My previous statement on this subject is being vindicated by Jeff Goldberg, the New Yorker writer, a close Emanuel buddy. Read it.

I know plenty of you don't like Goldberg either. But he's pretty progressive on Israel and, I guess because he served in the Israeli army, has no problem telling Israel what it should do i.e. end the occupation.

Bottom line. Rahm Emanuel is going to be the White House enforcer. Forget about his father!

Read more »

I've been saying for some time that the day after Obama's election, all sorts of policy and personality battles would unfold around him.

This is happening as predicted, and the tension, backbiting, and jostling for position is fraying the nerves of many who are highest on the list of candidates Obama is considering for senior positions throughout the government.

Read more »

This McCain orchestrated trashing of Sarah Palin is sickening.

Her campaign was horrible. She knows nothing about he issues. She was, almost surely, the worst VP candidate in history.

Read more »

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers' name is consistently placed prominently on the list of candidates to be President Obama's Treasury Secretary. This is rather striking since the policies he promoted as Treasury Secretary and in his subsequent writings led to the economic disaster that we now face.

As Treasury Secretary, Summers embraced the high dollar policy promoted by his predecessor Robert Rubin. While it offered short-term benefits in the form of cheap imports and lower inflation, the high dollar also produced a large and growing trade deficit. Just like tax cuts that cause unsustainable budget deficits, the high dollar policy of the Clinton years was unsustainable over the long-run.

Read more »

The Jewish vote went 78 percent for Barack Obama. It is now safe to say that, after 80 years of consistently voting Democratic for President, the Jewish vote is no less predictable than the African-American vote or the vote of union households.

Accordingly, the scare tactics that worked so well against Obama during the Democratic primaries flopped in the general election. The Republican Jewish Coalition, which wasted gazillions on race-mongering, might as well close shop. If a relatively moderate Republican nominee cannot break above 22 percent after six months of lying e-mails alleging that the Democrat is a Middle Eastern terrorist, it is safe to say that the Jewish Republican ship will never come in.

Read more »

I know this is motley foolish, that no matter what business journalists imply, the "market" is not some big mind, responding to events with the wisdom of crowds. But the election debates have habituated me to watching lines on graphs as leaders talk; and MSNBC carried a real time, side-screen report on the Dow as Obama responded to questions.

In the earlier, and vaguer, parts of his news conference, the Dow dropped from about plus 130 for the day to under 100. As soon as he spoke forcefully about creating new jobs, in ways Paul Krugman laid out this morning, and for all the obvious reasons, the numbers began to climb steadily, and finished above 200. Let's just say some investors--not just value investors with deep pockets like Warren Buffet, but quick traders, too--understand this economy has only one hope. And Obama was shrewd to keep it alive with, of all people, fiscal hawks like Paul Volcker standing behind him.

When we have a moment to reflect in the coming days on this week's election, we might pause to consider and appreciate what the people living among the farms and cornfields of Indiana, in the old textile towns of North Carolina, and in the hollows of West Virginia said when they stood and voted this week. What they said, whatever else they have have thought or felt, was that we have overcome.

If this is true, such a statement comes closer than anything else can to fulfilling the ancient hopes of our nation's founders, when they sought, in establishing our republic, to form a more perfect union.

If you watch the video, you readily see that we could be in much worse trouble. At any rate, both of these can be true at the same time:

1. Public opinion is mired in center-right ideology.
2. President O can lead the nation to progressive policies.

Read more »

Yeah, that Obama thing was pretty cool (I watched the returns the Obama campaign office in Harlem, which had to be one of the most inspiring places to be), but it's worth noting that the victory extended far down ticket to state races.

To some extent the victories at the state level were more limited because Dems had already made big gains in 2006 and 2007, with Iowa, Colorado, New Hampshire and chambers in Virginia and Indiana having gone "blue" in anticipation of Obama's wins -- with North Carolina Dems demonstrating increasingly progressive leadership by its Blue local leadership over the last few years. This had given those voters a chance to see and understand what progressive leadership was really about--and overcoming many of the caricatures of the rightwing.

Read more »

This time I'm really, really not going to mention how Krauthammer bellowed ast the rabbi on Yom Kippur. That is getting OLD.

But today, our boy is kind of sad. He writes about John McCain. "Before our old soldier fades away, it is worth acknowledging that McCain ran a valiant race against impossible odds. He will be -- he should be -- remembered as the most worthy presidential nominee ever to be denied the prize.."

Read more »

Before the netroots starts attacking Emanuel as an AIPAC stooge, Likudnik, or whatever, let me weigh in.

It's not true. His father is an Israeli and was active in the Irgun, the terrorist group founded by Menachem Begin which famously bombed Jerusalem's King David Hotel.

I don't know what the old man's politics on Israel are today (not all Irgunists were rightwingers). I suspect that, if he was still a rightwinger, he would not have produced a bunch of liberal kids. (Rahm's brother, the Jeremy Piven one, writes often on HuffPo and is a total Hollywood liberal).

Read more »

The last time Americans danced and cheered in the streets was in 1945, when the nation finally defeated its enemies in the Second World War. I have no memories of those exuberant days. But I'm an historian and I've seen plenty of pictures and read many descriptions of the joy and happiness that swept over the country.

Obama's stunning victory is the first time in 63 years that Americans once again danced and cheered in the street. Here on the Left Coast, thousands of Berkeley students danced in the city, wildly cheering his victory. In Oakland's Jack London Square and in San Francisco's Castro District, tens of thousands more gathered for joyous street parties, dancing in the street. It was a bittersweet victory because of the success of those who sought to ban same-sex marriage. That day, too, will come. Of this I'm sure.

Read more »

A subsidiary theme within the flood of commentary on the Obama victory is the fate of the Republican Party. In an article on Monday entitled "The Republican Rump," Paul Krugman suggested that "the Republican rump, the party that's left after the election, will be the party that attends Sarah Palin's rallies, where crowds chant "Vote McCain, not Hussein!" It will be the party of Saxby Chambliss, the senator from Georgia, who, observing large-scale early voting by African-Americans, warns his supporters that "the other folks are voting." It will be the party that harbors menacing fantasies about Barack Obama's Marxist -- or was that Islamic? -- roots."

Let's hope it doesn't play out that way.

Read more »

Would America have elected Barack Obama if white Americans had not gotten accustomed to seeing (in succession) two African-American Secretaries of State? I don't think so. Before Bush, African-Americans were appointed to some good posts but not to our #1 foreign policy job. Two African Americans (one with a pretty odd first name) served as America's face to the world. That eased Obama's way. It is not Tiger Woods in whose footsteps Obama is walking -- it's Rice and Powell.

Read more »

It would be a really bad start to his administration if President Obama picked a Treasury Secretary who shares a substantial part of the blame for the bubble economy and the financial crisis. It will not be easy to pick up the pieces and get the economy back on its feet, but we would be going in the wrong direction to put one of the people responsible for getting us in this mess in the top economic position in the Obama administration.

Sheila Bair, the current head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, can boast of clean hands. Unlike other contenders, she never obstructed regulation of the $60 trillion credit default swap market. Nor did she push to maintain the over-valued dollar that gave us an $800 billion trade deficit. Unlike many others dealing with the fallout from the housing crash, she has noticed that people are losing their homes and has made preventing this a top priority.

Read more »

The hockey team has the best player in the world, and still is mighty disappointing.

The football team was manhandled by the Steelers. The general manager drafted three receivers to beef up the catching capability and none of them can play. The Steelers stacked the line and stifled the offense.

The baseball team did everyone a favor by not drawing audiences. And their stadium is really ugly.

Read more »

Betsy and I were there. We were bowled over by the meaning of the event, much more than we thought we would be. We are quite confident Barack will be a great President, since he has just run the single best Presidential campaign in the history of our country.

Coincident with the launch of the Obama administration, one thing I'm hoping for is a greater progressive ownership in and of the "visual public sphere."

Read more »

I confess a certain impatience, on this poignant day, with all the earnest talk about how America achieved something remarkable yesterday by electing our first African-American president, as if the choice has been about race all along. I do not mean to diminish an historic first, like electing a Catholic in 1960; I, too, choked-up when John Lewis spoke. But relief today is not about Americans choosing an obviously black man over a white man, which proves we can come to terms with our past. It is about our choosing an obviously brilliant, reciprocal man over a thick, cynical one--a man who articulates a coherent vision of global commonwealth over someone advancing vague, military patriotism--which proves we can come to terms with our future.

Read more »

I hope sane Israelis understand how damaging it is to Israel to be identified in today's New York Times as being one of three nations on the planet that clearly preferred McCain to Obama.

During the campaign I would have denied that was the case because some American Jews might have been moved by this information to support McCain. (In the end 78% voted for Obama). But I knew it was true as did everyone who knows anything about Israel. And it was not only the right in Israel that was pro-McCain. It was pretty much across the board, EXCEPT for the pro-peace left. (see this rundown)

Read more »

As an American and a citizen of the world, I was thrilled by Barack Obama's victory in yesterday's election. But even as we savor his historic victory (our historic victory), it's not too soon to start thinking about how to transform the inspiration of the moment into the new policies we desperately need. This was a key theme of Obama's speech last night, and it's worth taking him up on it by beginning a thoughtful conversation about the future of the country.

In the area that I specialize in -- foreign policy -- change is hard. Disentangling from Iraq, finding a more practical course in Afghanistan, crafting coordinated international approaches to curbing climate change and reviving the global economy, making good on Obama's pledge to seek a world free of nuclear weapons -- these challenges will not be resolved in a day, a month, a year, or, in some cases, a decade or more. But we have a chance to get started in the right direction for the first time in this century -- if we can get beyond the politics of immediate gratification.

Read more »

Congratulations to President-elect Obama. Both he and Senator McCain are outstanding patriots, and hey, each ran a tough campaign. Now that the race is finally over, it's time to bring America together, and get to work. And there is no shortage of challenges ahead. As one vet at IAVA put it, "The new guy is going to be busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest."

The new guy is definitely going to need the right people around him. One of the most important decisions the President will make regarding veterans is his choice of VA Secretary. President-elect Obama has the option of keeping Secretary Peake, who is new to the job and has already shown himself to be considerably more adept than his predecessor. Another shake-up could possibly slow things down, however.

Read more »

Lyndon Johnson understood that the honeymoon would be short. After the largest landslide in history -- with the biggest Democratic Congressional majorities ever -- he acted as if he had a year to get his Great Society enacted.

"You've got to give it all you can, that first year," he told an aide. "Doesn't matter what kind of a majority you come in with. You've got just one year when they treat you right, and before they start worrying about themselves."

Read more »

Isn't this strange. Maybe you have to be old to appreciate it. Fasten your seatbelts, now the fun begins.

Read more »

Amid the euphoria last night in Chicago, one network's cameras zoomed in on an elderly black man who simply stood there weeping. Jesse Jackson wept quietly that way, too. So did I.

Everything in Barack Obama's bearing and speech showed he understood what we were feeling. Last night he shouldered the burdens of history and fatality with a gravitas and, I thought, a sadness reminiscent of Lincoln's.

Read more »

Other than those personal rites of passage -- and I've had some wonderful ones -- this was the best night of my life.

I have two grandchildren, twins born in February. The first President they will ever know is an African-American. We won't have to teach them about equality and the stupidity of prejudice. We won't have to tell them, as white liberals tend to tell their kids, that they are "just as good as us" because they will know it. After all, the President is black. They won't tear up, as I did, the first time they see the word "President" under a photo of a black man or gaze in wonder at our beautiful African-American "First Family."

Read more »

Conceding, McCain paid tribute to African-Americans, and honored Obama for--having defeated him.

Everyone is calling him gracious--on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann and Rep. John Lewis, for example. I suppose he was. What he couldn't bring himself to do: compliment Obama for the way he conducted himself; for any of his talents; for any ideas; for his character.

Beneath the velvet, it was faint praise. A bitter night for Sen. McCain, to be sure.

Never been more proud to be an American.

Wow.

To give birth to a new one, for all its people.

We will know once Virginia comes in and Obama actually carries he capital of the confederacy.

I only wish Dr. King and LBJ were here to see what is happening. And Malcolm who, at the end of his life, came to the understanding that America could be capable of even of this.

Read more »

Some election, huh?

President Obama will have a historic opportunity to establish himself as a truly great president in his first days in office. He can take advantage of the current economic crisis to announce plans to jump start national health care insurance. Extending health care insurance can be an effective stimulus that will provide an immediate boost to the economy.

More importantly, it will provide the same access to health care that people in other wealthy countries have long taken for granted. For this accomplishment, President Obama will rank alongside Presidents Roosevelt and Lincoln as one of the nation's truly great presidents.

Read more »

Enough already with these "poll of polls". CNN does it, RealClearPolitics does it, and so does Pollster. And so too will a lot of other imitators do the same thing in the next election cycle, if we just let it all slide by right now. Not on my watch. This morning, to take a conspicuous example on my home front, brought news from Pollster.com that Ohio was now back in the tossup column, based on the averaging of the latest polls, apples and oranges alike.

FOX/Rasmussen's robotic, digitally-recorded poll had Ohio as a dead heat with both McCain and Obama at 49% each. The reputable Quinnipiac Poll showed Obama up 50% to 43%. Reuters/Zogby's numbers from their online, interactive poll looked "too close to call", with Obama leading by just two points (49-47). SurveyUSA's robo-poll also had it too close to call (Obama by 48-46). But the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll--one with a great record of accuracy (not just because I work there...see it for yourself) had Obama leading by six points (52-46). And last, but not least, among the apples and oranges in the "poll of polls" this morning were the numbers provided by Strategic Vision--which as Mark rightly noted today, is a Republican affiliated firm-- telling us that McCain was up by 2% (48-46) in a race to close to call.

Read more »

Peruvian shamans check in. I won't spoil this by saying whom they prefer.

Years from now, when we've (hopefully) had time to reflect on the good and bad done by the Obama Administration, I'll be able to tell my son Arlo that he helped usher in a new era of politics.

I'll tell him the story of how his parents took him to the polls on Newkirk Avenue in Brooklyn, and all around them were the faces of America: elderly Jewish holdouts from an earlier era of Flatbush, recent immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh, African Americans, West Indians, and, of course, white folks like me and Nicole who were attracted by the low apartment prices and easy community of our neighborhood.

Read more »

It is hard to imagine now that four years ago George Bush was reelected in the midst of a climate of fear and suspicion. Democrats were on the defensive, the long term relevancy of their party being questioned by the media. Today's election may render the Republicans a minority party, completely out of tune with the mood of the country. What happened?

The easy answer would be to say "Iraq and Lehman Bros.". Those two tragedies expose the fallacy of the neoconservative philosophy of preemptive war and radical deregulation. But I would argue for two different phrases--"Bottom-up and Broadband". In 2004 Democrats were overpowered by two forces: the Republican Top Down money/organizing machine and the power of right wing talk radio. There were many states that will vote Democratic today (Montana, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana) that in 2004 had neither organization or media that reflected a Democratic message.

Read more »

JTA reports that Steve Rosen, former Director of Policy at AIPAC, has landed a job with Daniel Pipes, whose careeer has gone from various teaching gigs to fulltime anti-Obama and anti-Muslim hate-mongering. Rosen is under federal indictment for espionage.

I'll spare comment on Rosen with whom I worked during my AIPAC days (1982-1986) and who has always struck me as Washington's spookiest character. I will say that in 1984, when he was supporting Reagan and I was gung-ho for Mondale,he told me, "You and I are not that far apart. You'll be surprised to know that my parents were Stalinists."

Read more »

Polling places in New York City open at 6:00 am, and when I arrived at mine at 5:45 a.m. at least 600 people were on line, stretching from the school door near East 33rd Street and Third Avenue back to the end of the block on Second Avenue, and then down the avenue to 32nd Street. By the time I left after casting my vote, at 6:45 or so, it had grown light out, and there were at least another 600 people waiting on line.

Read more »

It's no secret to TPMCafe readers that I believe that -- in addition to all his other qualities that make Barack Obama the best Democratic nominee in the party's history -- Obama's racial background is of incredible significance. My wife, a public school teacher and counselor, reports that, for months now, she has seen the inspirational effect on African-American children (especially the boys). But she also notes the excitement among kids in general, telling me about one white kindergarten kid with Down syndrome, who hardly talks, but when he happened to see the young tall slender gym fair-complexioned gym teacher, started shouting "OBAMA." Nothing else, just the name. And then a big smile.

Read more »

Some time early Monday Google Adsense starting running a Pro Proposition 8 ad on TPM. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Prop 8 is a ballot initiative in California which would ban same-sex marriages. We assume it's only running in California, for obvious reasons.

Here's what it looked like for those who don't live in California.

Now, we've gotten a lot of emails about this. So I wanted to explain publicly why the ad is running.

Read more »