That, I assumed, was because one can not responsibly make strategy six months in advance of having real information. The rhetoric was about experience and judgment, but no one ever made any real declarative statements. The clip that I keep seeing is the one from the debate, where Obama talked about setting a mission for withdrawal, but said he'd listen to commanders on tactics and blah blah blah, and at the time I was just as underwhelmed by that as I was by every Iraq answer, which were all predictably and necessarily vague (i.e., no timetables or anything). Did I miss something? Was there a huge, firm combat strategy that Obama laid out and I missed it that he's now going back on by continuing to say he's against the war and wants to leave as soon as it's prudent? If there was, please share it with me.
Chris Cillizza did a blog post linking several of Obama's decisions together in a move to the center. Those include the FISA bill, which the whole party agreed on, the Supreme Court gun decision reaction, which also struck me as pretty standard triangulation, and Iraq. Many writers have joined him in assembling this string of decisions as evidence of Obama's adjustments. Wasn't part of Obama's message one of conciliation and a use of understanding and compromise to reduce gridlock? So far, nothing I've seen from Obama has surprised me anywhere near as much as McCain's flip on torture. But then, I'm a centrist, and I like it when people move to the center, or at least acknowledge its existence. Perhaps this is the danger with running a campaign where part of the appeal is letting people see what they want in inspiring-but-unspecific rhetoric.
For some insider baseball, just know that McCain has developed a rep as a guy who hates having someone in charge of his campaign. The NYT goes into some detail about the latest power struggle. Up at the plate currently is Steve Schmidt, a Roveite who's working sans paycheck for the moment, which gives you some type of idea how much confidence everyone involved has in this latest switch to work where others have failed.
In the Veepstakes news:
Cillizza has also had posts about Jim Webb dropping out, and, on the GOP side, cases for and against Mitt Romney. He also finds good things in Bobby Jindal's recent complete reversal on whether he'll let Louisiana lawmakers give themselves a raise. Jindal is definitely a rising star in the GOP, but it's hard to see him with McCain so quickly after taking over. As for Joe Lieberman's continuing efforts to be McCain's second, a quick look at his disastrously low approval ratings in his home state make it clear his GOP-cuddling act has not come without cost. You want a VP to help in his home state, not hurt.
Congress:
- The Georgia 12th threatens to get mildly interesting, as John Barrow (D) is now facing a primary challenge from the left. It's a moderate district, but either way it is likely to stay in Dem hands, since the area around Savannah that it covers is 45% black, and Obama will certainly help turnout.
- On the other hand, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) just crushes any of the seeming dozens of Democrats lining up for a primary battle to challenge him. Now, it's true that the field is diluted, and Bob Barr's Libertarian candidacy is a wild card, but Chambliss has good approval rating, and the state is pretty strong GOP.
- Larry Craig's senate seat in Idaho is likely to remain in GOP hands, unsurprising, according to new polls showing Republican Jim Risch basically trouncing Larry LaRocco. Hard to be surprised at that, given that Idaho is blood red politically.
- The Arizona 8th (Tuscon and West) looks to be a big showdown. On one hand, you've got a well-funded incumbent Dem in Gabrielle Giffords. On the other, you have Tim Bee, the president of the Arizona Senate, who's equally well-funded and looking to take over the seat that was long held by Republican Jim Kolbe. A big problem, though, is that Bee lost Kolbe's endorsement last week. No reason was given, but Bee pushed through a ballot measure that would make same-sex marriage unconstitutional in AZ. Kolbe? Yeah, he's gay. Whoops. Bee trails in the polls, but el presidente Bush is going out later this month to raise the guy some dough, and McCain's name on the ballot has to help in a district that went for Bush under Kolbe.
- Slate's Michael Kinsley says Al Franken has a problem: 30 years of bad jokes to explain to Minnesota voters.
- The Diaz-Balart brothers, Lincoln and Mario, currently represent Florida's 21st (East of Miami) and 25th (Miami-Dade) districts, respectively, for the Republican party. But polls (admittedly ones by Dem researchers) show very unhappy numbers for them against their strong and qualified Latino challengers. Neither get all that close to 50%, and neither are out of the margin of error. Two top targets for the Dems, the brothers could well go down together, as the Congressional signals for the GOP remain dim.
- Reid Wilson takes a look at the efforts Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is taking to avoid being the next casualties of the surprisingly well-funded team of environmental organizations.
The Hawk Has Landed says nice things about Jesse Helms that I could not.
And the CSM reports that FEMA responded very well to the recent floods in the Midwest. This, of course, is an interesting change from their response to the floods in the South after hurricanes, where some wondered if the agency was actually run by a drunken toad. I suppose a suspicious person could think about this, and try and see if there were any demographic differences between the Midwest and the deep south that might, say, inspire a Republican administration to be better about things. But it's hard to ask FEMA to do anything more than improve, and it sounds like they have for the moment, so kudos.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment