It's funny (and somewhat encouraging) to me to see how quickly Obama has stuck the knife in the collective back of the Left in his headlong dive towards the middle. Iraq War? Hey, looks like the surge worked and we won - oh, and we're keeping Defense Secretary Gates. (Interesting, isn't it? that Democrats two Administrations running have chosen Republicans to run the Defense Department... Even Democrats know you can't trust Democrats to run the military.)
Hispanics in the cabinet? Probably, but not that pesky Bill Richardson as Secretary of State - we'll put Hillary in for that one. (That has to be the most stunning stab in the back of the lot - Richardson is the most qualified Democrat to be SecState; he backs Obama over Hillary; Obama thanks him by... overlooking him for Hillary? Wow...)
Overturning don't ask, don't tell? Too soon to talk about that... Freedom of Choice Act? Well, we're not sure there's a consensus... Undo the Bush tax cuts? Y'know, a recession might not be the best time to do that...
The exhilaration at electing Obama is already wearing off for the left - making this perhaps the first administration whose honeymoon is ending before the inauguration.
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Of course, that's if there is an inauguration. This pesky birth certificate thing is getting more steam than it should - and now we hear the Supreme Court might hear it this week? A few days before the Electoral College meets? Granted, very little news reporting is going on with this story, so much of what's going around is by email, (or WorldNetDaily) and of questionable repute. Still - this is a story that just won't die - even after the reprinted copy of the birth certificate was released by the campaign. (And was immediately attacked as a fake by critics.)
Dan has already posted the link to the Kenyan ambassador's unbelievable blunder in telling a reporter that Obama's Kenyan birthplace is already a national attraction, and that Obama's paternal grandmother insists he was born in Kenya. (Notable - Obama's maternal grandmother insisted he was born in Hawaii.)
Personally, I still can't get past the Honolulu Advertiser announcing the birth the next day (August 4, 1961). Many questions still arise (why is the hospital still unknown, why seal the records, where's the original), and Obama should put this behind him by coming clean about this whole thing. In my own estimation though, the preponderance of the evidence suggests Obama was born in Hawaii, to an American citizen mother, when he says he was, and is therefore Constitutionally allowed to be President.
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...which may be more than we can say for Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, as it turns out. Pete Williams (NBC analyst, and former State Department spokesman) notes Article One, Section Six from the US Constitution:
No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.
Since the salary for cabinet secretaries has been increased while Clinton was a Senator, she would be constitutionally barred from serving. Question: do Senators decide not to confirm her over this, or does this one wind up in Court? I'm guessing the latter - the politically expedient thing to do is confirm her "in a spirit of bipartisanship" (blah blah, etc), and let's face it - the Senate isn't known for doing things that are anything other than politically expedient. Still - it will be interesting to see this one wind up before the Supremes.
2 comments:
"barred by the Constitution"?
Haven't you heard that the Constitution is a "living document" subject to the changing morès of major societal shifts, and means exactly what the campaign-contributors to Senators want it to mean? "Barred" is so harsh, so old-school, so...Gross.
I think even if McCain was elected you would see a shift from the positions he took during the election to the middle. The far right would be having the exact same problem that the far left is having now.
The nation in general is middle right leaning, so any candidate who wants to have a hope of re-election has to move toward the middle. The days of a candidate like Teddy Roosevelt, who comes in does what he plans to and doesn't care about being reelected(something I may add that Teddy eventually regretted doing), are long gone.
It's all about political expediency for both Republicans and Democrats. Those candidates that stick to their guns, and are unwilling to bend to the needs of the party fail, or are relegated to impotent third party candidates(Ron Paul, Nader, Perot.)
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