Obama’s Big First Day
An executive order mandating the closure of the notorious Guantanamo Bay gulag within 12 months, along with George Bush’s disgraceful network of secret CIA prisons and Bush’s torutre policies, too.
A pay freeze for administration members earning over $100,000 a year and strict rules on lobbying, both before and after serving his White House.
Phone calls to top Middle Eastern leaders, and a nod to former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell as Mideast envoy. Mitchell did great things during the Clinton administration for peace in Northern Ireland, but he has special qualifications for this job, too, as Mother Jones points out:
At first glance, Mitchell may not seem the most obvious choice for the Middle East envoy job. Others have far more experience in the region, and Mitchell’s success in Northern Ireland does not necessarily translate to the intractable conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. But what you may not know is that Mitchell is himself of Lebanese ancestry; his father, John Kilroy, was an Irishman adopted by a Lebanese family, and his mother was a Lebanese Maronite Christian.
More than that, Mitchell had a brief, albeit unsuccessful, run as Middle East envoy during President Bill Clinton’s last-minute attempt to broker peace there before he left office. The so-called “Mitchell Commission” studied the conflict in detail for several months before releasing a report in April 2001 to the newly inaugurated Bush administration.As with his work in Northern Ireland, Mitchell suggested in the 2001 report (available here) that no peace could come to the Middle East until both sides stopped the violence and steeled themselves for difficult negotiations. Beyond that, though, he affected a more balanced approach to the peace process, calling not only for the Palestinians to renounce terrorism, but for the Israelis to cease using economic blockades against the Palestinians and to halt the construction of new settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Meanwhile, on the newly de-tourested Capitol Hill:
Hillary is approved, and then greeted as a liberator by a weary Foggy Bottom, which made little attempt to show their relief that the new administration has arrived. BTW the two GOPers who voted against Hillary in the Senate were Jim DeMint (R, SC) and David Vitter (R, Whore House.)
Geithner is approved, tax issues and all.
Eric Holder is held up by Bush lackeys on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are apparently seeking assurances that there will be no torture prosecutions emanating from the Obama Justice Department. (Meanwhile, the U.N.’s top torture investigator says the body doesn’t really need the United States to act on the matter. They can move against top Bushies themselves, and Manfred Nowak, the U.N. “Special Raporteur on Toture,” has at least two defendants in mind …) Said Mr. Nowak:
“Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation” to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld. […] He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required “all means, particularly penal law” to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.“We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld,” against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.
A ‘better class of people’
A top aide to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pushes hard for Caroline to be the next junior Senator from New York, and that’s ruffling feathers among the non-upper crust (rather than just among Clintonistas, like before…) leading one assemblyman to state:
Rory I. Lancman, a state assemblyman, said that there was “a growing concern that high public office is being reserved for a better class of people — people who can buy into it like Michael Bloomberg or people who can come into it through their celebrity like Caroline Kennedy.”
Egads. And of course, up to now, in the 240 or so years of formal American existence, politics has been strictly reserved for the common man…
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Gotham City guttersnipes
New York Denizens of Hillaryland are pitching a bitch about Caroline Kennedy angling for Hillary Clinton’s soon-to-be vacated Senate seat, which also happens to be her uncle, the late Robert F. Kennedy’s Senate seat too. Natch.
Obama to announce national security team this morning
With Republican commentators and pols crowing about his selections (and liberals holding their breath, but still mostly hoping for the best…) Barack Obama announces his national security team, including Secretary of State-to-be Hillary Clinton, this morning at 10:40. The team:
Secretary of State – Hillary Clinton
Attorney General – Eric Holder
Secretary of Defense – Robert Gates (staying on for at least a year)
U.N. Ambassador – Dr. Susan Rice
National Security Advisor – Gen. Jim Jones
Homeland Security Secretary – Janet Napolitano
Says the WaPo:
Obama and Clinton had each claimed to be the best candidate to restore the nation’s reputation abroad, end the Iraq war and engage the new global economy as president. Now, they will try to do that together, though under Obama’s direction.Aiding in the effort will be Bush cabinet member Robert Gates, who will continue as Defense Secretary despite having overseen a war policy that was the subject of withering criticism from both Obama and Clinton during the campaign.
To be successful, Gates and Clinton will have to forge a working relationship that often eludes the secretaries of State and Defense even when they are members of the same party. Gates and Clinton will each have their own power base and have each sought assurances of access to Obama.
But Obama clearly believes the pair can work together, especially on the difficult task of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. To help in coordinating the competing views, Obama will turn to former Marine Gen. James Jones, who will serve as national security adviser.
Jones, who will operate inside the White House, will be charged with melding military and diplomatic policy and with helping Obama navigate the two bureaucracies.
The trio that Obama will introduce today represents a centrist team that has already angered some of the president-elect’s most ardent liberal supporters, who had expected a foreign policy team with clear, left-leaning credentials.
BTW, Jones happens to be a very close friend of John McCain’s, and as Chuck Todd is saying on MSNBC, much closer to McCain personally, than to Obama. Meanwhile, says Steve Clemons:
I think that the Clinton we saw during the campaign will give herself, her views and approach to complex national security challenges a “makeover.” She’s going to push womens’ rights, democracy, human rights, poverty reduction, and the like — but I think she is going to be party of a realist-tilting, crafty Obama-led, Bob Gates-designed, Clinton-out front process to get a strategic shift in US foreign policy. We applaud that.James Glassman, her Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, has some ideas on how to move her agenda forward — and she should consider using a lot of the tools that Glassman and his team are developing.
And Politico suggests Clinton and Gates may be more like-minded than people think, at least on what the relationship between a president and his commanding generals should be. Truth be told, if you parse the Iraq posisitons of Clinton and Obama during the campaign, they’re really not that different, if at all.
I’ll reiterate that I think the choice of Hillary is smart on Obama’s part, even if it produced an initial WTF??? reaction. Clinton’s star power will give Obama a leg up overseas. She is a known quantity that world leaders can and will instantly respect, because they already know her, and frankly, because they know her husband. Men of the “old world” may not have the highest respect for women, but they do respect the politically powerful wives of powerful men. And of course, picking Hillary was a master stroke for Obama, who solves Hillary’s biggest problem (not wanting to go back to being one of 100 Senators with no committee chairmanship) while simultaneously containing both her presidential ambitions, for now, and her potential to freelance from the dais on the arms services committee.
Brilliant move. Great team.
Meanwhile, Powerline grumbles about “honeymoon time” among the military brass.
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Madame Secretary
He may live to regret it. She may try to upstage him, and run her own presidency on the side. The media obsession with her and her husband could dog his presidency. Bill could grandstand, or do something crazy. She might clash with Joe Biden over foreign policy influence with the president. Her bull in a china shop style and leaky entourage could prove to be a disaster.
Or … he may breathe a sigh of relief that she’s not taking pot shots at his foreign policy from her seat on the Senate Arms Services Committee, or from some as-yet undefined new leadership post. She may use her international street cred to advance his foreign policy goals. She may really be beholden to him now. Running against him in four years may be off the table. And she just might do a bloody good job.
Either way, it appears that Barack Obama is going to offer the secretary of state position to Hillary:
(NYT) Days of back and forth followed the meeting between President-elect Barack Obama and Clinton last week in Chicago, when the two principals first discussed the post, with advisers to Clinton suggesting she might not want the job and questions persisting about the business work and international ties of her husband, former president Bill Clinton.
But the former president agreed to a thorough vetting, and Obama advisers did not back away from reports that the New York senator was the president-elect’s top pick. On Thursday night, aides said that the vetting issues have been resolved, and the selection could occur soon, perhaps immediately after Thanksgiving.
Here we go…
She’ll take it: and why it’s a good idea is she does
The Guardian reports that if (or more like “when”) the secretary of state position is offered, Hillary Clinton will grab the brass ring.
Obama’s advisers have begun looking into Bill Clinton’s foundation, which distributes millions of dollars to Africa to help with development, to ensure there is no conflict of interest. But Democrats believe the vetting will be straightforward.
Clinton would be well placed to become the country’s dominant voice in foreign affairs, replacing Condoleezza Rice. Since being elected senator for New York, she has specialised in foreign affairs and defence. Although she supported the war in Iraq, she and Obama basically agree on a withdrawal of American troops.
Clinton, who still harbours hopes of a future presidential run, had to weigh up whether she would be better placed by staying in the Senate, which offers a platform for life, or making the more uncertain career move to the state department.
With Ted Kennedy firmly in charge of healthcare, I suppose HRC felt this was her best play.
So what about Big Bill’s big donors? Apparently, the Obama team has it handled:
The Obama team do not believe that Mr Clinton is a serious obstacle to appointing his wife. Yet if she were given the job she would face scrutiny over her husband’s connections with foreign governments – the same leaders that she would be dealing with on behalf of Mr Obama – and fresh calls for him to reveal the list of foreign donors to his presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas, and his charitable foundation.
Mr Clinton is not required to reveal the list of donors, and has consistently refused to do so. Known foreign benefactors include the King of Morocco, the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, the Saudi Royal Family and the son-in-law of Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s deposed President.
Since founding the Clinton Global Initiative, Mr Clinton says that he has garnered $46 billion (£30.6 billion) that has improved more than 200 million lives in 150 countries.
And that final point may be the most important one. While some Obamaphiles may find the Clinton juxtoposition uncomfortable, I am starting to think it’s a damned good idea, not least of which because of the tremendous popularity and good will — and therefore leverage — that the Clintons, both of them, have abroad. Bill Clinton’s stature will only lend to Hillary’s. And she is already a formidable international presence in her own right — something Obama will need in order to play the major cards he seems destined to play: a serious bid for Israeli-Palestinian peace (the Clintons are trusted by the Israelis, and not an abomination to the Palestinians, and Bill Clinton came closer than any modern president to making peace); negotiations with Iran (HRC’s tough rhetoric during the campaign will provide a hawkish shield for Obama’s policies), nuclear proliferation and dealing with the fearsome actors of Pakistan and Russia. Hillary can handle the portfolio, she isn’t seen as an “Arabist,” like Dennis Ross or even James Baker, and she is a known quantity overseas.
Will Bill Clinton use his wife’s would-be position to try and overshadow the president? Actually, I don’t think so. Big Bill seems comfortable in his role as international statesman — more so than he did as campaign hatchet man. That is his niche, and as he fills it, he can only help Obama shine.
And another thing: on the domestic front, allowing Hillary to exit the Senate will relieve that body of the “what to offer her” question, ease some tension about putting her into the leadership, and allow New York Gov. David Patterson to appoint a replacement, who would likely be to Hillary’s left, adding another progressive voice to the 100-member club. Not bad for a day’s work.
Related: Steve Clemons explains his scoop, and un-scoop.
Worldwide pantsuit
After an under-wraps meeting with President-elect Barack Obama in Chicago on Thursday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is now considered a top contender for the role of Secretary of State in the Obama administration, several people involved in the process said on Friday.
Clinton, in an appearance televised live on Friday, said she would not speculate about Obama’s Cabinet selections. Her aides have referred questions about the process to the Obama transition team, whose officials are not commenting. Advisers warn that only a small handful of officials know for certain where Clinton ranks on Obama’s short list, which also includes Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.
But one Clinton veteran who is in touch with the transition team called it a “real possibility.” Another said she has a “very good chance” of getting the job. Most notably, Obama advisers have done nothing to tamp down speculation about Clinton, as they did when it became clear she would not be Obama’s running mate — even though letting her name hang in the air holds real risks for Obama if he ultimately does not select her, potentially reopening the Democratic primary’s wounds.
The mere mention of Clinton’s name has set off a frenzy of speculation about the advantages — and disadvantages — of selecting his former Democratic rival and former first lady, whom Obama passed over as his vice presidential running mate.
Are we witnessing the Clintonization of the Obama administration:
Obama’s victory in the general election produced what his primary campaign couldn’t: A swift merger of the Clinton Wing of the Democratic Party with the Illinois Senator’s self-styled insurgency. The merger began, during the campaign, in the policy apparatus — which is now rapidly becoming the governing apparatus.
The absorption of the Clinton government in waiting represents Obama’s choice not to repeat what he and his advisors see as an early mistake made by the last two presidents: Attempting to wield power in Washington through an insular campaign apparatus new to town.
Obama’s first major appointments have been Democrats who worked for President Clinton and did not endorse him in the primary: Transition chief John Podesta and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who will be White House chief of staff, stayed neutral, and Ron Klain, who will be Joe Biden’s chief of staff, backed Biden. Obama, advisers told Politico, may even be weighing offering Hillary Rodham Clinton herself the Cabinet plum of Secretary of State.
“Obama is showing great good sense in making use of their experience,” said William Galston, a former Clinton domestic policy adviser who’s now at the Brookings Institution. “You have an entire cadre of people in their 30s and 40s and early 50s who were either in senior jobs or second- and third-tier jobs in the Clinton administration, who really earned their spurs and know their way around — and know something about how the institutions in which they served actually function.”
Meanwhile, the WaPo’s Chris Cillizza lays out the pros and cons of Clintonization. Number one “pro”:
* Gravitas: Clinton is well-known and well respected in the international community. Is there any question that she could hold her own in delicate negotiations with our international friends or foes? The one thing that became indisputably clear during the Democratic primary race is that voters view Clinton as eminently qualified on nearly every issue. Putting her out as the administration’s top diplomat would likely be received, nationally and internationally, as a solid choice.
Number one “con”:
* A Free Lancer: As we noted above, the danger for Obama with regards to both Hillary and Bill Clinton is that they will pursue their own agenda — political and policy-wise — rather than advocate for the president-elect’s preferred issues. While the chances of Clinton free-lancing are far less if she is a member of the Obama cabinet, there is absolutely no way of ensuring that her own views on matters of foreign policy would be subsumed in favor of those of the administration. Having Clinton on the world stage pursuing her own agenda would be potentially very problematic for Obama and, at that point, it would be impossible to put the toothpaste back into the tube.
And that’s one hell of a con. Let’s see how it all plays out.
Does Palin attract Hillary women … or repel them?
Will angry Hillary Clinton supporters be the Naderites of 2008, throwing the election to John McCain out of bitterness, and then living to regret it? Signs point to “no.”
William Arnone, an informal adviser to the Hillary Clinton campaign during the primaries, and a very smart political analyst, conducted a small email survey of Hillary voters around the country, many of whom are older white women. From his press release this morning:
Two questions were asked:
- If the election were held today, would you vote for the Democratic ticket of Obama-Biden or the Republican ticket of McCain-Palin?
- If you would vote for McCain-Palin, why?
A total of 328 responses were received. Respondents included many of Senator Clinton’s most fervent supporters, some of whom were convention delegates.
The results:
Obama-Biden: 254 (77.4%)
McCain-Palin: 35 (10.7%)
Undecided/Neither: 32 ( 9.8%)
Write-In Clinton: 7 ( 2.1%)
William’s conclusion, based on conversations with many of the women, which are included in the detail of the report:
Overall, it appears that John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate has backfired with a substantial portion of Senator Clinton’s supporters. The most common word used by those who responded in support of the Obama-Biden ticket was that McCain’s selection of Palin was “insulting” to women. Among those respondents who said that they would vote for the McCain-Palin ticket, or vote for neither ticket, or are undecided, there remains a residue of resentment over what they perceive as an unfair nominating process, as well as questionable treatment of Senator Clinton’s candidacy by Democratic Party leaders and others.
More later…
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Great at the end
I was troubled by the first several minutes of Hillary’s speech, but the second half was great. She was uplifting, uptempo, and forceful, and at long last, she made the central point: that if her supporters were in this for more than just her, they should vote for Barack. She also characterized John McCain and GWB well, stating that “nothing less than the fate of our country hangs in the balance.” Best lines: the “keep going” riffs via Harriet Tubman. Nice. Overall, best speech performance Hillary has ever given, and in the end, she did what she needed to do.
My main caveat would be that Hillary’s entire presentation tonight may do more to make her supporters — particulalry older women — long for her than not. Not that she should have phoned it in, but the video, the rockstar entrance, the whole thing … it was like a mini-convention of her own. Perhaps that was the point.
I’d like to see an interview with a PUMA now. That would be interesting…
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But enough about you…
So far, Hillary Clinton’s speech is all about her campaign. But for a sole, tangential reference to her support for Barack, it sounds for all the world like a reprise of her campaign exit speech. WTF???
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