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We've been flooded with e-mails in recent days, coinciding with the start of the Obama presidency.  Each one will be answered.  Please give us a little time.  Thanks.

SUNDAY,  JANUARY 25,  2009

HANSON

Posted at 10:18 a.m. ET

Victor Davis Hanson gives his usual sharp analysis, focused this time on the beginnings of the Obama administration.  From The Washington Times:

For nearly three months since the election, we have been warned by President Obama, his staff and the media not to burden him with unreal expectations that no mere mortal could meet.

But why then consciously borrow from Abraham Lincoln's speeches? And why re-create Lincoln's historic train ride to his Inauguration - especially by flying back from Washington to Illinois to then return to D.C. by slow-moving railcar? Lincoln took the train because it was the only feasible way to get to Washington in 1861, not to copy the grand arrival of some earlier American savior.

Wonderfully stated.

And there's something else:

It would be difficult to find a single major policy position that he hasn't backtracked somewhat on, especially on matters of foreign policy and the war against terror. Yet throughout the campaign, Mr. Obama and the media argued that the manner in which Mr. Bush waged the war against terror was harmful to the republic. So, were Mr. Bush's polices wrong then, but suddenly right now?

See our second item today, posted at 8:09 a.m.

Mr. Obama defeated Hillary Clinton by running as a Washington outsider who promised new hope and radical change - and anything other than more Bush or Clinton.

Then he imported much of the old Clinton team for governance - Rahm Emanuel, Leon Panetta, John Podesta, Larry Summers, Hillary herself and a score of others - to put a far more articulate and hip veneer on George Bush's current foreign policy.

We're getting that impression, aren't we?

What is going on here? Apparently, Mr. Obama accepts that the country is both still center-right and yet eager for a nontraditional national spokesman - glib, young, cool and able to charm a hostile world that is often hypocritical toward and envious of America...

...But Mr. Obama's hard-left base had promoted Mr. Obama the liberal activist for different reasons...

...So to satisfy both left and center constituencies, Mr. Obama seems to stick with the status quo on major issues while offering symbolic gestures and low-profile appointments to radical environmentalists, gay and minority activists, open-borders reformers and labor unionists.

But will this all work?  With the Iranians?  With Putin?  The Hamas choir? 

This triangulation may or may not work at home. Yet abroad it is a different story, where one cannot vote present or charm tough guys and thugs who do not always appreciate flexibility - and may interpret it as weakness to be exploited...

...The much-maligned George Bush handled all these characters with often unambiguous, if inelegant, talk, and a no-nonsense toughness. If Mr. Obama, in contrast, feels he can offer them vague hope-and-change great-expectations rhetoric, and make himself agreeable to the world abroad in the manner he did so to us at home - well, then, lots of luck!

Look, as we've said before, we want the president to succeed, especially in foreign- and defense policy.  But Hanson makes a good point.  Mr. Obama is juggling a lot of balls in the air.  He can't let any of them drop.  He's much more articulate than Bush, but what is lacking thus far is clearly defined policy.

January 25, 2009.      Permalink          

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED TO BIPARTISANSHIP - AT 9:45 A.M. ET:  The way the media has been reporting it, Senator John McCain has almost become an ex officio member of the Obama administration, maybe even eligible for an Obama knighthood.  Rahm Emanuel was even seated next to Cindy McCain at the inaugural luncheon.

Not so fast, media.  Take this, from Politico 44, covering the Obama presidency:

Maverick: McCain's not on board with the stimulus plan.

"I think there has to be major rewrites if we want to stimulate the economy. I am opposed to most of the provisions in the bill. As it stands now I would not support it," he said in an appearance on Fox News Sunday.

COMMENT:  Mavericks cut both ways.  McCain retains his independence, and opposes the highly defective stimulus package, which, as written, won't stimulate anything but a flood of new federal projects named for local congressmen.  Go Mac.

NEW SENATOR GETS KNIFED - AT 9:35 A.M. ET:  From The Politico:

Within the high school gossip circle that is New York’s congressional delegation, Kirsten Gillibrand’s nickname is “Tracy Flick” — a not-so-flattering reference to the over-eager, blonde, bubbly and viciously competitive Reese Witherspoon character from “Election.”

Gillibrand, the newly appointed junior senator from New York, has never been shy about her political ambitions — or her willingness to vault over older, more experienced politicians.

COMMENT:  Let's translate this into English.  Compared to what they called Hillary Clinton, Tracy Flick is a compliment.  Bottom line, Gillibrand is a centrist, and the party's left wing is furious.  Also, she doesn't come from the New York City area, which means she's considered foreign-born by much of the state's Dem establishment - maybe not even a citizen, possibly a spy. 

THE ACADEMIC WARS - AT 9:26 A.M. ET:  From TaxProf Blog via InstaPundit:

Teresa R. Wagner, Associate Director of the University of Iowa College of Law Writing Resource Center, has filed a lawsuit against the school and its dean, Tax Prof Carolyn Jones, claiming that she was twice rejected for a legal writing faculty position because of her conservative political views. From the Chronicle of Higher Education and Des Moines Register:

She argues that affiliations listed on her résumé, including stints with groups like the National Right to Life Committee, did her in with a liberal-leaning faculty. To bolster her case, the lawsuit dissects the political affiliations of the approximately 50 faculty members who vote on law-school faculty hires; 46 of them are registered as Democrats and only one, hired 20 years ago, is a Republican, the lawsuit states. Ms. Wagner also says that a law-school associate dean suggested that she conceal her affiliation with a conservative law school [Ave Maria] and later told her not to apply for any more faculty positions.

"She just wants to make it known that conservatives need not apply," Wagner's lawyer, Stephen Fieweger of Moline, Ill., said. "Liberals talk about diversity, except when it comes to bringing in a different, conservative point of view."

COMMENT:  Discrimination against conservatives has become commonplace in our universities.  What can be done about it?  Probably not much, except to wait for generational change.  A recent New York Times piece asserted that most young faculty members aren't as ideological as their older, sixties-oriented colleagues.  Let's hope that's true.  I'd like to see more proof.

A REMINDER - AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Every night around 8 o’clock, the terrified residents of Swat, a lush and picturesque valley a hundred miles from three of Pakistan’s most important cities, crowd around their radios. They know that failure to listen and learn might lead to a lashing — or a beheading.

Using a portable radio transmitter, a local Taliban leader, Shah Doran, on most nights outlines newly proscribed “un-Islamic” activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees — and those they plan to kill.

COMMENT:  A friendly reminder of what we're up against.  These are not people with whom you negotiate.  We are at war, and Americans are forgetting.

THE PARTY LINE, BIG TIME - AT 8:09 A.M. ET: 

Don't believe in party-line journalism?  Think again.  When Bush did something, it was bad, sinister, incompetent, not working.  If Obama does it - well, let's have a second look.  A classic example comes from William Saletan in Slate.  He first notes that pilotless-drone attacks into Pakistan, begun under Bush, continue under Obama.  Why?  Get this:

Why is Obama sticking with Bush's drone war? Because it's doing its job, grimly and quietly.

Huh?  You mean it's working?  As Johnny Carson used to say, "I did not know that."  Apparently it's working now that Obama has taken the oath, twice.

And it's suddenly such a good war.  We love it, don't we?

...a drone doesn't need to return fire. It can listen, watch, and wait until it has the bad guys in its sights with few civilians in the way.
If I'm a new U.S. president who needs to hunt, kill, and deter terrorists without invading or occupying countries, this is the kind of war I want.

So welcome to the new line, the lovely war.  Suddenly the things that Mr. Bush was doing look awfully good, and so intelligent.  Why, this is a war we can all believe in.  See your recruiting sergeant today.  You can get an age waiver. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 5:53 A.M. ET:  From David Horowitz, quoted in The Wall Street Journal:

If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals, this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday, and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years, which rejected it. If Americans now have accepted an African American to lead their country in war and peace that is in part because an hysterically maligned Republican made two African Americans his secretaries of state. And if, after the passage of the Civil Rights Acts, race has continued to be a divisive factor in our politics over the last 40 years that is because the generation of Sharpton and Jackson and their liberal supporters have made it so. .

Well stated.

SATURDAY,  JANUARY 24,  2009

ENOUGH ALREADY - AT 5:44 P.M. ET:  From NewsBusters:

Wednesday’s post-inaugural edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show, taped at a Washington restaurant, overflowed with strange and messianic notions about Obama and how the thrill over him is unanimous. Actor Forest Whitaker summed it up for Oprah: "The light of the New Age is here." Oprah pal Gayle King passed along her agreement with a message that "Not only does he hear us. He feels us. That when I hear Barack Obama, they said, he talks to my soul." Whitaker also strangely claimed "we’re not used to seeing" a president and a First Lady who love each other, but the Obamas have signaled "it’s okay to love."

COMMENT:  This doesn't do the president a bit of good.  After a while, it starts looking ridiculous.  Some people need maturity lessons.  The president should be embarrassed, and should tell his friends to cool it.

HOW ENCOURAGING - AT 5:37 P.M. ET:  From The Washington Post:

MEXICO CITY -- President Felipe Calderon's war on drug trafficking has led to his own doorstep, with the arrest of a dozen high-ranking officials with alleged ties to Mexico's most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa Cartel.

The U.S. praises Calderon for rooting out corruption at the top. But critics say the arrests reveal nothing more than a timeworn government tactic of protecting one cartel and cracking down on others.

COMMENT:  Mexico is another country that likes to lecture the United States.  It should solve some of its problems first.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - AT 5:33 P.M. ET:  From the Jerusalem Post:

George Mitchell will make his first trip to the region later this week as Washington's new Middle East envoy. He will hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian Authority leaders.

A Foreign Ministry official told the Associated Press that Mitchell would be arriving on Wednesday.

Sources in Jerusalem said they were eager to hear what Mitchell has to say, following on from the very positive initial contacts with both US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

COMMENT:  Very preliminary.  Israel votes on February 10th, so the current government is a lame-duck affair.  The Palestinians are almost in a civil war.  Why would Mitchell want a job like this?

COMING DOWN TO EARTH - AT 5:29 P.M. ET:  From The Politico:

The Gallup Poll on Saturday released the first job-approval rating for President Obama, based on interviews during his first three full days in office: 68 percent.

Now that he’s in office, Obama’s approval ratings are starting to normalize, as partisan back-and-forth picks up. Just a week ago, Gallup found an astonishing 83 percent approval of how he has handled his transition, showing he had even won over most Republicans.

COMMENT:  Please notice that there are also early references in the news to the fact that there'll be another election in two years - for Congress.  Not too early to plan.  If the economy doesn't revive by then, it's possible Republicans can make great gains.

ACTION IN AFGHANISTAN:  From The New York Times:

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. coalition said Saturday that an overnight raid killed 15 Taliban militants but village elders who quickly traveled to speak with government officials said the dead were all civilians.

A detailed U.S. statement said multiple teams of militants fired on the coalition forces during a raid in the eastern province of Laghman, including a woman the U.S. said was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade.

COMMENT:  The key point here is that this occurred on Obama's watch, and his administration went forward with the raid.  There was also a missile strike into the border area with Pakistan.  Too early to detect the specifics of the Obama policy, but the fact that both attacks went forward is telling. 

DEMOCRATIC WARS

Posted at 7:43 a.m. ET

It is approaching armed combat within the Democratic Party of New York.  Sides are being chosen.  Gun stores are being emptied.  At its core:  Instead of picking Caroline Kennedy for the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, Governor David Paterson picked an upstate congresswoman backed by the NRA, someone whose apparent sin is that she doesn't do fine dining in Manhattan often enough.  The Caroline thing won't go away, as the New York Post reports:

Gov. Paterson rapped Caroline Kennedy at a private event the night before he tapped Kirsten Gillibrand for the Senate, telling guests Kennedy had been "nasty" to him and shown "disrespect" with how she bowed out, attendees told The Post.

The governor's attack came just hours after his office issued a statement wishing her well and disavowing quotes from a source close to him who had told The Post Kennedy had never been in true contention for the seat and was "mired" in personal issues.

There is now widespread talk of the Dem establishment mounting primary campaigns in 2010 against both Paterson and Gillibrand.  The Kennedy crowd is angry.  The gun-control crowd is angry.  The chic New York City feminists are angry.  And there is salt in the wound.  Again, the New York Post reports:

Gov. Paterson yesterday named upstate Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to be the state's new US senator - but the press conference took a bizarre turn when Republican mega-lobbyist Alfonse D'Amato moved front and center.

Democrats statewide were aghast to see the former senator and GOP power broker standing close to Gillibrand on stage throughout the nationally telecast news conference that Paterson called to unveil his surprise replacement for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The fact is that Gillibrand was once an intern for D'Amato. 

Two notes:  President Obama pointedly called Senator-designate Gillibrand to congratulate her.  Also, the Post reports, and no one denies, that allies of Hillary Clinton worked to get Gillibrand the appointment, something they'd never have done without Clinton's approval.  Clinton, understandably, did not want to be succeeded by Caroline Kennedy, who worked against her in the presidential primaries.

This is a continuing saga, with national implications.  If the New York Dems dissolve into civil war, the GOP could conceivably win Gillibrand's Senate seat, and the right GOP candidate for president might have a shot at the state in 2012.

So much fun. 

January 24, 2009.      Permalink          

MORE DISGRACE, AT 7:02 A.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

SCO Family of Services, a nonprofit agency based on Long Island, started the year with a $25 million credit line at its bank, which it planned to use to pay its bills while awaiting government reimbursements and donations.

Now, after its bank has cut its credit line twice and withdrawn a promise to support a critical bond offering, the organization is worried about whether it can pay its employees this month.

COMMENT:  Wasn't the purpose of the first bailout to get the credit markets going?  There is no accountability and not many questions asked in Washington.  Republicans should have opposed this bailout.  They should oppose new ones that don't have absolute transparency.  I'd love to know how many "executive" bonuses were paid with our money, while charities like the ones above go begging.  We, on our side, claim that we'd rather have private agencies dispense social services, rather than governments.  Let's back up the rhetoric with action.

DISGRACEFUL, AT 6:54 A.M. ET:  Get this, from Reuters, especially the second paragraph:

President Barack Obama's administration will have to "drastically revise" American policies relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if Washington seeks to maintain its leadership role in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. said on Friday.

In an article on the Financial Times Web site, Prince Turki al-Faisal said former President George W. Bush had left a "sickening legacy" in the Middle East.

COMMENT:  Utterly disgraceful language.  This is the ambassador to Washington from a country shoulder deep in preaching hatred of Christians and Jews, and he presumes to lecture us, and to make entirely inappropriate remarks about the former president.  It won't happen, but the proper response should be a formal protest by the State Department, and a possible demand that the ambassador be replaced.  You can be sure, though, that the Saudi lobby will make sure things are glossed over.