Not Cheering Me Up
Nov 4th, 2008 at 6:02 pm by Susie
David Sirota, live-blogging today at Salon:
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) delivered Democrats’ election-day message this morning on Fox News. Officially speaking for the Obama campaign, McCaskill told Fox that Barack Obama’s first order of business as president is to appease Republicans and start filling his cabinet with them.
I’m not making this up. Here’s the key exchange:
FOX: If [Obama] wins tonight, what do you expect to happen Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from a President-elect Obama?
MCCASKILL: He will surprise America how quickly he will try to reach out to the millions of people who are voting for John McCain today — and the milions of people who have questions about his leadership. He’ll want to reassure them, and he’ll want to find Republicans to work with him in his cabinet.
FOX: You don’t predict it’s going to be “we have a mandate, we’re going to govern from the left”? You think it’s going to be more of a bipartisan let’s sort of heal and bring everybody together?
MCCASKILL: He will pleasantly surprise everyone who votes for John McCain today.
How … predictable. I guess my reaction is why I haven’t been invited to any parties tonight.
Sirota goes on to say:
I would say I was surprised that McCaskill decided to use her role as Democrats’ election-day spokesperson to insist that a Democratic win will prioritize the very Republican governance that has become so unpopular. But then, I’ve been around this crap for too long to be surprised.
It seems no matter how hated George W. Bush and the Republican Party are in the country at large, no matter how an election may pivot on that hatred, the political Establishment of both parties is ideologically loyal to conservative corporatism. Indeed, that is the power of money — the power of the hostile takeover, if you will. And that means the uprising that this election season has stoked will need to become all the more intense starting tomorrow if we are to make sure a (hopefully) President-elect Obama doesn’t spend the first days after the election constructing another conservative Presidency — only this time, building it with bricks and mortar marked “progressive.”
Yeah, but maybe the brave men and women of Congress will steer him toward progressive causes!
That was sarcasm, in case you couldn’t tell.
Uuurrrgh. That is all.
Look for cabinet choices first, then supreme court nominees. Those are both excellent opportunities to reach out to poor disenfranchised republican religious extremist warmonger moneyhogs.
I have very, very low expectations.
“Hostile takeover,” eh? Just saying. I’m with you merciless — and also very, very happy to be proved wrong. We’ll probably know before the Inaugural; the key moves in the financial crisis will all be made by then, and Obama will be involved, just as he worked the phones for the bailout. Who knows?
What makes anyone think he’ll do anything he says - that has not been his short record. He just makes promises and then ditches them with excuses when the time comes to impliment them.
“Just because you’re on their side doesn’t mean they’re on your side.” - TNH.