Monday, November 8, 2010

WtF, Obama? Part 2

Well, I guess we know now. Faced with an election that is the crystallized result of essence of policy failure, Obama decides that he...sent the wrong message. Has this man ever passed a math class? Or done any physical craft? Done anything where failure is not the result of failing to be persuasive? Perhaps not.

Now, Obama is not a narcissist like Sarah Palin. I don't think he is even a "soulless technocrat," as Digby says. He seems a decent enough person with decent impulses. But he  does not seem capable of recognizing a policy failure, imagining a policy success, or understanding why policy success might lead to political success. You hominids are so screwed. And if there's an actual military conflict, I cannot imagine how Obama could be an effective Commander-in-Chief.

Croak!

[Afterthought of a few minutes: is it possible that the only people who can now be elected to the Presidency are acting the role? That seems depressingly likely.]

[Minor change the day after posting.]

Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Split Between Liberals and Conservatives in the Democratic Party

I've written about this before. Now, the recent election has swept most of the liberal Democrats out of the Senate, including their leader, Paul Wellstone, and most of the conservative Democrats out of the House. The Obama administration and the Senate Democratic leadership are making plans to move to the right. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is making a bid to become House Minority Leader, squeezing out the conservative Steeny Hoyer, who has almost no supporters left in the House. I don't know that she'll succeed. On the one hand, Pelosi is notorious for betting on sure things. On the other, her own party's dominant faction opposes her. I have no idea how the Democrats will govern with a conservative majority in the Senate and a liberal minority in the House. If she does make it, though, it seems likely to me to be another step on the way to the emergence of a new liberal party.