Fresh Faces, Old Faithfuls, First Looks, and Last Hurrahs Part I
When Senator Obama reached the 270 electoral vote threshold last Tuesday, he was announced as the President Elect of the United States of America. Senator McCain conceded soon after, and the most tangible winner and loser were defined. They were not, however, the only winners and losers of this election cycle. New faces burst on the political scene, some to great acceptance and others just for their fifteen minutes. The following is the first installment…
Winner: Robert Gibbs: Gibbs’ high point, prior to being appointed White House Press Secretary in the days after the election, was when he took on Sean Hannity after the Second Presidential Debate. Like Obama, Gibbs has a calm demeanor, vast intelligence, a certain eloquence and fact-based pragmatism. He has shown the ability to play on any field, under any rules. He will be an excellent public facade for the Obama White House.
Winner: Sarah Palin: She is certainly a winner from the standpoint that, coming from relative obscurity, she has become a household name. Her brand is the hottest thing in the Republican Party right now. A recent Rasmussen poll suggests that 91% of Republicans have a favorable view of the Alaska Governor and 64% suggest she is their current top of the ticket choice for 2012.
Loser: Fox News, Roger Ailes: The unprecedented access that Fox News had under a Bush Administration has come to an end. During the election, while Governor Palin was refusing to talk to the media, Fox News kept scoring interviews with the Republican ticket. Fox News was responsible for the salience of issues like Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, and (believe it or not) the focus on media criticism. Without a candidate to back or secret talking point memos from the White House, they will find themselves running short on reporting and long on sensationalism. Okay, so that’s nothing new.
Loser: Rick Davis, Steve Schmidt & Co.: Don’t cry to hard for these guys, or any of McCain’s chief strategists. They will all be fine, find work, and greatly increase their wealth. For the moment, however, they are responsible for running perhaps the worst campaign in Presidential history. It didn’t help that their counterparts ran the best campaign in history, or that they faced such a strong Bush rejection headwind. But this campaign was continually off base in its projections, decisions and estimates. The campaign flailed from one issue to the next, denying what polls and common sense told us were the most important issue to voters. They seemed to throw everything they could at the Obama Camp, hoping something would eventually stick. It didn’t. In the end, you pandered to the base, got their votes, and lost the election convincingly.
Loser: Ralph Nader: It appears that his buzz is gone. This photograph is telling. I don’t think this is a general rejection of Mr. Nader, or of alternatives to the Republicans and Democrats. What happened here is just that the messengers time seems to have passed. This was a last political gasp. This is the guy that made seat belts standard in cars. I hope he continues his consumer advocacy. He has done phenomenal work in that arena.
Loser: Two Party System: What options did the fiscally conservative, socially progressive folks have? It seems to me that this group represents a large portion of the electorate. The breaking of ranks by influential Republicans like Colin Powell, David Brooks, and Andrew Sullivan begs the question, where will they fit in in the future. There is a mutual rejection between intellectual conservatives and an increasingly anti-intellectual Republican Party. This is a very complicated issue but this may be the beginning of the end for a two party system in a country with a plurality of beliefs.
Winner: Maverick Republicans: Not McCain, I refer to the real mavericks, under the true definition. The Republicans who refused to be branded as such, and jumped ship to vote for Barack Obama, increased their credibility immensely. They didn’t change their minds, they didn’t stab their party in the back, they made a choice based on the facts presented to them. They made a decision independent of the party line. This type of action is far too rare in politics, where running with the herd as seen as the norm and often rewarded. I’d love to see more of this, coming from all directions.
Winner: Newt Gingrich: This is a very smart individual. He seemed to sense weakness and kept his hands off this election for the most part. He keeps writing books, appearing on television, and speaking to anyone who will listen. But he did not attach his name to the McCain-Palin ticket as much as he was simply against Obama. Mr. Gingrich is one of the most politically shrewd players in America. I believe his days of running for office are over but i think he will play a major role as the man behind the curtain in 2016 and get a sweet appointment out of the deal.
Loser: Tucker Bounds: The newest “Tucker” came on the scene, got his time, and he is done. I try to avoid ad hominem attacks but this guy is a total clown. It is disingenuous to claim that everything your candidate does is perfect in motive and execution, while the opponent has never done anything well. He was in the bubble this election. He even tried to make Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama into a negative for his opponent. Things are not so black and white, Tucker. You have no credibility.
Winner: The People of the United States of America: We elected a non-white President of the United States. This is a major accomplishment. Our country, as diverse as any in the world, was built on the backs of slaves. We have an appalling record when it comes to equality and race relations and, though we preach opportunity, this is a proud proof that our ideals can eventually match our actions.
Winner: International Relations: The way the world views America is important for national security, world economy, and human rights. Our policy for the past eight years has been arrogant, divisive, and deceptive. The world will benefit from an open-minded president, willing to listen and debate. Obama has the opportunity to start over and repair strained international relations. If we can mend our status in the world, we may be able to facilitate conversations between factions and warring parties worldwide. The world is better off with an honest, open, intelligent, pragmatic United States.
There are many more to come. Feel free to comment and offer your winners and losers.
2 Comments
November 10, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Todd, care to offer any predictions? What trajectory will Obama’s term take? What will be likely successes and failures, and where will he stand come the next election?
I’d offer that his positive momentum is so strong that he gets almost a free pass to a second term if he can score a handful of notable achievements and avoid any major blunders, and the economy isn’t even worse at that time.
Sarah Palin is not a viable presidential candidate. There’s just no way. Without polling data, I imagine she may have positively influenced a small segment or two McCain wouldn’t have gotten without her but, more significantly, pushed a large portion of his undecided base into the other camp. Being folksy may be appealing, but it doesn’t qualify you to run the country, and you can’t get from here to there in another 4 years.
Obama should do fine as long as he governs from the middle in a true effort to be reasonable and collaborative. Now, we find out whether the Republicans’ assertions about how radical he is are true.
Your point about international relations as the winner is not to be underestimated. Setting aside the economy for a moment–which ebbs and flows beyond the reach or understanding of any president–I fear we remain at serious risk in our relationship with the rest of the world. It’s not just that I don’t like being the least popular nationality at the table when I’m having dinner tomorrow night in Switzerland. (Actually, the French rank as the worst tourists.) It’s not just about people saying mean things about us. We Americans usually don’t even pay attention to what anyone says beyond our borders. Rather, it’s as complex as the reality that the world will have major fundamental challenges that it won’t be able to solve without mutual respect and cooperation between countries. And, it’s as simple as someone wanting to bring a nuclear or biologic weapon into one of our cities. There isn’t a long-term military answer to that. The only way to defeat it is to decrease the underlying desire, decrease the hatred. To do that, you have to understand why large groups of people would hate us. I don’t buy that it’s because of our freedom, our religion or the way women don’t have to cover their faces. There are reasons, and some of them are probably valid.
Someone who never had a passport before this year’s election might not understand that. The question is how well Obama does.
A final note. I appreciate the racial significance of Barak Obama being America’s first black president. If you really stopped to think about it, while watching the celebration, you maybe were able to conceive of how it felt to so many black people in this country. For the first time, there was undeniable living proof that someone like them in appearance has no boundaries and can be truly equal in this society. After so long, it’s almost like a dream.
But even from a racial standpoint, there is much more significance to Obama’s election than that. We all know that U.S. history dictates that you’re black if any part of your geneology is black or you look black. But Obama is half black and half white. He’s bi-racial, and he also had an international upbringing, making him representative of much more of this nation’s future than discrimination against a single group. In other words, part of what we needed was not our first black leader, but a leader of varied perspective, deep understanding and true empathy. In addition, this election showed that a person in this country is not barred from success simply because of his or her race. Obama was elected largely by white Americans. Racism still exists among ALL races. But with Obama’s election, we see that what some might have suspected is a deeply, pervasively racist white America is not quite what they’d assumed.
November 10, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Carrot Cake Man,
Thanks for the comment. Addressing your remarks one at a time, but in no particular order…
Sarah Palin- I’m just reporting the polling data. I think she is probably a very nice lady at home in Alaska but I would leave the country if she became President. Literally. We have seen what anti-intellectualism has done for the country and it ain’t pretty. The problem is that the Republican Party is at a crossroads and when people are desperate they can act illogically. I have a theory about this that I will write more about tomorrow, so check back. I have to add that when I first saw the data I was ecstatic that Palin might get the nod because she is a sure loser. Upon reflection, though, I always want the people’s decision to be between the best possible choices, so I hope her name is absent from the 2012 ballot.
As for a free pass for Obama, I hope he doesn’t need it. I am hopeful about this presidency. Really hopeful. And I am a very cynical person. I think you may be on to something though with the free pass theory. The reality is that things can’t get much worse and it is hard to overcome cognitive dissonance. People who voted for Obama will not be quick to admit they were wrong if it comes to this. Also, the Republicans may offer a sacrificial lamb in 2012 because they don’t want risk a Bobby Jindal or Tim Pawlenty against an incumbent advantage. So it may be 2016 before they pull the big guns out.
Predictions- Again, I have a lot more to say than I will write here but, overall, I think he will do a great job. Watching his first presser as President-Elect, and notwithstanding the strange Nancy Reagan comment, I was struck by how nice it will be to have a top of the line intellect talking to us as President. I also love his choices of Gibbs and Emmanuel. I think Obama’s white house will be streamlined and transparent. I think he is a hard worker, bright, well organized, and has done a phenomenal job so far surrounding himself with people who produce results without drama. Just insofar as being a “chief executive” I think he will do a very good job. He is nowhere near as liberal as the recent McCain campaign would have us believe. I think he will govern very effectively from the center. He will not surround himself with yes men, instead relying on his people to offer contradiction and alternate theory. I remember writing papers in school and I would always try to acknowledge the best criticism of my thesis and address it. It would have been easier to bring up the worst objections and defeat those, but I wanted a cogent argument. This is how I envision President Obama dealing with things. He deals in logical argument, not fallacy and equivocation. He has said he will listen to all sides, especially when they disagree. This is important. I believe, contrary to our media assertions, that we are a Center-left country. Notice the capital C. To govern from the center requires heeding the voices of the left and the right. I think Obama is ready to do this.
Racially, this country has so far to go it is scary. I am fearful when I read WSJ articles about how this proves racism is over in America or hear George Will say we marked “paid” to the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world. But electing Obama was an enormous step (or at least a symbol of many steps). I really feel proud of that. And I plan on savoring the flavoring. But I also think that Barack Obama had to be the “Perfect” black man in order to win election. He had to have the perfect family, raised by white folks, talk a certain way, act a certain way. Any number of small imperfections could have been the end of his campaign where a white guy could have gotten away with it. All that and he couldn’t even bring up race- no mention of poverty, Aids, welfare, things that people could have called “black issues.” Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if he lost a good 6-7 points to racism, even in light of increased black registration. But we are past the time when it is impossible to elect a black man and that is wonderful.
Last thing – International Relations. I hope that the first thing he says to these foreign diplomats is, I am not GWB. If the world can find a way to give us a clean, or even mildly dirty, slate to work from, we should do so much better. The idea that people hate us for our freedoms – I don’t understand this argument, it seems counterintuitive. People may hate us for our arrogance, unilateral use of power, penchant for exerting political will, unwillingness to listen, interventionism when convenient, or economic blackmail. Freedom has nothing to do with it and it is insulting when politicians try to sell me that load of crap.
Anyway, those are some thoughts. I guess I left out the potential pitfalls. Just allow me to bask in the sun for a minute. I’ll get to it.