HOPE AND CHANGE DEPT:
I dunno--in a lot of areas, seems like Mr. Obama is business-as-usual:
"More than 40% of President Obama's top-level fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, from key executive branch jobs to diplomatic postings in countries such as France, Spain and the Bahamas, a USA TODAY analysis finds. Twenty of the 47 fundraisers that Obama's campaign identified as collecting more than $500,000 have been named to government positions, the analysis found....Nearly a year after he was elected on a pledge to change business-as-usual in Washington, Obama also has taken a cue from his predecessors and appointed fundraisers to coveted ambassadorships, drawing protests from groups representing career diplomats. A separate analysis by the American Foreign Service Association, the diplomats' union, found that more than half of the ambassadors named by Obama so far are political appointees, said Susan Johnson, president of the association. An appointment is considered political if it does not go to a career diplomat in the State Department. That's a rate higher than any president in more than four decades, the group's data show, although that could change as the White House fills more openings."
Politics as usual.
IS THE GOP/CONSERVATISM DEAD? DEPT:
Wow--in the special congressional election in New York's 23rd District, Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman really DOES have a chance to win (and to thus defeat horribly liberal Republican-lite candidate Dede Scozzafava, along with the Democratic candidate). Even a Daily Kos poll out today shows the race between Hoffman and Ownes virtually even.
Meanwhile a Democratic poll in New Jersey has Corzine with a slight lead, but I stand strongly behind my prediction that Christie will win.
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ABROAD DEPT:
Today in Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bashes--guess who?--George W. Bush:
"As a way of repudiating past U.S. policies toward Pakistan, Clinton told the students "there is a huge difference" between the Obama administration's approach and that of former President George W. Bush. "I spent my entire eight years in the Senate opposing him," she said to a burst of applause from the audience of several hundred students. "So to me, it's like daylight and dark."
Unsurprisingly, this irritates conservatives. But get used to it. Yes, of course--it's unseemly, it's whiny, it's petty, it's snarky, it gets old, and it makes the Obama administration look like a collection of hyper-partisans who don't realize the last election is over already. But get used to it. Because I'm convinced the Obama people see George W. Bush as the equivalent of Herbert Hoover, against whom the Democrats of Roosevelt and Truman ran for decades. The Obama-ites think they can run against Bush for ever--and find success. It will be up to the American people to let the current administration know they're sick of it. Let's hope they do. Maybe we can help.
YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT A WEE BIT EARLIER DEPT:
Mind-changing "Bachelor" Jason Mesnick reveals more this week:
"Flip-flopping “Bachelor” Jason Mesnick recently revealed a little more about his infamous televised switcheroo. It seems Mesnick didn’t decide to dump short-term fiancé Melissa Rycroft for fellow contestant Molly Malaney until he learned Malaney might land her own chance to love ’em and leave ’em. “(The producers) kept asking me if I thought Molly would make a good ‘Bachelorette,’” Mesnick told Us Weekly. He then “realized I was not willing to let Molly go on TV and have 25 guys fight over her.”
Maybe the show's producers should have hidden her phone number from him. This cost them a good show...Molly would have been an interesting bachelorette.
