Watching the last week of political news, I realize a new approach is needed post-2008 election.
Obama and the Democrats seem to be showing us that this election drove out the far right and reinstated the center-right establishment, even if the people voted for something else.
One could document the atrocities, but that takes work, and others are better at it than I. See OpenLeft for example.
Instead it’s probably a good time to shift gears and think about the big picture, outside the box (or is bun?), beyond the fringe, one step ahead, macro … OK, maybe not that. I just can’t get too excited about the wit and wisdom of Robert Rubin’s acolytes as they bring about a “New” New Deal.
Perhaps Bush bailed out Citigroup to spare Obama the embarrassment of saving a failing bank that’s run by the guru of his economic team (Rubin is Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup, and for a few months in late 2007 ran the company). They may do all right, but I’d rather have seen some people who actually saw the disaster coming be put in charge of fixing it.
At least the country elected someone who opposed the Iraq War to run the planned withdrawal. But Robert Gates staying on? Praise all the return of George Herbert Walker Bush’s Sec. of Defense, sane centrist.
I gave Obama 24 hours plus to make me think we are the change we’ve been waiting for. Now I’m done with that. But I’m not going to start hacking away at Obama. He’s better than Bush.
Instead I’m going to try hard to think in some different way about the political moment. What is that way? I’m asking this lady for help.