Quote :

"snicker" --comment by hooksaw regarding reports that Obama's aides now consult with former Clinton officials, sit at desks, and "wear ties"

snicker? at THAT?? you're such a little girl.

well, whatever trips you out, i guess. Still, I hope you're comfortable in your bitterness. 8 years is a long time.





[Edited on November 25, 2008 at 7:27 PM. Reason : ]

11/25/2008 7:23:02 PM

hes been elected once bro

youre already jumping 4 years in advance as hes backing out on his pledges already ...

11/25/2008 8:02:27 PM

yeah, i understand that. but i'm putting odds for 2012 on Obama, now.

Bookmark this page.

11/25/2008 8:07:19 PM

I wouldn't bet against him.

I like his comments about reducing wasteful spending in the budget "line by line". Of course, we have all heard that before, from Republicans and Democrats alike. Hopefully he can actually follow through.

11/25/2008 8:51:00 PM

Damnit, Obama adds another Clintonista to his team with Paul Volcker. I thought he was going to reach across the aisle. I'm pissed

11/26/2008 9:00:43 AM

what do you call keeping gates on?

11/26/2008 11:04:28 AM

Obama could summon the ghost of Ronald Reagan into his cabinet and they'd still find something to bitch about.

It's part of being on a losing team.

11/26/2008 11:07:40 AM

Likewise, Obama could bring Sarah Palin on board to run the Dept of Education and Obama supporters would find a way to defend the move.

It's part of the blind partisanship that has permeated politics.

[Edited on November 26, 2008 at 12:08 PM. Reason : Education is more absurdulous]

11/26/2008 12:07:08 PM

Jeez. If you were trying to make a point about ideologues on both sides, you failed with that one. Palin? Really?

11/26/2008 12:08:36 PM

I guarantee you that somebody on this board would praise the move as a sign of Obama's willingness to reach across the aisle and extend an olive branch to social conservatives.

Just look at this thread. Obama has put together quite a cabinet, but it's not perfect. Yet any criticism of ANY of his choices is met with indignation from the biggest Obama supporters here in TSB.

11/26/2008 12:11:25 PM

well, you know .... Palin does have executive experience as a state governor, and oversees the departm....

lol j/k.

come on, man. that's a terrible analogy.

its fucking inconceivable for one thing.

and if it were true, there'd be a goddamned rush on torches and pitchforks.




[Edited on November 26, 2008 at 12:35 PM. Reason : ]

11/26/2008 12:33:18 PM

Quote :

"Just look at this thread. Obama has put together quite a cabinet, but it's not perfect. Yet any criticism of ANY of his choices is met with indignation from the biggest Obama supporters here in TSB."

I scanned the first 4 pages and I see 3 people being staunch supporters to a point though they seem to have their reasons which is better than the blind support you seem to be implying. Then I find a couple of other Obama supporters taking a more moderate position about the choices. The sample size is pretty small regardless.

11/26/2008 12:34:45 PM

At least Obama's cabinet positions don't have people with degrees from the fucking University of Phoenix Online

11/26/2008 2:13:28 PM

U. of Phoenix graduates would be considered pretty educated in he current Administration, what with something like 150 hires in the Bush Dept of Justice coming from Pat Robertson's 4th tier Regent "University"

11/26/2008 4:17:12 PM

oh, Regent University School of Law isnt that bad...

It'd be like the DOJ hiring 150 grads from Campbell U at Buies Creek. Regent grads are just more religious.

is that bad?

11/26/2008 8:40:44 PM

I like this reversal from joe_schmoe

Page 1:

Quote :

"why in the fuck would an actor-turned-governor be named Secretary of Energy? what possible qualifications can Arnold Goddamn Schwarzenegger have to be Secretary of Energy? "

Page 3:

Quote :

"you apparently are missing the main point of the principles behind executive-level management. you don't want a C++ coder, no matter how outstanding a coder (s)he is, to be CEO of a tech company. you want someone who understands the technology from a high level but also understands the many complexities surrounding the business and how to leverage various resources -- most importantly PEOPLE -- effectively to drive the business in a competitive environment. ... As Senate Majority Leader, Daschle has a long resume filled with negotiating a slew of policy decisions related to health and human services issues. He's as good a pick for the position as anyone. "

Schwarzenegger is just as qualified to be Secretary of Energy as Daschle is to be Obama's "Health Care Czar", which begs the question, Joe_Schmoe, does your asshole ever hurt from talking out of it so much?

[Edited on November 27, 2008 at 1:01 PM. Reason : 2]

11/27/2008 1:00:17 PM

look.

the difference between the two is clear.

it's so clear, in fact, i don't need to be bothered explaining it to you.

11/27/2008 2:28:53 PM

Quote :

"you show me someone who is "pissed off" and I'll show you a crackpot extremist who probably voted for Nader, anyhow."

Not every Nader supporter is a crackpot extremist. Any chance in hell that someone like Nader would find a position in the Obama administration? I doubt it. I doubt that he would even accept it.

11/28/2008 10:50:09 AM

Yey, terminator!

12/1/2008 2:21:41 AM

for the love of GOD get these people a box to stand on at this press conference

everything's set at obama height level

12/1/2008 11:05:38 AM

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Sun-tzu
Chinese general & military strategist (~400 BC)

12/1/2008 11:11:30 AM

I'm pretty sure you don't have to cite cliche catch phrases dude.

Like really.

12/1/2008 11:20:09 AM

I'm pretty sure it's completely relevant.

...

oh and

RAWR RAWR RAWR

HATE HATE HATE

aha

[Edited on December 1, 2008 at 11:29 AM. Reason : .]

12/1/2008 11:28:39 AM

Like you didn't just cite it

But you actually went ahead and defined who Sun Tzu was.

I find your post incredibly crass for this reason.

12/1/2008 11:32:18 AM

i fucking copied and pasted off of a quotes site.

come on

...

and I guess I didn't understand your original complaint

but you typically put the author of a quote when you give the quote

Dune style

[Edited on December 1, 2008 at 11:34 AM. Reason : .]

12/1/2008 11:33:08 AM

off point, but I don't think Sun Tzu said that. It really just came from the Godfather.

[Edited on December 1, 2008 at 11:35 AM. Reason : ,]

12/1/2008 11:34:36 AM

no, I'm pretty certain it was Ghandi.

12/1/2008 5:25:27 PM

Quote :

"It's a shame we will never know what erios and the like would be babbling about right now if McCain had won the election....... I somehow doubt he would "shut up and let the man prepare to do his job.""

So, you think I'm another Obama homer that's incapable of being objective? Ah, I get it. You think I'm a hack. I see. You must have seen some of the common traits of a hack in my posts then. I guess I didn't:

1) Write out in detail why I liked Obama's cabinet picks
2) Address all the common talking points attacking those picks
3) Explain why I thought the negative reactions to Obama's cabinet picks were unreasonable
4) Clarify misconceptions, such as the notion that I would have called Bush's cabinet "partisan and non-centrist," which I didn't...



Oh wait I did...

So, I guess that means that you're a douchebag with nothing relevant to contribute to the conversation?

Got it

[Edited on December 2, 2008 at 12:47 AM. Reason : srf]

12/2/2008 12:47:18 AM

I love this pick. It's nice for a President to realize to nominate a REAL EXPERT, instead of just some idiot with no real expert level knowledge of what's going on in the field. There hasn't been any other Energy Secretary to my knowledge with anything better than a Bachelors Degree. This just came through, his pick for Energy Secretary. It's an important post..has a lot to do with finally tackling these issues.

The president-elect is expected to nominate Steven Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his Energy Secretary. Chu shared the '97 Nobel Prize in physics and is a former chairman of the physics department at Stanford University.



[Edited on December 10, 2008 at 5:09 PM. Reason : -]

12/10/2008 5:05:25 PM

From the surface, it looks like a great pick.

An expert instead of an idealist, and yet he has some executive experience as a director of a university lab and Dept Chairman at Stanford.

[Edited on December 10, 2008 at 5:20 PM. Reason : 2]

12/10/2008 5:19:28 PM

Obama short on Southerners in Cabinet appointments

Quote :

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The South may have inched toward Democrats in November, but that progress isn't showing in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet selections. Obama hasn't nominated a single Southerner among his 15 Cabinet secretaries."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ju7KAU2u4v09pj-J1q4cZ6zqn6QAD955VI980

Discuss.

12/20/2008 8:11:59 AM

uhh..... why?

12/20/2008 9:46:25 AM

should there be southerners appointed to fill a southern quota?

sounds like "affirmative action"

[Edited on December 20, 2008 at 2:25 PM. Reason : ]

12/20/2008 2:24:17 PM

he the president, its his cabinet, he can do whatever he wants

but im sure there are going to be some big supporters in the south that will be very dissapointed

12/20/2008 3:31:43 PM

he's appointing scientists, not creationists. hence, the lack of southerners.

12/20/2008 10:25:02 PM

From link above:

Quote :

"Dan Carter, a political historian at the University of South Carolina, said the shortage of Southerners among top White House aides is highly unusual and could invite criticism. Presidents dating back to at least Dwight Eisenhower have had at least one Cabinet secretary from the South. 'I'm sure some people will say that despite all the talk of trying to appeal to the South and running a 50-state strategy, (Obama's) certainly not rewarding it,' Carter said."

Quote :

"'It'll be interesting,' Kingston said. 'Southern Democrats have been afraid to have (Democratic House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi come down and campaign for them. I'll be interested to see if they'll have Obama come down, but a good way to get around that would be to have his secretary of energy or secretary of agriculture come down and say he's a local boy ... and they won't be able to do that.'"

These ^ are just a couple of reasons why, dumbasses. And (1) I didn't print the story, AP did; (2) a historian and a politician are quoted in the story as questioning the lack of Southerners in Obama's cabinet, not me; and (3) if Senate seats--like Obama's--are seen by some leftists as "Black" and Supreme Court seats are seen as having to be filled by a woman, as examples, why couldn't the same logic be applied to Southerners? I'm not advocating any of this, I'm just saying.

Black leaders see Senate seat being hijacked

Quote :

"Bye bye, black Senate seat! The political blackbirds are singing a swan song for the hopes of keeping a U.S. Senate seat in African-American hands. The Rod Blagojevich implosion may have dealt that cause a fatal blow."

Quote :

"That possibility has provoked outrage among black community leaders and politicians. Not so fast, they are saying. Last month, the Concerned Clergy of Illinois demanded that the governor appoint a 'qualified' African American 'who can fill this vacancy and who has the capacity to be re-elected when [Obama's] term ends in 2010.' The problem, as I wrote then, is that black leaders were at odds on who should get the nod."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/washington/1331127,CST-EDT-laura15.article

Poll: Supreme Court Pick Matters
Most Americans Want Bush To Appoint A Woman To Replace O'Connor

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/15/opinion/polls/main709505.shtml

[Edited on December 21, 2008 at 6:43 AM. Reason : PS: ]

12/21/2008 6:41:43 AM

you're really touchy this morning. did something happen? would you like to talk about it?

12/21/2008 12:36:07 PM

I'm surprised too that he didn't pick at least one token Southerner given that he's been pushing to create the image of an inclusive government. Sure, its considered Republican territory, but there are a lot of solid and qualified Southerners he could have picked from. The only thing I can think of off hand is that there simply wasn't a good fit from a policy standpoint or that the ones he would've picked were needed because they were running for key positions (I think off hand of Warner in Virginia for Senate).

12/21/2008 1:30:14 PM

from how you guys talk, you'd think he hadn't picked any southerners.

as far as i know, the press secretary is a southerner (as is robert gates for that matter)

12/21/2008 5:56:37 PM

NC STATE REPRESENTIN'

12/21/2008 6:05:25 PM

you can tell which users in here read the news and observer

12/21/2008 6:25:00 PM

i honestly had no idea that picking a "token Southerner" was even a consideration that Obama should have thought about.
Does anybody know, or care, where all the people in Bush's cabinet are from? Why should we care all of a sudden about Obamas?

12/21/2008 9:51:43 PM

i think they were pretty much all from Texas.

12/22/2008 12:03:29 AM

here's a good write-up of Steven Chu, with quotes and sources from his past. Sounds like an amazing choice
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4881

12/22/2008 1:17:49 PM

Quote :

"New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, citing a federal probe, is withdrawing his nomination as Commerce secretary, two Democratic officials say."

1/4/2009 2:13:29 PM

damn, probe about what?

1/4/2009 3:36:21 PM

and the train wreck begins

1/4/2009 3:44:58 PM

just saw this on real clear politics

i'm guessing richardson knows obama doesnt have the patience for stuff like this so he wanted to make it short and sweet

1/4/2009 5:26:21 PM

and that guy was trying to become president too...

they should just rename themselves the Social-Liberal-Progressive Scandal Party

Richardson and this stuff

Edwards and his affair

Hillary and Bill's Middle Eastern donors

Obama and his senate seat

1/4/2009 5:55:32 PM

Quote :

"A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson's political activities won a New Mexico transportation contract worth more than $1 million. Richardson said in a statement issued by the Obama transition office that the investigation could take weeks or months but expressed confidence it will show he and his administration acted properly."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95GHJPO0&show_article=1

1/4/2009 10:24:32 PM