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Mat Yeglesias Wins
There have been many arguments that I have read and agreed with saying that Obama should appoint this or that Republican to the position of secretary of defense. Matthew Yeglesias has defeated than all with just two sentences in a two paragraph post.
If you find a moderate Republican with sound views on key environmental issues and make him or her head of the EPA, that says "climate change is an important issue and there's bipartisan support for taking action." If you put a Republican in charge of the Pentagon it says "Obama likes diplomacy, but even he knows that when the going gets tough you need to call in the GOP."This made me think about the question in a new way. Before I had seen the SecDef position as a job that a Democrat could trust a Republican to actually do and not try to undermine him. It was the post I was willing to trust them with because I thought they would mess up anything else. Defense was the one area where I thought we are all on the same side of this issue. I had not considered the fact that the GOP likes to paint Democrats as incompetent in this area. Mr. Yeglesias convinces me that I had looked at this question from exactly the wrong point of view. I wish that I could argue that concisely.
Crossposted at The Working Class Heretic
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Comments (6)
Does such a Republican exist?
June 21, 2008 10:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Look for the ones that have resigned in protest from carrer jobs during this administration.
June 22, 2008 12:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
He's actually Matt Yglesias (I am sorry for feeling compelled to point out).
June 22, 2008 4:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
I fixed it on my blog but as you kno once you hit send here your errors are permanant.
June 22, 2008 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, from what I understand, Matt has some difficulty with spelling and may see nothing wrong with the title of this post.
June 22, 2008 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn I was looking right at it on the tab when I typed that and still got it wrong.
June 22, 2008 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
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