But tired, very, very tired. (Who knew that joy and relief could be this exhausting?)
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OKAY, A FEW POST POST ELECTION THOUGHTS:
1. When Nancy Pelosi (and also Barbara Boxer at the Obama election night party in Century City) said what a great night Tuesday was for the Democrats……it was extremely grating. It was fingernails on a blackboard in the midst of music.
This isn’t just about Democrats, girlfriends. If that’s your first thought, you’ve completely missed the point.
Patt Morrison explained it perfectly in her Thursday LA Times column. In fact Patt wouldn’t mind being beyond political parties altogether. Neither would I. (But sadly we’re a little bit of a distance from that kind of blow-it-up-and-start over moment, just yet.)
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2. Note to some of my liberal friends (and a whole host of conservative bloggers): Stop freaking out about Rahm Emanuel. Yes, he’s a very partisan-ish party oriented guy, and a bit creepily hawky on foreign policy. But Obama needs a bad cop, an enforcer, a sword arm. A guardian at the gate. In this way Rahm is perfect. That and he’s OCD-level organized.
One of the worst mistakes Carter ever made was in thinking he needed no Washington insiders when he swept into town. His presidency never quite recovered from that misjudgment.
It will all just come down to who is running whom. After watching this presidential campaign, do you honestly have any doubt who will call the shots in that pairing?
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3. Note to the Bush Aministration: Please reread the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Now.
This is from this morning’s New York Times editorial. It speaks for itself:
In a stroke of self-satire, Pentagon officials tried to block Stars and Stripes — the military’s respected independent newspaper — from covering the troops’ plain and honest reactions to the election night news about their new commander in chief. The Department of Defense once again made news by smothering news.
The boneheaded muzzling of the newspaper, which is protected by First Amendment guarantees against editorial interference, barred reporters assigned to do simple color stories from the public areas of military bases in order to “avoid engaging in activities that could associate the Department with any partisan election.”
Partisan? By that rationale, the civilian news media’s coverage of the spontaneous celebrations across the land on Tuesday night was an act of journalistic bias. It’s ludicrous that Pentagon brass feared men and women in uniform might be caught smiling, frowning or variously exclaiming “Whoopee!” or “Rats!” at voting results from the democracy they defend with their lives
Paging Bob Gates. Oh, hi, Bob. Hey, look, aren’t you the guy whom President-elect Obama may keep onboard for a while? I thought so. Okay, Bob, listen: you are embarrassed about this little free speech thingy that your people bobbled so badly, right? It would be helpful to know.
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4. It’s kinda cool that Mayor Antonio V. will be in Chicago today in some semi-advisory transition-ish group talking to Obama about how to move forward on the economy. AV’s in good company and his presence means that LA’s interests are represented, which is a very good thing.
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5. Maureen Dowd gets it too. MoDo can be relentlessly trivial at times, but Wednesday’s column (which I somehow didn’t manage to read until now), again echos the incredible and very deep desire to move beyond the red/blue divisions that I believe is the sentiment in the country that needs to be heeded. Here are the last few paragraphs:
….In the midst of such a phenomenal, fizzy victory overcoming so many doubts and crazy attacks and even his own middle name, Obama stood alone.
He rejected the Democratic kumbaya moment of having your broad coalition on stage with you, as he talked about how everyone would have to pull together and “resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.”
He professed “humility,” but we’d heard that before from W., and look what happened there.
Promising to also be president for those who opposed him, Obama quoted Lincoln, his political idol and the man who ended slavery: “We are not enemies, but friends — though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”
There have been many awful mistakes made in this country. But now we have another chance.
As we start fresh with a constitutional law professor and senator from the Land of Lincoln, the Lincoln Memorial might be getting its gleam back.
I may have to celebrate by going over there and climbing up into Abe’s lap.
It’s a $50 fine. But it’d be worth it.
Hey, Maureen, I’ll meet you there in January, say around the 20th. We can do it together. Fifty-buck fine and all.
What?! No quotes from FOX News? Anyway, there could be a lot of captions for the photo above. The first one that comes to my mind is, “We really pulled one over on them, didn’t we?”
Make a list of Obama’s campaign promises and his original timetables for them, then compare that list two years from now to what was actually accomplished. I predict that he will accomplish his tax hike early, but that it will affect families making $60,000 and higher because of “unanticipated problems created by the last administration.” What? He couldn’t anticipate problems–like he couldn’t anticipate the Iraqi surge being successful?
Just wait, and let’s see if you’re still smiling two years from now. I’m just ahead of the curve.
South Park – The Election
Oops. Try this one: http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1212/
Caption for the photo above. The first one that comes to my mind is, “We really pulled one over on them, didn’t we?â€Â
Yes Woody. . . they really pulled a fast one. Let your anger die.
A quick note: Rahm Emanuel once sent a decomposing two-and-a-half-foot fish to a pollster who displeased him. And many times he hung up on political contributors in a Chicago mayor’s race, saying he was embarrassed to accept their $5,000 checks because they were $25,000 kind of guys. He will be a good gate keeper for our man Barack, he understands and enjoys power.
On top of the $150,000 first outlined in Federal Election Commission filings, Palin spent “tens of thousands of dollars” on additional clothing, makeup and jewelry for herself and her family, including $40,000 in luxury goods for her husband, Todd, salon.com reports. The campaign was charged for silk boxer shorts, spray tanners and 13 suitcases to carry all the designer clothes, according to two GOP insiders.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/
Orale Woody, send in your check to the GOP. A la movida!
There can be no doubt
Boxers are a personal clothing item, and therefore illegal for the RNC to purchase for Todd Palin, under McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
They attempted to skirt the law by claiming the items were not personal, but would be given to charity after the campaign.
Even if they give Todd’s boxers to charity, there’s no doubt that boxers are a personal clothing item, and not part of any political costume, unless he goes around flashing them at the rallies, and my guess is that he does not do that.
You don’t need a law degree to understand this:
(b) PROHIBITED USE-
(1) IN GENERAL- A contribution or donation described in subsection (a) shall not be converted by any person to personal use.
(2) CONVERSION- For the purposes of paragraph (1), a contribution or donation shall be considered to be converted to personal use if the contribution or amount is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of Federal office, including–
(A) a home mortgage, rent, or utility payment;
(B) a clothing purchase;
And, later in the act:
Sec. 323
‘(a) NATIONAL COMMITTEES-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A national committee of a political party (including a national congressional campaign committee of a political party) may not solicit, receive, or direct to another person a contribution, donation, or transfer of funds or any other thing of value, or spend any funds, that are not subject to the limitations, prohibitions, and reporting requirements of this Act.
‘(2) APPLICABILITY- The prohibition established by paragraph (1) applies to any such national committee, any officer or agent acting on behalf of such a national committee, and any entity that is directly or indirectly established, financed, maintained, or controlled by such a national committee.
Now, ask yourself… would Todd Palin still need boxer shorts if it weren’t for the campaign?
This is such a clear violation of McCain-Feingold, there can be absolutely no argument. So why is it not a big deal, as in criminal prosecution? Why isn’t the liberal media doing their job on this one?
Trust me, everyone’s following the clothing thing. It’s hard not to. The level of entitlement, using donor money to buy all this stuff, is truly bizarre.
Palin’s quite a piece of work. But then that’s been clear for quite some time.
Palin Will Fade Away. She has become a national joke, just like Dan Quayle. There is no way to recover from that.
I’ll pay the fine. For both of you.
Celeste: Palin’s quite a piece of work.
If she was a big abortion supporter and ugly, you would be saying what a wonderful representation of women she is.
Palin will be back. She may not know Africa is a continent, or be able to name the countries that make up NAFTA, but as DailyKos points out after her book comes out in a year and some time goes by…she will return.
We cannot forget how dangerous and ignorant she is.
Woody, if you gave to the McCain campaign I hope you are enjoying the red leather jacket you bought her. My money went to the most historic Presidential win I will ever hope to see. It was absolutley beautiful, and money well spent!
heartofgold, you spent money to take away other’s. I spent money to keep my own. At least I can look at myself in the mirror with no shame.
I was in Columbus OH for the election, and the feeling in the Renaissance Center where the Obama/Dem state party was held was the most intense I have ever experienced in politics. So many people put in so much work that when Monday and Tuesday came around, everyone was, or seemed to be, calm…plugging away. That night,they exploded. As a transplanted Hoosier, I was most moved by the fact that my people voted for Obama. Not just a Democrat, an African-American Democrat.
I stayed at a cheap motel at the airport situated strategically between 2 airstrips. There was a large contingent of volunteers from London, UK. To a person, they were thrilled by the reception they had been given as they canvassed central Ohio. They are heroes to their people back home, with stories to tell.
It was amazing for me as well, one of many grumpy old men and women who responded to the call to reinforce the campaign at its ground zero. I’m glad I did, and it left me as well with stories to tell also.
“…if you (Woody) gave to the McCain campaign I hope you are enjoying the red leather jacket you bought her”
Hell, Woody’s still making payments on that jacket, heartofgold! (-:
Mr. Worf, please show Mr. Woody to the airlock. Set tasers on singe.
Woody – please, please, please do me the favor of adding up just how much personally your taxes are going to go up under the Obama administration.
Or like the Joe the Plumber, are you going to get a tax cut but claim you don’t want it due to your principles?
I am really curious to know!
If you make millions and end up having to give me (not a millionaire) your money, I want you to know it will be well spent on silk boxers, spray tan and some beautiful luggage.
Here’s a very sharp critique of Emmanuel:
http://tinyurl.com/6byjux
It is true Senator Obama lost the white vote, by 43-55%; but he won almost exactly same share of it as the last three (white) Democratic candidates; Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry. And he won heavily among younger white voters! America will now have a president with half-brothers in Kenya, old schoolmates in Indonesia and a view of the world that seems to be based on respect rather than confrontation. Amen.
“It’s kinda cool that Mayor Antonio V. will be in Chicago today in some semi-advisory transition-ish group talking to Obama about how to move forward on the economy. AV’s in good company and his presence means that LA’s interests are represented, which is a very good thing.”
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The mayor who increased spending by %25-%30 since taking office, racked up a $400 million deficit, promotes deceptive sold tax increases and fee hikes, spends more time out of town raising campaign money than solving problems, “mugs” for any T.V. camera
Heartofgold: …do me the favor of adding up just how much personally your taxes are going to go up under the Obama administration.
Am I supposed to go by what he said or what I know can really be expected. Trust me…Obama will raise taxes on everyone who currently pays taxes. It’s unbelievable that you were suckered in on a tax giveaway promise from someone with a history of voting only tax increases.