Memo to Republicans: Huh?
February 26, 2009
Next verse, same as the first.
“Newsflash: McCain Lost the Election”
“he Republican Party has been using a grab-bag of strategies to counter Obama’s policies over the past month. They rail against the stimulus package for its (supposed) pork. They hammer home their points with gimmicky videos and props. They speak in warrior rhetoric and revel in heroic, fighting-man stunts. But if there is one strand running through all these strategies, it is that they evoke a discomfiting feeling of deja vu. We’ve seen this stuff before: The GOP is currently reliving John McCain’s presidential campaign. The return to the strategies of their fallen candidate may be the saddest illustration of the current state of the party.” Written by Eve Fairbanks.
from The New Republic
DB notes: When your leadership is fresh out of ideas…
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Previously on Take 2: American Conservatism: Dead or Just Sleeping?
David Biespiel Twitters-up
February 24, 2009
In which I follow Karl Rove and Karl Rove follows me.
Republican Governors thinking about New Hampshire & Iowa, 2012: Jindal, Palin, Sanford, Barbour, Perry. Plus: Romney & Huckabee.
about 1 hour ago from web.
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Recently on Take 2: From Sputnik to Facebook
American Conservatism: Dead or Just Sleeping?
February 18, 2009
And we mean no.
“Throughout the fortnight-long Battle of the Stimulus Package—the Capitol Hill confrontation that culminates this week in a signing ceremony for a historically unprecedented piece of legislation that will inject more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars’ worth of adrenaline into America’s fluttering economic heart—one question preoccupied commentators and observers, especially those desperate for relief from the daunting substance of the matter: was President Obama being “bipartisan” enough?” By Hendrick Hertzberg.
from The New Yorker
DB notes: One message that Republican representatives sent to the electorate on the stimulus vote last week on the subject of relevancy is this: Not so much. Whether dead or just sleeping, 21st century American conservatism can certainly lay claim to being unified in the U.S. House of Representatives.
***
Next on Take 2: The Oscars.
Sarah Palin Loves the MSM
February 10, 2009
Will her fifteen minutes ever time out?
“What I’ve Learned: In Her Own Words”
“There is one America, but there are different priorities reflected in individual Americans that certainly can stand in stark contrast with — I’ll give you an example. Some people, money is the be-all, end-all to them. Money and power, prestige, a title next to their name is the be-all, end-all. Other people, the highest priority would be their character, their reputation, their word, and money has nothing to do with that. The beauty of America is that individuals making up this great country do have different priorities. And that’s the contrast that I would point out.”
from Esquire
DB notes: No one has spotted her in Iowa yet but watch the county and state fairs this summer.
***
Next on Take 2: Abraham Lincoln’s worst year.
Franken v. Coleman: Will this thing ever end?
“Yet Another Coleman Witness Admits She Was Cherry-Picked”
“The Coleman legal team just went through another round of calling aggrieved voters to the witness stand, pleading that their absentee ballots were improperly rejected. And again, they’ve run into some problems. The Coleman campaign called Elissa Jackson, a sympathetic mother of a five-month old. During direct examination, Coleman lawyer James Langdon tried to be open about the fact that she found out about her uncounted vote because of a phone call from the Republican Party.” Written by Eric Kleefeld.
from Talking Points Memo
What the Franken camp says is happening
What the Coleman camp says is happening
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DB Notes: Lyndon Johnson won his first Senate race in Texas in 1948 by 87 votes, earning him the infamous nickname “Landslide Lyndon” for the rest of his career.
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Caroline, We Hardly Knew Ye
January 26, 2009
Camelot goes back into the house.
“The announcement took everybody by surprise. Even her closest friends had had no idea on Tuesday that it was coming. What could have happened? Nobody believed it was about Ted Kennedy’s collapse, as the Times initially reported. That didn’t make any sense—he’d been seriously ill for months. And his staff was said to be angry that his illness was being blamed. It was reported, on Thursday afternoon, that she had a household-employee problem and a tax problem, but even this, true or not, didn’t answer all the questions: given that Paterson (according to some, contradicted by others, in a blizzard of claims and counterclaims) had apparently urged her to reconsider her decision, he evidently didn’t regard the problem as disqualifying.
“By Friday morning, the situation had degenerated into open warfare, with some in Paterson’s camp claiming that he hadn’t meant to pick her anyway, and some in Kennedy’s camp claiming that he had meant to pick her, that there was no nanny problem, and that the Governor was destroying an American icon out of pique. ‘This is a governor who lost his chief of staff a couple of months ago to the weirdest tax scandal imaginable, whose first day required him and his wife to discuss the affairs that they had during their marriage and whether or not government money was used for the hotel rooms, and he has people pushing vile comments about Caroline Kennedy?’ Lawrence O’Donnell, a friend of hers and a political analyst for MSNBC, says. ‘And when they get into that phrase ‘not ready for prime time’? This is the ‘not ready for prime time’ governor you’re watching.’” Written by Larissa MacFarquhar.
from The New Yorker
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DB notes: William F. Buckley famously said, “I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University” Agreed, to a point. I was rooting for her.
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America: Rebooted
January 20, 2009
44.
Inauguration Day Special: David Biespiel’s post on Politico’s Arena
I write this as a Texan who grew up in a racially polarized South, and I write not as a Child of the Sixties but as a child during the 60s. Upon taking his oath, President Obama did more than break a vicious racial barrier in American history, he became the physical embodiment of the ideal of American unification.
Private racism is alive and thriving in our country, make no mistake. But if institutional racism can be depicted as a statue in a town square, that statue was pulled down and shattered once and for all today. Obama’s assumption of the presidency indicates not that we have mastered racism but that we have mastered some part of ourselves that has long desired to live wisely and true to our bonds of humanity.
President Obama’s special ability to link our present challenges with those of the past is at the heart of both his oratory and his faith in national unity. That’s where I felt the address crystallized. From the first syllables of the speech, his tone was business-like and he never let up: “For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.” When was the last time this nation was called to act upon such an honest note of self-reflection? The speech was admonitory, but refreshingly candid, too, at times inspiring in its boot-strap philosophy. The concluding conceit of the nation being at the frozen riverside like General Washington’s soldiers during the Revolution was self-defining, the message clear: Let’s cross the river and save our country again.
Obama’s dismissal of the Bush era was blunt. I was surprised–OK, a wee bit gratified–how starkly he took the Bush administration to the woodshed for its general malpractice over the last eight years. And yet, as a national scold, he didn’t leave out the citizenry either for “our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.” Meanwhile, he indicated to the world that America’s role will now be remade. I didn’t take that stance to be naive though it could be. His admonition to divisive world leaders–”your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy”–struck me as a decisive goal to firmly address the more intractable conflicts in the world.
Finally, full confession: I don’t have a television. So I had to borrow one to watch the ceremony. I was at Bush I’s inaugural and Clinton’s first one, too, when I lived in Washington during those years. This time, out here in the West, when the Obamas arrived at the North Portico at 6 a.m. Pacific time I was still lying under the covers–with a mimosa at hand, at least. On television, one image caught my attention–well, two, because every time Senator Feinstein came to the podium she looked like she was in an MGM musical and about to break into song. But one image caught my attention right before the ceremony began: The Episcopal Bush family giving way to the African-American Obama family. On the one hand, there are the historic racial implications in that image. On the other hand, the generational shift is evident, too. The torch has been passed. A new generation of leaders has been elected to govern, a new generation of leaders who bring two finely-earned attitudes. One, frustration with the collapse of legislative democracy to forestall and reverse the multiple layers of physical and civic decline in our country. Two, a can-do spirit to start shoveling out of the hole.
That faith seemed evident, as well, in every close-up of the audience on the Mall. As I say, I’ve been in that crowd at other inaugurations, and from this corner of the country it seemed to me as if the entire country marched on Washington to start afresh.
from Politico
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DB notes: Then conservative blogger Pejman Yousefzadeh disagreed. Here’s the link to the exchange for January 20th, at least. After the 20th, you’ll have to google it with something like “biespiel yousefzadeh obama politico arena” to see where it’s turned up on the Internet.
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The Man
January 14, 2009
“We expanded the electoral map, regained a majority in both houses of Congress, and put a Democratic president in the White House.”
“Howard Dean Says Goodbye in a Letter”
“Four years ago, I became chairman with a mandate for bottom-up reform — grow the Democratic Party in your neighborhood and every other community in America. We promised to compete in every state, for every level of office. And we demanded a party that would stand up for itself and fight for an agenda that reflects our values. But we are not stopping here. And even though my term as chairman is ending, I will be with you — and with our new chairman — every step of the way.” Written by Howard Dean.
from The Huffington Post
