lead in cleaning it up, but that’s something I have very little confidence about.
But, the key here is that Obama has really marginalized the crazies. If this were a Parliamentary system, it would be as if Obama’s party had an absolute majority, but still brought in the other mainstream parties as part of the coalition, leaving only the far-right and far-left parties in opposition. It’s a giant coalition by historical standards.
That doesn’t mean that the adults will not continue to screw up. It doesn’t mean that at all.
I think Obama may also be simply trying not to get killed, and I can’t entirely blame him for that. But we’ll see. Sooner than later, I fear he’ll face his own Bay of Pigs – an event from the military-industrial complex designed to force his hand. His reaction to such will be all-informative. Kennedy made a huge mistake, and learned quickly from it. I suspect strongly Obama will too. I just wish we could spare him what’s to come, but I don’t think there’s any way we can. Some lessons people have to learn themselves.
well you and I will differ then, because on many things i agree whole-heartedly with Sirota. This is one of them.
“It sounds like a lame Britney Spears attack-ad dreamed up by Rick Davis. “
Bullshit.
Concerning Fox, I think Obama still has yet to call on their reporter at any of his press conferences. That isn’t the kiddie table, that’s sent to bed without dinner (and let’s hope it’s a long night).
I’m not planning to sit at the kids’ table with that bunch of infantile duds, even if they’d have me. But I won’t be able to sit at the big people’s table either because the menu disagrees with me and they wouldn’t invite me anyway. Of course no one knows what the exact menu is going to but it seems that all the proposed dishes include the delicacy of war. In the first place Afghanistan, it would seem.
A hopeful sign from an unexpected place.
Really!
It’s still Israel first. Obama did courtesy before AIPAC and got annointed.
and who will bring Bibi Netanyahu to heel?
The short answer: no one. And Netanyahu WILL win the next election.
As Avnery complained recently, yes, the Israeli public is for peace with the Palestinians by a majority, but then they vote for the nonpeace candidate, Netanyahu. Is this what they call clang?
Josh Marshall sees Trouble on the Horizon
Wow – that’s pretty impressive!
I can swallow most of Obama’s picks. They’re not progressives, but I didn’t really expect them to be. But in my opinion anyone who at any time thought that invading Iraq was a good idea is not qualified to be a US Senator, and certainly not Secretary of State. I hope Hillary can prove me wrong.
I can live with Gates but have zero faith in Hillary. She inspires no confidence or trust whatsoever.
Obama, judging his actions (appointments) over his rhetoric is not the least bit anti-war. His pledge to end the Iraq war responsibly is an invitation for endless war if “facts on the ground” don’t go “our” way.
What Obama advocates is focused war, efficient war, better managed war, “we can do it better” war, endless war on “terror.”
Notice a theme? War, war, war…
Obama’s policy is as follows: shore up the American consumer (you can’t have a healthy consumer society without the consumer,) maintain the status quo of militarism (most of our industrial base) and fix an economic system developed by economic hitmen using economic hitmen to fix the corrupt and terminally dysfunctional system they created.
The People at Obama’s table are not Kennedy’s “wisemen”, but “players” out to gin the game.
How long will the Obama apologists keep looking at this thing through rose colored glasses?
Now – having said ALL THAT, Obama’s ascendancy to the presidency is still a million times better than a third Bush term.
g.
We shall see.
Rude Response
not so rude after all.
“My greatest concern with the team is that it doesn’t (so far) include any of the strong voices that bravely opposed George and Dick’s excellent adventure in Iraq.”
Team is headed, ultimately, by Obama – who was a strong opposing voice.
I was gratified to hear Obama say on TV today that Gates is charged with ending the war in his one year. On that explicit basis, I understand the appointment. “Clean up the mess you Republicans made.”