4. Guantanamo – Jesus Christ. This campaign promise was almost as stupid as HW’s “read my lips.”  Listen buddy, no one likes Guantanamo, and I’m sure it’s particularly offensive to a Harvard trained lawyer – but your plan to shut it down within a year is simply impossible – on both a policy and political level. In fact, I’d bet money against it happening in two years, if ever. It was a stupid promise and has created a debacle that will inevitably cost the the country and Democrats significantly in the years to come.

3. CSPAN and the health care debate — What a shit show. I know it’s an irrelevant argument – anything the camera’s would potentially capture will be settled in private – minus a 5 minute speech here or there, which is no different than the House floor. What this is doing is simply making it look like you and the Dems in Congress are reneging on a campaign promise – accurate or not.  This attack will resonate significantly with moderates later this year during the campaign when Republicans throw out their non-stop attack on “big government” and lob accusations “shutting out the people” while “spending billions.”

2. Avoiding the Trenches – I say it all the time. But instead of trying to stay above the fray with speeches highlighting your cause and your dreams of decent schools and a good health care system – get in there and fight. If the past year has proven anything it’s that Rahm is completely ineffective in corralling Congress. Now a lot of that has to do with failures by Pelosi and especially Harry Reid – but that doesn’t matter. Pardon the sports analogy, but sometimes you gotta carry the team on your shoulders – Obama is simply watching the ship sink.

1. Fumbling the kickoff on Health Care, a disaster of historic proportions. While this is mostly Rahm’s fault – Obama totally got smothered going into the debate. They just kinda stumbled into it and were absolutely killed the first couple months. There was no coherent message, no framework for roll out and an incredibly poor response strategy to criticisms (all bearing the trademark of Rahm’s ineptitude). You allowed the Republicans to frame the debate, act like children without paying a price, and then folded pocket aces on the turn card.  This has been the on going story and will forever cost Obama with both the base and moderates.

“From the stimulus to the budget to health care, Republicans have offered substantive solutions in a good-faith effort to work with the administration”

That’s simply not true. First off – The “budget” offered by Rep. Paul Ryan and House Republicans had fewer numbers than a coloring book. In fact, it didn’t have any. This is TRUE, btw.  Hard to say they put a “good faith effort” into the budget process when their “budget” was a 19 page thesaurus of “let’s lower taxes more” despite the fact that we have a 1.4 trillion dollar shortfall and even Republican economists say that tax cuts are far less effective stimulus than the Dem plan. (warning pdf file – with actual numbers).

The Republican Health Care alternative was not really even an alternative… They got blasted away for attacking without an alternative so they basically watered everything down to nothing. I’m curious how many Republicans actually know the details of the Republican “alternative” ??? It was never a “good faith effort” or even honest. The Republican strategy was clearly to attack the various versions of the Dem bill (with outright lies) rather than argue the merits of their own legislation.  In fact Sarah Palin’s charge of “death panels” was named “Lie of the Year” by the non-partisan FactChecker.org.

Come on Barack – Get in the trenches… Reid & Pelosi are completely ineffective communicating  on a national level – you need to take some of this ‘over exposure’ and start using it to win policy battles. Yes, you’re the President, but the game has changed, and your team needs you in the fray.

Subject: Re: $900 / 2br – 4604D 28Th Rd S #D Arlington, VA 22206 (Arlington, VA 22206)

However, they’re running into one serious problem. They still haven’t apologized for the last time they were in power.  The mistakes in policy and polity were significant. The policy failures are too numerous to mention but for a party that claimed the throne of ‘fiscal conservatism’ to double the national debt in 8 years, a significant coup was brewing even amongst the loyal ranks. Republicans then ran head first into a populist monsoon that despised their arrogant and corrupt methods of governing.

I know this is misunderstood by a number of the Obama masses, but Obama didn’t win because of things he said or did during the campaign. He won because Bush and the Republican leadership was despised by moderates and even their own base. They knew as early as the summer of ’04 (when Rove struck a deal to help McCain get the nomination) that the chances were slim at best in 2008, that’s why they put up McCain as their sacrificial lamb. No one in the party really likes the guy, hell not even his own staff likes him — he’s known throughout the US Senate as a total a-hole.  Obama certainly ran a decent campaign, solidifying his sizable victory, but the ’08 general was over before it began.

It’s unfortunate that the people who decide elections often don’t pay attention to anything. The swing vote is largely made up of people who don’t pay much attention and have little, if any, grasp on what the election is really about. Real quick – to balance this out – many, many criticisms can be made of the ‘base/party line’ vote – people who are too close minded to vote outside of their ideology for the person who truly deserves it, etc.  I mean, Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) almost won re-election despite 11 federal indictments and being caught ‘cold handed,’ simply because his district was solidly Democrat and there was an overtly racist campaign against his Asian opponent.

All this being said… The infamous ‘swing vote’ is still mad at Republicans. Yes, Republicans are doing a good job rallying their base with charges of ‘socialism’ and ‘dr. obama.’  all of which is a load.(I really would love to start a campaign to send Macro Economics 101 textbooks to Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, etc,) but alas… The base is now foaming at the mouth, which is always helpful to a political party, but there’s still that “damned swing vote,” stubborn in their ways of indecision.

Michael Steele has realized something John Boehner has not, the party needs to apologize and clean house before moving forward. You can’t pretend like your party didn’t shit the bed for 6-8 years, even if you agree with everything Bush did.  Moderates still don’t trust Republican leadership and they’re not going to anytime soon until there is some honesty and action. Republicans need to clean their ranks before charging Democrats with corrupting the system – You can’t go attacking Rangle, Waters and Murtha when you have Sen. Ensign, Rep. Jerry Lewis in power, with Rush Limbaugh and the Birthers beating drums on the sideline.

GOP Chairman Michael Steele is a jackass, but he’s also very smart. While the first chapter of his new book should be titled “A Million Apologies” the overall theme is close enough where the party could make a resurgence, if they’re smart.  I hope they’re not. I hope they wait until campaign season is in full-swing before addressing the past instead of flushing the toilet now.

“I think he had his eight years, and he’s caused a lot of trouble for our country and perpetuated a war in Iraq unnecessary and wrong-headed,” said Paul. “I would say it would be best he not be so critical right now.”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/05/paul-takes-aim-at-cheney/#more-83995

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/01/04/johnson.heiress.obit/index.html

My only regret is that there wasn’t a suicide pact…

My thoughts.

1. We need a proven and slightly unhinged coach. Zorn is the kind of guy you’d like to have as a neighbor, he’ll take out your trash and wave hello, but he’s far too nice and balanced to be an NFL coach.  Shanahan is a decent guy but has just enough of a crazy and mean streak that he can compete with and subdue the big personalities the Redskins like to hire. I mean, the guy dealt with John Elway – one of the biggest assholes in a league full of assholes – for several years. I still wish we had a shot at Gruden, but I think bringing in Shanahan is the best coaching decision Snyder has made since purchasing the team.

2. Jason Campbell… Campbell is not a bad QB. He’s been put in a crappy position, with a weak line, over the hill running back (portis) and under performing wide receivers. All in all, he’s probably right in the middle of the pack of NFL starters. That being said, middle of the pack, isn’t good enough for the NFC East. He’s not as good as Manning, Romo or McNabb and puts us at a significant disadvantage when competing against these teams. How significant is that disadvantage? Hard to tell on a team that is so deeply dysfunctional. I think this is the saving grace for Campbell… There are too many other significant issues that the redskins will have to deal with, they simply don’t have the money to address the QB position this year.

3. Wide Receivers – Jesus… what a sad group this year. I know the play calling and conservative approach by Campbell definitely limited productivity but these guys need to do a better job of getting open. Yes, they’re a talented bunch – especially the young guys Thomas & Kelly – but i don’t see what the point to keeping Randle-El around is. I’m not sure why he’d want to stay either. He was an all-star in Pittsburgh. Cowher did an excellent job utilitzing Randle-El’s skill set. The Redskins have not. Best for both parties to part ways. Yes, it would be immediately helpful to bring in a better #1 receiver, but i’d recommend waiting to see how this group works out in the new coach’s system, given all the other areas of improvement we need.

4. Defensive Secondary –  The Redskins secondary got consistently burned when it mattered most. I said it at the time of the deal, and even the first couple years when Portis was picking up 1,000+ yards, but good running backs are a dime a dozen in the NFL, shut down corners are a premium. Champ Bailey is the best player in the league you never hear about. He intercepts about every other pass thrown his way, but averages only a couple picks a year because teams won’t even throw to their #1 receiver when Bailey is covering. I don’t think Bailey is a good deal now, but the redskins need to pick up someone in the secondary who can do a better job of shutting down the deep ball. Maybe it’s just a new scheme, the redskins have plenty of talent in the secondary – Hall, Rogers and Smoot – but something needs to be done. The safeties have played more like awkward linebackers thrown into coverage, and some adjustments need to be made there.

5. Running back(s)… Portis should go. I like the guy, but his time is up. I think Betts, Ganther, Mason & Cartwright provide all the backfield we need. Ganther has been incredibly impressive behind a shitty O-Line, always squeezing out more yards than appear available.

6. Tight Ends – Yes, Fred Davis has been impressive, but Cooley is still the man. The Redskins would be smart to keep both. I know they’re both receiving tight ends and neither is good at blocking, but they’re both excellent targets and offer the offensive coordinator a lot of flexibility in play calling. Keeping both these guys makes a whole lot more sense than spending millions on a big name receiver. If Jason Campbell ever learns how to audible, these guys will be at the center of some big plays.

7. Last but not least – The O-Line… Where to begin. Building depth at ‘skill’ positions is a favorite of Ol’ Danny Boys. The least sexy part of building an offense is adding depth on the O-line, which i guess is why the Redskins have avoided it for so long. Now, looks like we’ll be rebuilding both the starters and backups.  In the NFC East, few things are as valuable as a good offensive line. New York has more talent on their D-Line than anyone in football, Dallas consistently has strong and aggressive front 7 and Andy Reid consistently has one of the top sets of blitz packages in the league. Yes, the Redskins weakness at O-line was apparent throughout the season, but rarely more so than during the 6 losses to NFC East opponents. The running game was shut down, Campbell was knocked silly and the receivers never had time to get down field to ‘spread the field.’  We should spend the entire draft on building an O-line, either using the draft picks directly, or trading a couple away for some veteran big boys. The Redskins will once again own the bottom of the NFC East unless they get some big fatties up front that can shuffle and paw with the best of them.

I generally like Gawker – much higher quality mix of news, political and entertainment reporting than Wonkette, but sometimes they’re so high on their horse in their snarky attempts at humor that they completely shit the bed.

update: looks like they fixed it.

“[W]e are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe,” Cheney said in a statement to POLITICO. “Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency – social transformation—the restructuring of American society.”

Cheney was joining a chorus of Republicans who have criticized Obama following the Christmas Day attack, in which a Nigerian suspect is accused of trying to blow up a loaded airliner with a bomb stitched into his underwear. [Politico]

Maybe this is a moot point, in that is there ever a counterpoint worth arguing with a guy who still insists Saddam had WMDs ready to be deployed within 45 minutes?  But, Dick Cheney had 7 years to deal with the threat of plastic explosives and DID NOTHING. It was too politically costly to institute the type of searches required (full body imaging, strip searches, chemical tests, etc.), so they came up with some compromise that mixed politics with security, where they essentially shelled out millions of dollars for these machines; which either sit in the corner collecting dust or are used for spot checks by a poorly trained TSA employee. Now, less than a year after he took office, and not more than a week after the first attempted terror plot, Obama has been given an ‘F’ on terrorism by conservatives and the right wing noise chamber has gone into hyper mode. Cheney continues…

“As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war” (politico)

Not to nit pick, Dick, but Obama has already responded to the threat with far stricter security guidelines than you ever did. Your response to plastic explosives was for people to take their shoes off – which did nothing to stop the next PETN attack by the Panty Bomber.

One last comment on this incident. Janet Napolitano is under heavy fire from conservatives for her comment that “the system worked.”  First off, I think most of the people echoing this attack either haven’t seen the video (surprising since it was featured prominently on the conservative darling sites drudge & breitbart), or simply were so eager to attack her, they missed the point.

Just for shits and giggles, watch the clip here…

Think it’s pretty clear she was talking about the response to the attack. Within 48 hours new procedures, significantly stricter than anything Bush & Cheney did in response to the shoe bomber, were in place to begin to address the threat of PETN (farm more invasive security procedures will eventually be required, but those will have to be carefully implemented over a longer period of time). While Conservatives are jumping all over Napolitano, she is actually giving them a subtle compliment. The current protocol aka ‘system’ Napolitano cites as ‘working’, was put in place by the Bush Administration. There is a streamline procedure for immediately changing security policies at airports throughout the country and on flights landing at US airports. Bush implemented the system and when used in response to this attack, yes – the system worked.

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