Hillary’s Voice

Obama Named Time Person of the YearObama has made it clear that he knows how to write new playbooks and do things in new ways. Which is a compelling quality right now. His arrival on the scene feels like a step into the next century — his genome is global, his mind is innovative, his world is networked, and his spirit is democratic.

Cold Comfort Dept.: Bush Prepares Crisis Briefings to Aid Obama (New York Times)The White House has prepared more than a dozen contingency plans to help guide President-elect Barack Obama if an international crisis erupts in the opening days of his administration, part of an elaborate operation devised to smooth the first transition of power since Sept. 11, 2001.The Real Barack Obama

Wrapped in the Flag

Iraqi Journalist Throws His Shoes At Bush During Press Conference In Baghdad (Think Progress)

Blago Blogging (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)The holidays are starting to look pretty good. As Mawm said “All I got last Fitzmas was a Scooter.” Maybe this year we’ll get a pony after all.Matt Davies

The Mission of the Press Is Priceless (by Frank Harris III, Hartford Courant)If the press were bailed out by the government then we’d have a government-owned press that would seek to silence its critics and eliminate stories that questioned government on what its many members and branches were doing.As opposed to a corporate-owned press that seeks to silence government critics and eliminate stories that question government on what is many members and branches are doing. Glad to clear that up.—CaroInside Blagojevich’s tangled web (video, Hardball, MSNBC)It’s necessarily simplified, and names innocent as well as potentially guilty parties, but may help you get a grasp on some of the relationships.—Caro

“Pay To Play” Is The Chicago Way (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)

Obama’s old Senate seat for sale on eBay (Seattle Tech Report, Post-Intelligencer)

The Heretik

Obama Warns of Further Economic PainWASHINGTON — Saying that the United States economy was likely to worsen before it improves, President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday pledged to pursue a recovery plan “equal to the task ahead,” including the creation of a vast public-works program not just built around bridge and highway projects, but on creating “green jobs” and disseminating new technologies.Spend, Obama, spend! And save jobs (by Joe Conason)The first thing Obama should do is use federal funds to keep public employees from joining the swelling ranks of the unemployed.Obama Pledges Massive Infrastructure Plan (Political Wire)In his Saturday radio address, President-elect Obama committed to “the largest public works construction program since the creation of the interstate highway system a half-century ago as he seeks to put together a plan to resuscitate the reeling economy… “Although he put no price tag on it, he said he would invest record amounts of money in the vast infrastructure program, which also includes work on schools, sewer systems, mass transit, electric grids, dams and other public utilities. He vowed to upgrade computers in schools, expand broadband Internet access, make government buildings more energy efficient and improve information technology at hospitals and doctors’ offices.”Broadband nation (by Jeff Jarvis)If we wanted subsidy, there could be none better than assuring that the entire nation is on broadband. Then all consumers, all content, all advertisers could meet there. It would fast-forward the inevitable. It would spark innovation and jobs and trade and education. To hell with public-service broadcasting. How about public-service connectivity?Public Opinion Snapshot: Ready for Change on Jobs and Health Care (by Ruy Teixeira, Center for American Progress)The incoming Obama administration has some mighty ambitious plans to fix America’s problems. And Americans say they’re OK with that. A just-released Democracy Corps poll found that 66 percent of the public supports Obama’s “policies and goals for the country” as opposed to only 28 percent who do not.Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Over Obama’s Citizenship (The Caucus, New York Times)Without any comment whatsoever, the Supreme Court today declined to take up an appeal by a New Jersey man who questioned President-elect Barack Obama’s eligibility for the presidency, based on his birth to a father from Kenya and a mother who was a United States citizen. The case, brought by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., contended that Mr. Obama could not be considered a “natural-born citizen” — a constitutional ground for becoming president of the United States — because he had dual nationality at birth.This decision confirms my belief that the Republican powers that be WANT Obama in the presidency. They must think they have a better chance of discrediting him and the Democratic Party with Obama at the helm.—CaroClick here for more politics and media news headlines.Carolyn KayMakeThemAccountable.com

Obama legal team meets with anti-torture generalsWASHINGTON - A dozen retired generals met with President-elect Barack Obama’s top legal advisers Wednesday, pressing their case to overturn some of the Bush administration’s terrorism-fighting policies.Jamiol’s World

Changing the Changie Change Thing (by dakinikat at The Confluence)So, he’s rethinking Gitmo closing, not changing the Bush tax cuts, just saying no to the windfall profits tax that was supposed to pay for health care, and appointing the same folks to cabinet positions he was criticizing just months ago? What’s next? Pardoning Dubya of anything remotely resembling a crime on January 20th?The difference between Hillary Clinton and Obama is that Hillary is exactly who she says she is (by J -SOM at Liberal Rapture)

Beef - Head Exploding Experience

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day (Political Wire)”I’m sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me.” — President Bush, in an interview with CNN.Resting a wee bit easier (by J -SOM at Liberal Rapture)

Spinning Heads (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)

White House sends out Christmas-themed Hanukkah invitations. (Think Progress)President and First Lady Bush recently sent Jewish community leaders invitations to a Hanukkah reception at the White House next month. But as the New York Post reports, the invitations “raised more than a few eyebrows” because the image on them was that of a “Clydesdale horse hauling a Christmas fir along the snow-dappled drive to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave”:

Joe Klein’s extreme revisionism (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)Joe Klein, this week’s Time Magazine, on George Bush’s legacy: “…I’ve been searching for valedictory encomiums… [like] the bracing moment of Bush with the bullhorn in the ruins of the World Trade Center, but that was neutered in my memory by his ridiculous, preening appearance in a flight suit on the deck of the aircraft carrier beneath the ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign…” Joe Klein, Face the Nation, May 4, 2003, with Bob Schieffer — 3 days after Bush’s Mission Accomplished speech: “…[T]hat was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day.”… As bad as this absence of remorse is, it is simply intolerable to watch those who cheered on many of the worst excesses try now to pretend that they were skeptical, adversarial critics all along. Journalists with influential platforms have responsibilities, the primary one of which is to be accountable for what they say and do.Commentary: Presidential campaign was awash in paradox (by J. Peder Zane, Raleigh News & Observer)The 2008 presidential campaign offered a study in contrasts.It revolutionized the political process by harnessing the power of the Internet to forge new relationships between the candidates and voters.It was also a deeply traditional campaign decided by economic fears and get-out-the-vote efforts.It was fueled by the raw power of bottom-up, grass-roots efforts.It was also one of the most tightly scripted, top-down contests in recent history.It provided voters with more information than ever before.It also generated so much misinformation that it was harder than ever to separate fact from fiction.Those were some of the paradoxical observations that four political reporters shared at a Duke University panel on media coverage of the 2008 election.Obama: Change ‘comes from me,’ not his appointees (McClatchy)WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama essentially said Wednesday that he is the change, striving to assure Americans that he’ll shake up Washington despite filling his administration with old hands from the Clinton administration and the capital’s corridors of power.I guess he’s the Decider.—CaroClick here for more politics and media news headlines.Carolyn KayMakeThemAccountable.com

In Thanksgiving Tradition, Bush Pardons Scooter Libby In Giant Turkey Costume (The Onion)The pardon assures that Libby will not face any more repercussions for his role in the Valerie Plame scandal or be eaten on Thanksgiving.A little Thanksgiving Fool humor.—Caro

Normally I would say “So what?” (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)From Politico: “OBAMA SKIPS CHURCH, HEADS TO GYM”… Now I don’t really care if Barack Obama attends a church, temple, mosque or gym every weekend. But he’s the one who made a big deal over his religious faith… It’s the hypocrisy, stupid!He doesn’t need the South Side black churches any more. He’s made it. He can forget them.—Caro

Obama the Secret Progressive (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)From Chris Bowers: “According to [The Atlantic’s Marc] Ambinder, hiring centrists and Republicans for top positions in the Obama administration actually means that Obama intends to govern in a clearly progressive direction…” Put down your sippy-kup Marc, and check this out: “A senior Obama campaign official shared with The Washington Note that in July 2008, the McCain and Obama camps began to work secretly behind the scenes to assemble large rosters of potential personnel for the administration that only one of the candidates would lead.” WE TOLD YOU SO!Bacevich: ‘I want to see President Obama explicitly abrogate the doctrine of preventive war.’ (Think Progress)Earlier today, ThinkProgress interviewed Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University who has been one of the most astute foreign policy critics of the Bush administration. (Bacevich’s son died while serving in Iraq.) In his new book, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, Bacevich challenges Obama to “go beyond merely pointing out the folly of the Iraq war” and “demonstrate that Iraq represents the truest manifestation of an approach to national security that is fundamentally flawed… I would want to see a President Obama explicitly abrogate the doctrine of preventive war and to question fundamentally whether global war — open-ended global war — really provides the proper framework in which to address the threat posed by violent Islamic radicalism.”Click through to listen.—CaroWhy Obama should end the “war on terror” (by Gary Kamiya) Bush’s infantile response to 9/11 has harmed our national interests for too long. It’s time to declare it dead.Click here for more politics and media news headlines.Carolyn KayMakeThemAccountable.com

Tracking the center-right nation meme (County Fair, Media Matters for America)[W]ithin hours of the Democrat’s White House victory, the “center-right” faucet was turned on.

MSNBC’s Phill Griffin answers his own question (County Fair, Media Matters for America)Addressing students at Vassar College, the cabler chief bemoaned “the parlous condition of traditional news media,” according to a local newspaper account. Griffin also informed the students that, looking back on the historic 2008 campaign, Sarah Palin “”made this election.” We’re pretty sure there’s a connection between those two points.The Agony of the Women of 2008 (video, thanks to InsightAnalytical)Men pontificate on the role of women in the 2008 presidential election.—Caro

Obama calls on his Internet campaign army to march again (McClatchy)WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama’s 3 million campaign volunteers got re-enlistment notices this week. Campaign manager David Plouffe, in a mass e-mail sent Wednesday to former workers, asked how much time they can spare for four missions integral to Obama’s effort to transform his victory into a broader political movement.. “Obama’s building a political machine,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, a center-left Washington research group.Trust Obama on Clinton (by Joan Walsh, Salon)If he believes she can contribute to his foreign policy, but most important, carry it out; that she can represent him well and inform his worldview; that she can improve our standing abroad, well, then, I believe she can, too. This choice is neither a popularity contest nor a meritocracy; it’s all about the person the president believes can best represent his foreign policy and America’s interests in the world. He has to deeply trust the man or woman in that role.Oh, Joan, you are so sweetly naïve. You obviously don’t know anything about Chicago hardball politics. He offered her the Secretary of State position to force her to give up the organization of a million donors and activists that she built during the primary. He wants HIS organization to be the only force to be reckoned with. And it won’t necessarily be tied to the Democratic Party. It might be the Obama Party.—CaroClinton set to be nominated secretary of state after Nov. 27Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — Senator Hillary Clinton is likely to be nominated for secretary of state after the Nov. 27 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, according to an aide to President-elect Barack Obama. Potential hurdles related to the financial disclosures of Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, have been worked out, said the aide, who asked not to be named. The appointment, should the New York Democrat accept the post, would make her Obama’s highest-ranking Cabinet official. Backers say the popularity of both Hillary and Bill Clinton overseas would be a boon to the U.S.’s global reputation.See? By making this announcement he tried to force her to say yes. For those who haven’t noticed the thuggery, it’s time you did. As Booman, who refused to listen to me when I tried to tell him about Chicago politics, said, “People would do well to heed Emanuel’s message [about health care], lest they get a fist in the mouth or a dead fish in the mail” (thanks, Lambert).—CaroAnd she has decided to accept, I’m sorry to say.Clinton Decides to Accept Post at State Dept., Confidants Say (New York Time)WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.Click here for more politics and media news headlines.Carolyn KayMakeThemAccountable.com

The Song of Our New ObamaNation: The Bitch Deserved It (by madamab at The Confluence)