The Streak Continues

I suspect it has little to do with "outside advisers" and everything to do with outside candidates. Every single one of those candidates except Bush 1 ran on a message of "I'm going to fix what's wrong with Washington." Bush 1 ran at a time when no one thought anything was wrong with Washington that needed fixing.

He also is Modern Orthodox. That should thrill Amy to pieces.

This is also exactly why Palin will not take Stevens's Senate seat. Remember in the New Republic (or was it the New Yorker?) story recounting the cruise ship tours that took Kristol, Dick Morris, Fred Barnes, and Rich Lowry up to meet her. Dick Morris warned her then to remain an outsider to maintain her street cred. Of course, now she has even more incentive: showing up in DC would reveal to Party insiders firsthand how dumb as a turnip she is. Better she hide out in Alaska where she can avoid the dreaded media conspiracy that is out to get her.

Huh. My first reaction to this would be to say it would take a week to get into how dumb this is. But basically, you're stretching the word "outsider" to mean things that it simply doesn't mean.

Let's see. Reagan himself had been a party insider since, what, 68? He bought George H.W. Bush with him, whose father was a Senator and who himself was an aristocrat.

Then George H.W. ascended to the presidency all the way from the outer margins of...the vice presidency, bringing such successful outsiders with him as Dan Quayle.

That consummate outsider, George W. Bush, was inflicted on this hapless nation with the help of every insider who could squeeze themselves into the inside, including his most helpful campaign advisors, the Supreme Court. And the outsiders like Rove, who you say listened to the electorate very attentively, heard it saying nothing except "Abortion! N Word! Abortion! N Word!"

So yeah. Your ultimate point that Teh Insiders Must Govern! is pretty baseless.

Oh, and remember how W. brought in the entire Nixon administration to govern? Yeah, those outsiders sure didn't know what they were doing.

So stupid.

Daily Franken update for those that care-
Coleman up 221, ballots not having a recorded Senatorial preference are largely from 3 counties that went heavily (65%+) for Obama.

Actually, Bill Clinton did very well "governing" as you call it. Remember those 8 years of peace and prosperity, leaving the US with a surplus out of the extreme deficit-ridden Reagan-Bush years and followed by the extreme debt-ridden, mismanaged Bush Administration, culminating in a complete financial meltdown? Remember the rebuilt cities? Growing economy? Lowest unemployment in history? Dramatically declining crime rate? Medical breakthroughs on AIDS? Declining teen pregnancies? Successful foreign policy? All this despite a radically extremist Republican Congress, which he out-thought and out-maneuvered at every juncture?

Oh, yeah. And Karl Rove an "outsider." All the way back to when he was one of Nixon's plumbers and stealing people's stationary. Here's more on that consummate "outsider"
1980 George H. W. Bush presidential campaign
1982 Phil Gramm congressional campaign
1984 Phil Gramm senatorial campaign
1984 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign
1991 Richard L. Thornburgh senatorial campaign
1992 George H. W. Bush presidential campaign
1993 Kay Bailey Hutchison senatorial campaign
1994 John Ashcroft senatorial campaign
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Okay? I don't see how you derive "outsider" out of that. You aren't thinking, sullivan, you are bloviating without evidence or substantiation.

Really, sullivan, how do you keep your job? I'm serious.
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Bluegal over at C&L sez:
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"How BIG was Obama's victory? As it now stands, with North Carolina upping his total to 364, he could've spotted McCain New York and California and still won with 8 to spare. Let that sink in for a minute; a suntanned big city liberal Democrat named Barack Hussein Obama has won the presidency and did not need the New York and California electoral votes to do it."
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It's actually 365 now with Nebraska's Omaha elector. (NEBRASKA!!!/i>)
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That's an astounding margin.

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Meh. I miss preview.
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"Meh. I miss preview"
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No worries James, LA KT told us it will be fixed by, um, last Monday.

Bumped from Joe's thread, where it is in moderation.
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For those who are saying that Obama is now changing his positions (judgement et al), I would submit that I have never seen a candidate for President who was clearer or more consistent in his positions.
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Just this morning, in President-Elect Obama's first ever Saturday morning address, he repeated these core policy positions and restated the need to press forward on them all as component parts of an overall strategy to dig us out of a ditch and move us forward as a nation. Remember, this is a guy who understands strategic thinking, as opposed to repub tactical thinking. Obama's radio address is here:
http://otrans.3cdn.net/a935f21490985cc7e6_z3m6ztacs.mp3
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For those who say he didn't offer policy detail, that simply translates into "I accepted the RW talking point that he didn't offer detail and chose not read the highly detailed white papers he had on virtually every conceivable policy area."
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I really look forward to having a President who speaks to us as adults.

Is this blog thing down entirely? I've had a post in since 10:08 and there have been no posted posts since 8:40?????

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Maybe I said the wrong thing, wv.
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I wonder if Swampland had issues. I had to log back in. Weird.

I think there were some site issues again. Late last night when I clicked Older posts, it didn't work. I could get a cached page via my bookmark on third try and then refresh via the banner. Once or twice this morning as I have stopped by, I got a couldn't find page thing. Seems ok now.

"Outsider advisers are great at winning campaigns. They are better able to read the electorate, speak in language that connects with voters, and aren't hampered by conventional understandings of how campaigns “ought” to be run. (Joel Benenson talked to me earlier this week about how an outsider mindset helped shaped the Obama campaign's strategy.) But as Jay pointed out in his Time.com story this morning, they're not especially good at governing."

Has it occurred to you that the entire oligarchy, including the corporate press, is completely rotted and out-of-touch with the rest of Americans? That lets "outsiders...speak in language that connects with voters", and win campaigns but puts them at a disadvantage when they try to enact the policies they campaign on but which the "insiders" detest. In other words, non-compromised outsiders can get elected because that's the choice of the majority but actually getting laws passed requires the cooperation of a majority of the governing elite. "

The trouble is, "good at governing", is as the corporate, chattering and law-making classes see it - you know, wars of aggression, domestic spying, torture and tax cuts for millionaires, that sort of thing. So yes, please, give us outsiders who are "not especially good at governing".

Yes, let's heap all the credit for every single thing that happened between 1992 and 2000 on Clinton. Never mind the fact that there was a massive internet bubble during his administration that dropped right before the next guy took over, or the fact that sometimes other people might be responsible for good done in the country. No, everything good happened because of Clinton.

It's kind of hard to say that Reagan wasn't a bit of an outsider when he ran, either, since as mgale points out, he was an outside candidate running on a "fix Washington" platform. Whether that is what Amy Sullivan is saying, I'm not sure.

With all the things that are wrong with this wordpress implementation, it is very weird that they decided what was really needed was right justification of th ecomments and the bios.

I think the WordPress stupidity filter choked on this post.

Glad I took the time to read posts before putting my own up.
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Amy, I do hope you read acidj's and James/LA's comments.
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I think it's fair to call Carter's an outsider's campaign. Other than that, I don't see it.

Even weirder. The OTHER posts are also right justified, but not this one.

Total freaking incompetence, from Amy Sullivan's regurgitated CW blatherings to technology mismanagement. Amazing.

Welcome to the third world of periodical publishing.

Secretary of Domination.

pourme,
Oh, what could have been!

@jarais - My "talking doctor" says I am making a lot of progress and the nightmares should end right around the time my copay does.