For Whom The Bell Dingells

My God man, Joe,
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Are you that anxious?

Joe,
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The problem is there is nothing Obama can say except to repeat his campaign pledges over and over. If he goes any further he will be stepping on Bush's toes. And though most of us, myself included would LOVE for him to do just that, he would be eaten alive by the right if he did so and right now I am pretty sure he doesn't want to give the Wing Nuts any ammunition at all if at all possible. We will just have to grin and bear it and for those of us who believe pray that things at worst stay the same for the next couple of months until help officially arrives.
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Oh and Harry Reid must go!

Joe - "Now, no one really believes the Democrats will withold money from the automakers-" Not even the people selling their stocks today?
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btw - withhold has two h's. Spellcheck should have caught that for you. (Unless both spellings are correct and firefox has an opinion."

More importantly, Obama has to maintain this low profile because its going to get back before it gets batter and the continue decline has to be owned by the GOP. Rush is already trying to call this the Obama recession -- if he steps out now they will try to make that stick. He's doing the right thing but I hear you I can't wait until 1/20 too.

Obama can't do much right now. But at the same time, as things get worse between now and January, it affords him the opportunity to demand more systematic change if he wants it.

How did Reid ever become Leader? I cringe when he speaks. I don't mind the lack of eloquence and clarity. It's the SMARM. Yech.

kathy- I took a shot on KUSA, but you should know it was a high compliment. Too bad we don't get to reminisce about balloon animals, tho.And i, for one love pet updates.

For Whom The Bell Dingells
Donne and Hemingway are spinning in their graves.

And George W. Bush's blatant diffidence is annoying, too--not that he has even the tiniest shred of credibility left, but it would be nice if he sort of tried to say or do something comforting in these bleak days.
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So that we can point and laugh, and feel better for a fraction of a second? Because other than that he needs to keep his d*mn yap shut.

Christmas is gonna be different. My family has decided that only the kids are getting presents this year. Well, we'll get something for mom of course, but the rest of it is out. Probably a change for the better, though.

My greatest fear was that things would have to be undeniably f-ed up before we did something that recovery would be impossible for decades. I don't know if we can dodge all these bullets, the environment, the economy and wars. These are truly historic times. I'm hoping for an Enlightenment kind of outcome, not the Dark Ages sort. Was Bush the end or the beginning? We're fixing to find out.

But I'm still excited. Obama had a line in a speech that got played over and over. He says "We have been talking about the same issues over and over for years..." to paraphrase. I think he really is committed to change for the common good. So I choose to be optimistic for the long haul and pessimistic for the short term. It's going to take a little while to get this "green economy" I've been dreaming of for decades going.

Go big or go home- that's my humble opinion

Obama's been talking about how crises create opportunities. Odd how it takes two poorly-run wars, a global credit crunch, eight years of W. and the threatened demise of the Big 3 for us to finally have an opportunity to address in a substantial way our health care system, a green economy, and a shift in how we conduct the war on terror. While I'm excited by the prospect of all this change--to say nothing of improved governance, a more balanced Supreme Court, an improvement of our standing in the world--I kinda hope we don't have too many more opportunities created for us. This is probably enough, thanks.
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(BTW, that phrase "war on terror" is like a horrible song lyric--fundamentally wrong and ridiculous, yet stuck in your head like the chorus to "Hooked On A Feeling.")

JOe: "All of a sudden we understand how our grandparents felt in the winter of 1932-3, waiting for Franklin Roosevelt--and why the inauguration was moved up from March 4 to January 20 thereafter."
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Good one. That is a nearly perfect metaphor.
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I frankly think Obama would do better now with the skeleton staff he has hired than Bush can do with his entire administration. My assumption is that anything Bush does will be bad for the country, and right now I have to believe the little spoiled boy is feeling pretty sorry for himself, petulant, and looking to lash out.
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I have enormous confidence in Obama, but it would be nice if there were something left for him to build on after 1/20. At this rate, there may not be.

Joe, I can appreciate the uncertainty of the moment. Could you imagine if McCain and Palin had been elected instead. I'd rather have two months (from today onward) of uncertainty, than looking down the barrel of a gun held by McCain and Palin for the next four years.
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That is the most reassuring thing we have. It could have been much worse.

And Bush will fly out of DC with that smirk on his face, fat and happy amidst the trail of destruction he hath wrought.

Andy, thanks for the perspective.
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I have a semi-serious question to which I already know the answer but want to vent. Margaret Carlson was just on Countdown explaining all about the difficulties of vetting nominees under the Obama rules. fair enough.
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But why is Margaret Carlson on my teevee? Did she ever apologize for her behavior during the 2000 campaign. Behavior that was memorialized by Somerby in this quote: "CARLSON: I actually happen to know people who need government and so they would care more about the programs, and less about the things we kind of make fun of…But as sport, and as our enterprise, Gore coming up with another whopper is greatly entertaining to us. And we can disprove it in a way we can't disprove these other things."</i)
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And here she is in 2006: The debut of Gore's documentary comes at a time when some pundits (including me) might wonder if we should give a rest to that old saw about likeability. Maybe Americans prefer to have a beer and burger with the charming frat boy to the student who always does his homework. But is that a wise basis for choosing a president?
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Maybe? Why is she still on my teevee?

@Dee: It's the Obama recession? Too much! I suppose it started in 2006, when he announced that he would run for president! (Of course, the Clinton recession, according to Rush, probably ended in 2005, being fallout from the dot-com bust and 9-11, which was all Bill's fault anyway...blah, blah, blah....). The mind boggles.

Waxman taking over Energy and Commerce is the best news I've heard since, well, Nov. 4. If anyone can create some momentum it's that guy and his tremendously capable staff.

I agree, piero...Waxman at Energy and Commerce warms my pinko and green enviro heart!
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Just now on CNN the pundits are begging for an Obama Treasury Secretary announcement. Man--give the man time to make a solid, good decision. He seriously hasn't disappointed me yet.
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The economic news is scary again. I'm scared. Bush is the one the pundits should be talking about. What the hell is he doing??? He's still President for two more months! ArghQ

bethnva, digby has a timely post related to your "who the media should be talking about" point. The press is beside itself concern trolling the Obama administration about how the "Clinton Circus" will ruin him, replete with hand wringing and despair about how unfair it all is. But if it is a circus, it's because the media make it one. . . . But there is something truly sick about a political system in which the press plays a key role as insiders while pretending to be innocent bystanders --- and uses its power to create scandals and gin up controversies about politicians it doesn't like and then blames the politicians for the terrible coverage.
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As always with digby, the analysis of media behavior is spot on, and infuriating. .

Lovin' it. Bush is not merely a beaten man. He LOOKS like a beaten man in public appearances these days. The very definition of the word "beaten". In his public appearances, I'm not seeing any jocularity or that "beer-buddy" persona anymore, at least any not forced out of sheer will. What I'm seeing is barely-masked contempt, a rock-steady belief in his own arrogance, and his wearing victimhood on his sleeve, like his speech during his whiny G20 speech. I'm assuming that's the real reason why he keeps a low profile; who wants to see the president that way?

"So we're left with a void at the top at a moment of real national anxiety. "
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To my mind, it's been this way since the '06 midterms. He's become slowly and steadily more irrelevant with each passing month - publicly, anyway. Behind the scenes, I'm sure there's lots of $hitbombs being planted everywhere for the Obama camp.
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Joe, if you're feeling anxious about domestic politics, how about a post about on what's going on with the status of forces agreement in Iraq? It's amazing how you guys in the US press have decided to give this story almost no play. It's not as if people have stopped caring about what's going on there. Jeez, I'm getting better new from Juan Cole than "real" reporters. Time's front page has the "fierce debate" headline way down at the bottom.
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Totally mystifying.

Calderone points out headline of the day:
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Today's news from an NBC affiliate: "Dingell Buried by Waxman"
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LOL

Bush is too busy signing last-minute executive orders that Obama will have to spend months undoing.
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At this point, a power vacuum is better than anything that idiot can say in public. Plus, the House GOP revolt over the bailout proved that Bush can't even command his own base any more.
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Donut: The MSM doesn't care about the status of forces agreement because it no longer plays into any campaign narratives.