Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize, Wingnut Heads Explode

President Obama woke this morning to the news that he had been awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. I heard it on the radio on my way to work, and honestly my first reaction was, "Huh?" It seems a bit early to give him the award, although I wouldn't be at all surprised if he earned it ten or twenty years down the road.

It's difficult to see this as anything other than a finger to the eye (excuse the non-peaceful imagery) of the Bush administration and its "my way or the highway" approach to diplomacy. The rest of the world, or at least the Nobel Committee, is hopeful that we're on a new and more productive path, and I'm right there with them. Here's a good spot to express my ongoing love and admiration for our Secretary of State. She is an amazing woman!

Anyway, anything that irks both the Taliban and our own homegrown wingnuts* can't be all bad. Congratulations, President Obama! Here's to a better and more peaceful future for all of us.

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*I'm not going to link to Free Republic, but the term "turd" was used early in the game. I quit reading at that point.

Obama versus Vader

I kid you not. These action figures are Teh Awesome. (h/t House Next Door)

Toddlers in Washington

So the Republicans demand changes from Obama in the economic stimulus plan, which he (unwisely) concedes on after reaching out to them, and then they vote 100% against. Because they want tax cuts for high-income Americans. A policy proven, proven I say, to work have contributed to causing a major recession. One hundred percent of House Republicans decided that saying no to economic recovery and standing by failed policies was the essence of party loyalty.

Meanwhile, the Ledbetter Bill passed the Senate, with only five Republicans voting for it, including the only four women Republicans in the Senate (in the House, only 3 of 169 voting Republicans voted yea). On the radio this morning, I learned that Ledbetter's campaign ad for Barack Obama polled as one of the most effective ads of the campaign, and the single most effective "negative" ad. Which means there 202 Republicans who are so utterly opposed to equal pay for women that they are willing to risk going on record, knowing for a fact that such record has had a strongly impact on campaign results.

They're toddlers. They're pouty, foot-stampy, hold-their-breaths-until-they-all-turn-blue toddlers. Our President says "Yes We Can" and they say "No We Won't!" (And add "So There!")

I know that the more-intelligent-than-me President Obama has a grand scheme about bipartisanship and outreach and a new era in Washington and all, but I don't see how an intelligent and fair-minded spirit of bipartisanship can work while the toddlers are having a tantrum. Possibly a time out chair is in order.

(Cross-posted because I said so!)

Shorter Washington Press Corps

"Can't you see this really all about us?"

The Inauguration Day How We Got Here Random Flickr-Blogging Retrospective Extravaganza

The long election cycle that brought us to this historic day was observed here -- in true IIRTZ fashion -- with irreverent and sometimes tasteless derision. While one is tempted to entertain lofty and nostalgic daydreams and memories today, resist and indulge yourself in a retrospective of the political year just past, as seen through the slightly-distorted lens of Random Flickr-Blogging.

Originally uploaded by fabcom.
Random Flickr-blogging explained

We're winning in Iraq. The economy is fine. Voluntary restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions will solve the global climate change problem. John McCain is an independent, straight-shooting campaign-finance reformer. You can have the bridge pictured here for your very own for $29.95, but only if you call in the next ten minutes...
See more...

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Originally uploaded by Robotkid.

The Green Party, having chosen its presidential candidate, examines its prospects for November success.

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Originally uploaded by faustastic.

Based on recent trends within the party, the site committee for the 2012 Republican National Convention decided to consider all options.

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Originally uploaded by rst90274.

Meanwhile, the Ron Paul Revolution rolls on...

Originally uploaded by chrisabad.

"This thing seems to be working -- all of Ron Paul's policy positions are starting to make sense to me."

Originally uploaded by bnidjer.

After visiting If I Ran The Zoo, a Democratic Ron Paul volunteer attempts suicide with a box of Krispy Kremes.

Originally uploaded by androoouk.

"Parachute? What parachute? We're Libertarians -- just relax and enjoy your freedom!"

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The Endless Primary Season

Originally uploaded by Curious_Cynic.

Texas has scrapped its primary election in favor of its own version of the Iowa Caucuses.

Originally uploaded by mkeblx.

The Clinton campaign was accused of employing an aggressive and unorthodox get-out-the-vote methodology last week in South Carolina.

Originally uploaded by urwis.

Bill O'Reilly's vehicle, after he got lost and ran off the road trying to crash another NH primary event.

Originally uploaded by ScottHernandez.

John McCain, the NSA, the TSA, and the Division of Homeland Security have all teamed up to bring the "Living In Fear For The Next Hundred Years" roadshow to your town between now and the November election.

Originally uploaded by Clément Guillaume.

Members of the press as they are marched at gunpoint to yet another Hillary Clinton rally.

Originally uploaded by linktoyou.

Meanwhile, right now, somewhere in this great land of ours, a Barack Obama rally is starting...

Originally uploaded by Mr. T.14.H.

All that was left for Giuliani's staff to do was to clear out the campaign offices.

Originally uploaded by rockfshr.

Poor Chet. One minute, he's having a civil conversation with his wife about Bosnia, Hillary, and "factcheck.org". Next thing he knows, he's camping in the back yard.

Originally uploaded by narrativeMAN.

John McCain released the results of his medical exams in order to defuse any criticisms based on his age, but it backfired when this close-up of his left earlobe and the carbon-dating results were leaked to the press.

Originally uploaded by hbp_pix.
Random Flickr-blogging explained.

These Democrats just found out how long it will be before the Pennsylvania primary.

Originally uploaded by photosbyscott.

Weeks after calling on supporters of both Democratic candidates to put aside their differences, Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean appealed to the last holdouts.

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A decision, then on to the general...

Originally uploaded by David Boyle in DC.

"Yeah, dude, check it out -- there's a great antiques and collectibles yard sale going on down the block."

Originally uploaded by DjTweed.

"See, Cindy, now that we've sold off all those other houses, there's no reason anymore for Joe Six-Pack not to vote for me."

Originally uploaded by bigChill.
Random Flickr-blogging explained.

Another former Republican hears about McCain's beer veto.

Originally uploaded by Leo Cloma.

John McCain came under increasing pressure to disassociate himself with a radical religious leader who had been responsible for such inflammatory and anti-American statements as "Love your enemy", "The last shall be first, and the first last", "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone", and "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Originally uploaded by resistealeau.

The McCain campaign played second banana to the Obama campaign all last week. While Obama spoke to 200,000 enthralled spectators in Berlin, McCain visited a German restaurant in Ohio. While Obama and General Petraeus toured Iraq by helicopter...

Originally uploaded by btornado.

The vice presidential candidate of the future will not need a $150,000 wardrobe.

Originally uploaded by swetieduck.

Weeks too late, they finally found McCain's campaign strategy under a back seat in the Straight Talk Express.

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Finally...victory! From Grant Park, election night:

Originally uploaded by graemetallan.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible..."

Originally uploaded by orangeambrosia.

"...who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time..."

Originally uploaded by SnowInSummer.

"...who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

Originally uploaded by Kealor.

"This is your victory. And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead."

Originally uploaded by Pugnation.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there."

Originally uploaded by ChevyGuy454.

"And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too."

Originally uploaded by jo3c00l.

"And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand."

Originally uploaded by { вянoOoм ~.

"America, we have come so far. We have seen so much..."

Originally uploaded by arnoldzafra.

"...But there is so much more to do...This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace..."

Originally uploaded by Ice Cream Bears.

"...to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one..."

Originally uploaded by Dustin Hall.

"...that while we breathe, we hope..."

Originally uploaded by SamoDiva Stefana.

"...And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't..."

Originally uploaded by ufdance.

"...we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes..."

Originally uploaded by thoa_hnmtc.

"...we..."

Originally uploaded by Martin & Julia.

"...can."

Bittersweet

America is a better country than it was yesterday; California is a worse state.

I wish our folks had lived to see Obama win. Last night MSNBC had John Lewis on, and he talked about the hundreds of thousands of civil rights workers in the '60s who had helped to make this election possible. Mom and Dad were among those hundreds of thousands, and they would have been thrilled beyond measure to see this victory. Not the final victory, not the promised land, but an enormous step in that direction.

And Proposition 8 was a step backwards. Our folks spent 25 years fighting for equality; they would have been so disheartened to see the voters of California reject it. Today, hundreds of thousands of Californians who for a little while had equal rights are again second-class citizens.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

To the early polling station:

Dixie Cromwell, a 36-year-old cosmetologist from Shelby, N.C., who is a Republican, said in [an] interview that she had already voted for Mr. Obama.

And all the bells were ringing.

Endorsement Scoreboard

Obama: Colin Powell, every living Democrat and some moderate Republicans, Christopher Buckley, too many others to list here.

McCain: Al-Quaeda.

I'll Take "That One", Please

Frankly, it doesn't matter what I think about the debate last night -- my mind's been made up for a long time. But it does matter what uncommitted voters thought about it, of course.

Highlights from the CBS poll of uncommitted voters (numbers before and after the debate):

• Obama went from 54% to 68% on "has a handle on the economy",
• from 59% to 80% on "understands voters' needs and problems",
• and from 42% to 58% on "is prepared to be president".

According to kos, "This is what 'victory' looks like."

And if there's any justice, this will be McCain's "Macaca Moment".

McCain Endorses Obama

McCain, in last night's debate:

That requires a cool hand at the tiller. This requires a person who understands what our -- the limits of our capability are.

Generous of him to admit that, isn't it?

Update: Josh Marshall had the same reaction.

Other update: So did Steve M.

Common-Sense Capitalism, Not Emergency Socialism

While we're on the subject of collections of syllables that will get someone elected president...

Jacob Weisburg complained in Slate (and Newsweek) a week or so ago about the lack of a catchy slogan from the Obama campaign, and although I don't think it's a deal-killer at this point, I don't disagree that it would help. In this citizen's opinion, recent events have handed him a winner.

READ MORE...

The ability to organize economic issues around a simple, lucid theme was a talent of our two most successful recent presidents. Ronald Reagan offered an overarching narrative about how government had come to play too large a role in the economy. His most famous slogans -— "Get the government off our backs," "Morning again in America," "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" -— all got at his notion of unshackling enterprise from its bureaucratic fetters to restore growth.

[Aside: Yes, it got him elected, but how's that working out for ya the last couple of weeks? Are you better off than you were four weeks ago, Grover Norquist? Can we wait to see how these bailouts play out before we carve Ronnie's visage on Mount Rushmore?]

Bill Clinton had a different tale about how ordinary Americans -— people who work hard and play by the rules -— were falling behind. His catchphrases -— "Putting people first," "It's the economy, stupid," "Building a bridge to the 21st century" -— similarly supported the policy changes he thought would help the struggling middle class.

There's a brief window of opportunity here to point out that if government is always and inevitably going be the rescue squad for capitalism, then it owes it to all of us to regulate markets in the name of fairness and stability before the fact. How about this:

"All the American people wanted was common-sense capitalism, and what we got was emergency socialism."

The shorter, rolls-off-your-tongue version is the title of this post. It turns the old Cold War, Us vs. The Commie Pinko Bogeyman sloganeering on its ear, and for once, and while it's still fresh in everyone's mind, suggests we were right all along about drowning babies in bathtubs.

Other suggestions?

Now's the Time to Have Some Big Ideas; Now's the Time to Make Some Firm Decisions

I think Obama did, once again, as he always seems to when it really counts, a tremendous job. It wasn't the rhetorical brilliance of 2004, but that wasn't what he was after. What he was after was a policy speech--a rousing, stirring policy speech, but still--a policy speech. A speech to put an end once and for all to the ignorant carping about all form and no substance, all rhetoric and no detail.

Once he was standing there in front of the set, all of that brain-dead Republican crap about the 'Greek temple' was exposed as the nonsense we always knew it was. The hand-wringing about the move to Invesco Field didn't make a lot of sense either, when it came down to the speech; Obama is one of a very few politicians who can fill a space like that--not fill as in put a butt in every seat, although that's something McCain can't seem to do, but fill as in have a presence such that the space doesn't diminish him.

And yet he didn't leave himself open to the brain-dead 'celebrity' attack, either. He addressed it head-on, but even without that it was clear: this is a guy who inspires a tremendous amount of adulation, but he's not just a 'celebrity'. This is someone who thinks long and hard about what the right thing to do is, who is motivated not by a mere desire to run things but by a desire to govern--to govern well, wisely, and justly, as he understands these things. This was a speech about policy. Agree or disagree with him, but I think most of us can at least be a little happy at the prospect of a thoughtful, intelligent president who really cares about doing the right thing.

Your thoughts?

Tension in Denver

What exactly is the nature of the reported feuding between Obama and Clinton staffs? It certainly isn't about Clinton herself; by all accounts, she's doing everything she can to promote unity. It's partly about Clinton's husband, apparently, but that's clearly not the whole of it.

One passage in the Politico story suggests an answer: More...

A prominent Obama backer said some of Clinton’s lieutentants negotiating with the Obama team are “bitter enders” who presume that, rather than the Clintons reconciling themselves to Obama’s victory, it is up to Obama to accommodate them.

In fact, some senior veterans of Clinton’s presidential campaign do believe this.

It's always those anonymous staffers, isn't it? It's the people who banked on a sure thing and now can't reconcile themselves to the fact that they won't have jobs in this administration. (Or, given the extraordinarily bitter infighting within the campaign, they're pissed off that someone else has a job.) It's not about Clinton (either one) or Obama; it's about the corruption of the political consultant class. It's about people who would rather lose the election, with everything that entails for the country, than be on the outside of the party apparatus.

I'm not the first to point this out, of course. The thing I find striking now is the extent to which Clinton's people are willing to undermine Clinton to get what they want.

Fox News Really Is Fair and Balanced

But only compared to Associated Press.

Today, AP's resident douchebag Ron Fournier has a recycled McCain press release piece titled Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence. The title is obviously one of those wingnut Mad Libs type deals, with the template "Analysis: _____ pick shows lack of _______" ready to fill in as soon as Obama gave them a name (Bayh/principle, Hillary/cojones, Gore/sanity, etc.).

And if you think I'm being overly harsh on poor Mr. Fournier, I suggest you read the backstory at AmericaBlog and Media Matters. Fournier may not have taken that job with the McCain campaign, but he's working for them anyway.

Update: Fournier's known biases aside, the problem with the story is that it assumes the worst possible interpretation and presents it as fact. There are a lot of different things the Biden pick 'shows' about Obama (and his campaign): that he's secure enough not not to worry about being upstaged, for example; that he figures a known, familiar quantity like Biden will offset the 'exotic' factor; that he's looking for a strong, credible attack dog. Any of these could have been the headline for an 'analysis' like Fournier's. A real analysis, in the on-the-one-hand tradition (which is of course deeply problematic, but is better than what we get here), would discuss all of them. Fournier either took his own visceral negative reaction and ran with it, or printed the story 'suggested' to him by his friends at McCain HQ.

McCain, the Clintons, and the 'Race Card' Card

The most poisonous legacy of the Clinton campaign is this: a lot of Democrats now embrace the Republican frame in which any accusation of appealing to racism, made against any white politician, is presumptively bogus (is, in fact, far worse than racism itself). (Conversely, in this frame, any accusation of 'playing the race card' made against any African-American politician is presumptively true.) People like Lambert, Jeralyn Merritt, Taylor Marsh, Riverdaughter¹--all of them laid the groundwork for the campaign McCain is running today.

That's not to say that McCain wouldn't be running on the same coded appeals to racism without them; this was always the plan. More... What they did was broaden the potentially receptive audience for the McCain campaign's pre-emptive attacks on Obama for 'playing the race card', meant to neutralize any potential complaint about racist campaigning by the Republicans.

And they did it the same way Republicans spread their own memes: dishonestly. The fundamental dishonesty in this case was to elide the distinction clarified in this video (hat tip: Hogan), between what one does and what one is. They took accusations that the Clinton campaign was making coded appeals to racism (accusations that were sometimes clearly correct, sometimes murkier, but never crazy) and transformed them into claims that the Clintons were 'racists'--a charge that, as Jay Smooth observes, is much more inflammatory and much easier to swat away.

It's a dishonest line that Bill Clinton himself continues to flog--even though he was never called a 'racist' in the first place (he was, rightly, called out for racially coded remarks, which is altogether different). And it leads directly to the John McCain is not a racist meme that aimai slammed this morning.

I don't consider Lambert, Jeralyn, Taylor Marsh, or most of the anti-Obama club 'racists' (Riverdaughter is another matter entirely; her blog is saturated with the vilest kind of coded racism). They have, however, done a hell of a lot to advance a fundamentally racist meme that the Republicans have picked up and are running with.


¹Sorry, no links.

Happy Birthday

Because I just feel like being presumptuous.

We Write Letters...

...and once in a very great while, they get published:

Editor - Your challenge to Sen. Barack Obama ("Senator Obama, you're invited," July 30) is way off-base.

As long as Sen. John McCain is waging a campaign of fear and smear, Sen. Obama has neither obligation nor reason to meet him in any venue.

To accept your challenge would be to dignify the vicious dishonesty of an angry little man - a man who lacks the stature to stand on the same stage as Sen. Obama.

TOM HILTON

San Francisco

Jujitsu

This I like:



This is the payoff for Obama's 'post-partisan' positioning: the ability to throw McCain's snotty little gibes right back at him, as part of the 'old politics' (a politics, apparently, that existed before the invention of color--that's how old it is). Of course, linking McCain to the Bush-era politics of fear and smear also strengthens the link to Bush's wildly unpopular policies (as the ad makes explicit). Also, they use the word 'old' a lot of times, which has got to hurt.

Meanwhile, former McCain adviser John Weaver (whom Josh Marshall describes as "McCain's inner-Reformer, inner-Dem") really doesn't like McCain's ads:

The ad's premise, he said, is "childish."

"John's been a celebrity ever since he was shot down," Weaver said. "Whatever that means. And I recall Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush going overseas and all those waving American flags."

I don't know for sure that Obama's strategy will succeed in deflecting these attacks...but I'm happy that, unlike the last Democratic nominee, he at least has a strategy.

Earth To McCain: Get A F#%*g Map Already

While Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama put John McCain -- the presumptive foreign-policy expert of the two -- further back on his heels by essentially reaching an agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on a timetable for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq (see aimai's post, below), McCain was burnishing his foreign-policy resumé:

Asked on ABC about the uptick in violence by Islamic extremists in Afghanistan, he replied: "We have a lot of work to do and I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border."

Iraq borders several nations, but Pakistan is not among them...

Kvetchapalooza Revisited

I'm not looking to start another food fight (although it may be inevitable), but I think there are some worthwhile points that got lost in the shuffle in discussing this post. To wit: More...

• I continue to be frustrated with the thing Susie Madrak describes: "If you put 100 Republicans who only agree on one thing in a room, they’ll come out of that room working together to win and focused on that one thing. If you put 100 Democrats in a room who agree on 99 things and not on one, they'll come out of that room fighting about the one thing they disagree on." The former is certainly sub-optimal, but the latter is suicidal.
  
  Call me narrow-minded, but I'm coming down firmly against suicide.



• Obama's FISA vote is regrettable; like Steve, though, I think it's also understandable. To expect a presidential candidate who starts out on the defensive on national security to stick his neck out on an unpopular issue where the result is a fait accompli--well, I'm just not sure that's entirely realistic. Unfortunately.



• FISA aside, the 'rightward shift' is (as Steve points out) almost entirely illusory. More precisely, the perception of a 'rightward shift' is a matter of rhetoric and focus (and, in the case of Iraq, ratfucking by the McCain campaign) rather than any substantive shift in positions. Obama has a solidly liberal voting record, and he remains a solidly liberal presidential candidate.



• Note: 'not as liberal as I am' does not equal 'not a liberal'.



• It seems to me that liberals' distrust of Obama is based far more on the sound of his rhetoric than on the substance of his policies. To the extent that this is true, it's just silly and self-defeating; liberals should welcome what Obama is trying to do. Which is simply this: redefining liberal values as American values. That was the core of his 2004 convention speech. That's the strategy behind every speech he makes. Maybe he can do it, and maybe he can't--who knows--but if he can, wouldn't that be a tremendous thing? Shouldn't we all be cheering him on, hoping against hope that he succeeds--not endlessly kvetching about the particular issues where he's slightly less liberal than we are?
  
  Isn't that a question that answers itself?



• Of the ten highest political priorities this year, the first five are Winning the Election. #6 is some other thing. #7 and #8 are also Winning the Election. #9 is something else, and Winning the Election rounds out the list at #10. I'm no mathematician, but by my count that makes Winning the Election 8 out of the top 10 political priorities.
  
  Let's keep our priorities straight, folks.