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LIGHTNING ROUND: EVERYBODY CHILL, I HAZ THIS.
- The Obama transition team has announced a slew of policy directors, the most prominent being Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle who will also reportedly be head of Health and Human Services and White House health czar. Ezra nails the relevance of the pick: "Daschle signals that the Obama administration view health care as a political problem." Precisely. Wonkish details are intellectually interesting but at the end of the day you gotta pass the bill and that's what Daschle is equipped to do.
- In other transition news, the Obama team has tapped CBO Director Peter Orszag for budget director, and possibly Max Cleland or Tammy Duckworth for Secretary of Veterans Affairs or Secretary of the Army. Obama also appears to be negotiating to keep Robert Gates on as Defense Secretary, at least short-term, and Arlen Specter tells First Read that the Holder appointment would be news to him (it's unusual for the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to be in the dark, historically).
- Hillary Clinton's close to $8 million in campaign debt from her presidential run may become a problem if she accepts a position as Secretary of State, since she'd have to raise funds while serving in the administration, a potential ethics violation. On the other hand, becoming SoS might give her a compelling case to ask the FEC to forgive the debts. In other Hillary news, Ted Kennedy offers Clinton the chance to head the Senate's health care working group if she doesn't go to Foggy Bottom.
- The House Democratic Steering Committee narrowly nominated Henry Waxman over John Dingell to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Tim explains what this means.
- John McCain has announced that he will run for reelection in 2010 although, as Dana notes, he might face real competition in Arizona from Gov. Janet Napolitano.
- Delaware's Democratic Governor-elect Jack Markell plans on being sworn in at midnight on January 20, which would allow him to name Joe Biden's replacement if the vice president-elect resigns his Senate seat after being sworn in.
- The Minnesota recount begins today and will determine whether Norm Coleman will retain his Senate seat or lose it to Al Franken. Yesterday, Mark Begich prevailed over Ted Stevens in Alaska, giving the Democrats 58 seats for the 111th Congress. In other election remainders, Missouri -- and its 11 electoral votes -- is finally being called for McCain, and Salt Lake City went for Barack Obama by 296 votes, even thought the state as a whole went for McCain by 29 points.
- A Willacy County, Texas, grand jury has indicted vice president Richard Cheney and former AG Alberto Gonzales over use of a detention facility, even though the county has no federal jurisdiction. Will Bunch has the background on the case.
- And finally, in its ongoing efforts to prove that America truly is a center-right nation, Newsweek probes the serious question of whether Barack Obama is indeed the Antichrist. Hey, maybe next week they can do a Q & A with Alan Keyes regarding his quest to get Barack Obama to provide his birth records prior to being inaugurated!
--Mori Dinauer
COMMENTS (2)
"And finally, in its ongoing efforts to prove that America truly is a center-right nation, Newsweek probes the serious question of whether Barack Obama is indeed the Antichrist."
Look, I know there's a lot of merriment about this stuff with you Washington-based lefties [Where *are* these people? If they're in the neighborhood, they're the dirty guys ranting on the streetcorner], but this could be a lot more serious than you think. Here in TN, not only did Obama get creamed, but the Repbulicans won control of the statehouse for the first time since Reconstruction. And one of the Republican state reps, while trying to deny [of course] that it had anything to do with race, said that it more likely was the result of "the Muslim factor" and "many people's perception that [Obama] was the Antichrist."
Look--It's crazy, but I know enough rural people to easily see how this stuff could be believed by perfectly sane people. First of all, you accept the premillennial dispensationalist gospel, so you take the Antichrist stuff seriously. Secondly, this really exotic candidate comes seemingly out of nowhere and wins the election, even though his values don't line up with yours or those of anyone you know. You don't trust any of the MSM and rely heavily on your neighbors, your church, and certain sorts of talk radio for understanding of the outside world. The results can be really toxic. Now, to Obama's credit, his team seems to have understood something of how this works, and made really strong efforts to counter it among white working-class voters in battleground states. But the Obama campaign was virtually invisible in places like Tennessee; indeed, volunteers in Nashville were put to work calling voters in NC. Frankly, I think the dismissal of this *Newsweek* piece by the left [or, worse, the assertion that it shouldn't have been published at all, because it somehow lends credence to the notion that we're a "center-right" nation--how?] says little for its perception. People you ignore or belittle have ways of suddenly coming back on you; if you're not clueless about them, it might help you prepare.
Posted by: David in Nashville | November 19, 2008 6:34 PM
You gotta hear this 90 minute blogradio on why the media has a blackout of the looming Obama Birth Certificate Constitutional Crisis:
http://politicalpistachio.blogspot.com/2008/11/why-is-obamas-birth-certificate-still.html
Posted by: Ted | November 19, 2008 10:11 PM