McCain Adviser "Gobsmacked" By Obama's Cabinet

Max Boot, a violently hawkish neoconservative blogger and McCain campaign staffer, professes himself surprisingly impressed by Barack Obama's staff picks:

As someone who was skeptical of Obama's moderate posturing during the campaign, I have to admit that I am gobsmacked by these appointments , most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain. (Jim Jones is an old friend of McCain's, and McCain almost certainly would have asked Gates to stay on as well.) This all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, the unconditional summits with dictators, and other foolishness that once emanated from the Obama campaign. His appointments suggest that, if anything, his administration will have a Reapolitiker, rather than a liberal, bent, although Clinton and Steinberg at State should be powerful voices for "neo-liberalism" which is not so different in many respects from "neo-conservativism". Both, for instance, support humanitarian interventions in places like Darfur and Bosnia. ...

Only churlish partisans of both the left and the right can be unhappy with the emerging tenor of our nation's new leadership.

Michael Goldfarb, another McCain blogger, agrees. Conservative Ross Douthat predicted recently that "on an awful lot of issues, the Obama foreign policy will end cutting to the right of Bill Clinton's foreign policy, which was already more center-left than left." He also wrote that "Obama already made fans of Niall Ferguson and Eli Lake; by 2012, I wouldn't be surprised if he's converted Max Boot as well." Apparently, it didn't take nearly that long.

Comments

[openhand]

Obama fast tracking his team and policy will help Martin against Chambliss as the Dems allay fears of strong Senate majority.

[anney]

I'm in Georgia, and I certainly hope you're right. One positive thing for Martin is that the runoff turnout is expected to be low, and Chambliss needs a high turnout of (redneck white) Georgians in the northern part of the state to vote for him. He's definitely "appealing" to the entrenched Southern values voters for their support. Zell Miller and Sarah Palin are speaking for him in Georgia.

I just hope more motivated progressives vote in large numbers for Martin. And let's hope there aren't any more ballot screwups.

[1003]

Obama will be changing the mindset of everybody!!

[Social Construct]

" ... churlish partisans of both the left and the right ... "
Yeah, me too. I love those words. Going off subject, I must admit having little tolerance for the churlish partisans among us. It tears at the very fabric of free speech when a person of so little tolerance for anything other than their own voice resorts to any tactic to stifle others. I cannot begin to fathom how many nuggets of wisdom that have fallen on my deaf ears but, hopefully, I have learned.

[DragonFly]

Not so fast Mr. Boot.

Obama may have decided to keep Gates, but that does not necessarily mean that things will play out in the manner you've indicated.

Gates will be fine tuned and directed by President Obama, who unlike Bush, is an actual to 'Godsmacked' leader.

[Crozier]

Upon serious reflection, we now believe that the best that liberals and progressives ( and classic Goldwater libertarian conservatives like Ron Paul) can achieve - regardless of political preference - is the pragmatism that Corporate elites will allow.

Look, they have "bailed" themselves out....and with total greed and discompassionate furloughs of the masses who made them mega and uber wealthy, they show that their pols are their prosties and bend over as requested.

The BEST we can have is to convince the Corporate Elites and Plutocrats that they should leave us the illusion of freedom and middle class consumptive status. Obama will tell them that we are better behaved when we keep our homes, have jobs that provide dignity, and that it costs more to have starving masses than contented citizens who like the ancient Romans are pleased with " panem et circenses." He may even convince the Plutocrats to permit universal health coverage - not single payer because their greed ratio is stratospheric - but "affordable" . He will even appeal to a long ago lost patriotism to keep jobs here and yes, to provide higher education to serve rather than to scare them.

[tidalfist]

F U C K the Plutocrats.

[SteveMDFP]

Working with your assumptions of who holds power, I think you're mistaken on single-payor healthcare. Spending large and unecessarily wasteful amounts of money on health care for the masses is not in the interest of the plutocracy, who will get their own healthcare outside of any national system. If taxpayers are going to be footing most of the ultimate bill for healthcare, single-payor gives them the most market clout to spend the least per person, while still delivering creditable care.

The various options for reform all result in somewhat different plutocratic oxes getting gored, depending on specifics. It's overall in almost everyone's interest that some kind of reform take place. Getting something, anything that provides basic, essential care to everyone is the critical task.

Once this task is accomplished, then over time, who pays for what care by what mechanisms can be tinkered with through the political process.

I pray that the Obama team acts swiftly in this area, before something might happen to his broad and deep base of support for action.

[Pumpski]

I don't know who this guy thinks he is but Obama didn't speak foolishness in his campaign. Especially about talking to the enemy. You have to talk or you create a world like we have now. Obama spoke true to what he will do. Don't paint your little picture of what you want to happen. It is false. Obama is true to his word and his principles. Don't for one minute think he is overpowered by his appointments. Don't for one second think Obama will be shaped like a piece of weak clay. His cabinet is his clay. He will listen to some advice but believe me he is the power. He is the ideology. Get that straight.

[chirps]

I hope you are correct.

[StillIRise]

The Repubs and neo-cons still don't get it. They're intellectually handicapped by the limitations of their capacity to think beyond their own worldview. Obama will not be shaped by his cabinet, he will shape his cabinet to conform to his vision and his agenda to achieve that vision. As he tried to explain yesterday, the Change is not external (in the people he appoints), but internal (within him).

Change of any kind begins in our thinking, and this is what Obama is challenging Americans to do, starting with our government. Boot and other neo-cons and Repubs, and some Democrats as well, are trying to understand and explain what Obama is doing within the constraints of their old way of thinking, based on their jaded perspective of the role of our government and what that role has become over the years (especially over the last 8 years). Therefore, they will always be wrong, and Obama will always be one step ahead of them.

No wonder they were laughing at his Change message. They didn't understand it then any more than they understand it now, and they probably won't get it until they themselves have changed their own thinking, but that's a huge challenge for those who think they already know all the answers.

[Crozier]

We liberals were complicit in our demise within Democratic Party wing leadership. The nomination of Senator McGovern in 1972 was as epochal as the conservatives nominating Senator Goldwater in 1964. From the debacle of Goldwater eventually came Reagan and the neo-conservatives in 1980.
With a nod to Carter one-termer, the neo-liberals came to power under Clinton in 1992.

The Goldwater conservatives and the New Deal/Fair Deal/New Frontier/Great Society liberals are BOTH OUT OF POWER AND INFLUENCE. The NEOLIBS and NEOCONS are first cousins or two sides of the same CORPORATE COIN...and anyone who tries to undo them summarily are destroyed.
They together OWN Congress, and they OWN the MSM - aural, visual and print.....TO THE EXCLUSION OF ANYONE EXCEPT THE FRINGES. They allow a Dennis Kucinich and Dr. Ron Paul in the House as illusiory "voices" for the old left and right.

[NicholeWebb]

too true, too bad.

[tidalfist]

So, REVOLT !

[JohnFObama]

If Obama continues this way, he's going to get 60+% of the popular vote in the 2012 election. The way domestic policy is trending leftwards in recent times Obama will have an easy time implementing his agenda that will satisfy the base while he nudges his foreign policy closer to center which will please moderates in both parties and independents, he'll cruise to re-election.

[IconoclasticYouth]

Nonononononono! PLEASE don't even mention 2012.... my brain can't handle a constant state of election....

[timmmahhhh]

A lot of you are criticizing this guy - but isn't it refreshing to hear a Republican that can be open about his feelings especially when they are in support the opposition? He could be another Dana Perino paid hack that only knows how to point out the bad parts of the other party, or a Hannity that will only say that a true conservative can never say anything good about a Democrat. If Obama can impress a conservative hawk and progressives both isn't that proving that he can go above politics as usual? And more importantly isn't that proving it to the 'enemy' as well? It speaks volumes for 2012 and (I know I'm dreaming here) a 21st century Era of Good Feeling. Obama needs to maintain a broad based support to successfully undo the crap of the Bushies.

[lizr]

In my political science classes realpolitik meant practical and realistic.

It didnt NECESSARILY mean giving up your ideals or your vision.

Just making sure they get implemented effectively.

[Scarllatti]

Good point!!

[cocodee]

Thank you!
I don't know from where all of the exitement is coming. Obama always said that he was going to reach across the aisle. Did they think he was a liar? (sarcasm there)
And I am still thinking that he will implement diplomacy as the most important component of foreign policy and there is already a time-table in effect for Iraq. Soooo....
What the big WHA?

[KarateKid]

Max Boot is so "gobsmacked" that he fails to ask a couple of simple questions:

IF Gates has a problem with what his prospective boss, Obama, wanted to do, would he stay?

IF Obama felt Gates would not do his bidding, would he retain Gates?

Do you think Obama picked Gates like you do in a pickup basketball game? Don't you think they have had extensive talks to see whether they could mutually work with each other?

These neocons are so out of touch with reality and they're still underestimating Obama.

[tidalfist]

I would like to think that's the case, and yes, that should be the damn deal.
Let's hope the ' # 1 most liberal senator ' side sneaks up
and kicks ' em all in the face. And retires the centrist, neo-liberal schtick.

[DotMatrix]

Gobsmacked? Try Obamafied!

[darker]

It's time for REPUBLICAN STUPID PEOPLE to PACK IT IN, call it a BAD HAIR DAY,
and GET THE HELL OUT of our way so we can FIX THE MESS THAT THEY MADE!

[lizr]

LOL you got that right.

[bimplebean]

Co-sign, big time.

[reenie217]

A zillion thumbs up

[booksnmore4you]

Max Boot can be "gobsmacked" all he wants, so long as it is Obama who is ultimately calling the shots.

[Xavieer]

Another LLD hooked on godsmack ..........­.Republica­n tro//s go away please !!!!!!!!! you will find it much cooler back in your caves and under the rocks you came from!!!!!