Transition: How Obama is Building a Government

So the rats are moving out of the cellar to a new 11,000 sq foot office building Karen?

he put so much energy and capital into his deficit-reduction package and NAFTA.

My immediate impression on reading that phrase is that Clinton's top priorities were things opposed by the left wing. It strikes me that Obama's main initiatives are ones that enjoy broad support among Democrats and the areas where he's likely to disappoint the left are precisely those where he's inclined to allow the status quo to stand (FISA and CIA Black Sites).

It strikes me that he's picking his battles carefully and will therefore create a significant amount of positive momentum in his first 100 days.

Karen -
2 questions:
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Is the limitation of funds from the government for the transition statutory, or can Congress find a few million more for this transition so it doesn't need to be raised from private sources? It is totally insane that we're throwing 700 billion around with no oversight, but can only spend 5.5 million on the transition of government.
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Is there any anticipation that any of the 700 billion is going to be left for Obama to do anything with?

I'm not sure that Clinton's experience is telling.
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Obama's election is more like Reagan's.
The country's mood is similar, Also Obama received more than 50% of the vote which Clinton did not and thus will not be dogged by cries of No Mandate that Clinton had to deal with.
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Other than a Democrat replacing a republican, no small thing, I'm not sure they are all that alike.

It's surprising to me that Obama isn't going to take a hand in any stimulus package, through the Democrats, since he has a view about how the stimulus ought to be directed. He's in a very difficult position, but nobody's in charge here.
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I was mildly in favor of the original package, but has any one person in the history of the Republic ever had has much power to make decisions of how to spend money than Henry Paulson?

Adding - Thanks KT for resisting the urge to include the canard of "Clinton trashed the White House" .
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I saw you interviewed on CNN yesterday and whoever the morning host is couldn't help himself.
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During that interview you mention the 911 Commission and their recommendations for the transition, I was hoping you could flesh that out.

KT
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I notice that in just about every article that talks about Obama's transistion there are a few lines dedicated to the dismal failure that was the Clinton transistion. Knowing how sensitive Bill Clinton is, do you think this might end up being another bone of contention between him and Obama? I am already hearing the rumblings about Clinton supporters being dissappointed that Obama hasn't helped her to retire her debt. I just would rather not have a Clinton vs Obama rumor mill going for the next 4-8 years.

Anyone besides me think that Biden ends up in a pit today with Cheney yelling "It puts the hairpiece in the basket!"

Off topic, but everybody should read this:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/11/obamas-interview-with-cathleen.html

Is it a lobbyist ban when they only need to take a one year break from their profession to participate in an Obama administration?

http://www.political-buzz.com/

"each of those things will determine whether he stumbles or bursts out of the starting gate and whether he sets forth a clear or an incoherent agenda for governing."

What would be an example of a clear or incoherent agenda for governing?
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"But it is hard to see how he can afford such expensive undertakings alongside a $700 billion federal bailout of the financial system (which Obama now wants to extend to the collapsing auto industry) and a new economic-stimulus package."
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Perhaps he will try by raising revenues, lowering costs, and by temporarily increasing the size of the debt. The latter being explained as a justifiable act, under traditional liberal or Keynesian economic thought, given the disastrous state of the economy the Republicans are leaving behind?

Thank you pourme, for the lovely imagery. I can see the glitter fingernails embedded in the wall. Question: is Lynne Cheney the little yappy dog?
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Kathy, as far as "It's surprising to me that Obama isn't going to take a hand in any stimulus package" - I have absolutely no doubt that he is involved, just as he was when the markets crashed. Like then, I am sure he is working behind the scenes, doing all he can to avoid interjecting inappropriate politics into the process. As he has said, there can only be one President at a time.
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Yeah, I'm in the tank for the guy. But the quality of his actions during the campaign put me there, and until I see otherwise there I will remain. Sorry, rusty.

Via Sully, this seems more than appropriate. Abraham Lincoln, Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
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In fact, reading Team of Rivals, I find much that is relevant to today.

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"Reagan proved deficits don't matter. This is our due."
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Good one, James. I suggest it is also their do-do.

Palin's press conference is on.
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Like watching a train wreck

Sorry. She only took like 3 superficial questions and they stopped it.
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Of course she had no CLUE when asked what they would do to reach out to hispanics.
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Her answer "we will treat everyone fairly"
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PLEASE GOD LET HER RUN IN 2012!

Seems like time to repeat what Sully said about Palin yesterday:
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" Let's be real in a way the national media seems incapable of: this person should never have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy....The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade of normalcy for two months — and not to declare the whole thing a farce from start to finish — is a sign of their total loss of nerve.

....This deluded and delusional woman still doesn't understand what happened to her; still has no self-awareness; and has never been forced to accept her obvious limitations. She cannot keep even the most trivial story straight; she repeats untruths with a ferocity and calm that is reserved only to the clinically unhinged; she has the educational level of a high school drop-out; and regards ignorance as some kind of achievement. It is excruciating to watch her — but more excruciating to watch those who feel obliged to defend her."
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/why-palin-still.html
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Media coverage of Palin is all about "see the pretty lady in a train wreck." As long as she keeps running off the rails, they will keep covering her. BREAKING NEWS, PALIN STILL DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING! REPORT AT 11. AND 12. AND 1 . . . . .
kEVIN dRUM:
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"Despite all the grief she's gotten, I continue to think that the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate represents the breaking of a consensual cultural barrier far more fundamental than most people realize. It's not just that she was inexperienced (Spiro Agnew and John Edwards weren't much more experienced than Palin when they ran for VP) but that she was — obviously, transparently, completely — uninterested in and uninformed about national policy at nearly every level. We've simply never seen someone so completely unmoored from the normal requirements of national office before. She was chosen purely at the level of celebrity, and an awful lot of people seemed to be just fine with that."
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2008/11/what_just_happened.html

Sarah Palin is starting to remind me of Anna Nicole Smith. Right now she's trading on the "any publicity is good publicity" theory. She knows what the people wants and she gives it to them. And there is a coterie of dark figures behind her encouraging her along this path for their own personal gain.

Arrgh wvng - the bonnie (fer Stuart) thing be, a great armada o' folks weren't bein' fine wi' tha' - an' tha's why she be returnin t' th' frozen tundra where she be belongin' !

Th' press will be findin' somethin' else t' train their guns on soon, mate - this be just th' final dredgin' o' th' scuppers fer any remainin' nuggets o' loot, don't ye know...

I'm forced to agree with this sentiment.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/244200.php

There comes a time when loyalty to one's Country supercedes loyalty to ones party. I'm therefore hopeful that we may soon see the emergence of a sane Republican to lead them out of the wilderness.

KT -- While the quote about H. R. Haldeman being a "cupcake" compared to Emanuel is "great copy", there are a number of Republicans including Lindsey Graham who have said Rahm is fair to deal with.

Recognizing that you were probably in middle school (wink, wink)during the Nixon adminstration, this assessment of Rahm as being more of a hard @ss than Haldeman is a bit overblown, isn't it?

Hi pirate lady. Perhaps Palin is literally all the repugs have got. Here's Pawlenty at the Repub Governor's conference:
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"We cannot be a majority governing party when we essentially cannot compete in the Northeast, we are losing our ability to compete in Great Lakes states, we cannot compete on the West Coast, we are increasingly in danger of competing in the mid-Atlantic states, and the Democrats are now winning some of the Western states. That is not a formula for being a majority governing party in this nation.
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Similarly we cannot compete, and prevail, as a majority governing party if we have a significant deficit, as we do, with women, where we have a large deficit with Hispanics, where we have a large deficit with African American voters, where we have a large deficit with people of modest incomes and modest financial circumstances. Those are not factors that make up a formula for success going forward."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_11/015648.php

Karen,
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To your point about FDR waiting until inauguration before fully engaging on policy, Peter Baker at the Times had a great piece on the subject back on September 27. Baker opened his piece thusly:
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The winter before Franklin D. Roosevelt took office was among the darkest periods of the Great Depression. With bank runs threatening a fragile financial system, Herbert Hoover tried to recruit his successor to sign a joint declaration closing the banks. The president-elect brushed him off. Two days after Roosevelt was sworn in, he ordered the very bank holiday Hoover had proposed.

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I suspect Obama wants to begin similarly. Despite the deep trouble we are in economically, Obama will, no doubt, want to start "clean" without carrying any of the policy baggage left over from Bush/Cheney.
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And who could blame him?

Paul Dirks, thanks for both links. The beliefnet article is definitely worth reading and I also agree with the sentiments in the TPM link -- although as it ends, perhaps we just tap another keg.