Puh-leeze. Now who is being naive, DC?

Picking Clinton was the smart move. She's known all over the world, Bill had to make a deal to behave himself, she's smart, savvy ands well-connected, and I think she'll be magnificently successful as Secretary of State.

As for quoting things they said about one another on the campaign trail, that's useless. They were adversaries at the time. Now it's time to make peace and move on.

As for them being "retreads", you pick the best person for the job. If they have prior experience getting things done, then all the better.

SB, you're totally avoiding the overall issue here. You're not looking at what I am saying with an open mind.

Generally speaking, Senator Obama talked about CHANGE.

"We need change from tired Washington insiders and Clinton-era retreads"

-Barack Obama during Democratic debates.

He made the statement that I quoted above in a debate with Senator Clinton, in a context which obviously not only meant that this country was tired of the Bush administration, it's people, and it's policies, but that this country was also in need of a change from the Clinton administration, it's people, and it's policies. No matter how you may try to spin it, it's exactly what he said and there's no way around it.


As far as Hillary Clinton goes, well as you indicated to me a few months back how you despise everything that Sarah Palin stands for, well that's exactly how I feel about Hillary Clinton. I totally despise everything that she claims to stand for, and despise her even more for the hypocritical way that she snaked her way into Washington.

But getting back to Presidnet Elect Obama, I said earlier, and as I sincerely mean, I really want him to be a successful President and sincerely hope that his policies and ideas do make things better for all of us.

The Clintons and Bushes have been in power for 20 years. If Obama wants to surround himself with experienced people, they're going to be from one of their administrations. He surely wasn't going to pick Bush people, although he made a smart move keeping Gates around for at least awhile. The stuff that gets said in the primaries always gets forgotten once the general election starts. It no different every 4 years.

And just who is he supposed to hire? People with no experience? People with experience in other fields, but no Washington insider knowledge? People with no connections with the House or Senate who wouldn't begin to know how to get things done? How could he get anything accomplished that way?

I appreciate that you don't like Senator Clinton. Lots of people don't. I'm no cheerleader on her behalf, I just feel that she gets a bad rap for doing what men have been doing for years. Sarah Palin, with her empty-headed answers, when I'm positive that she's far from empty-handed, set women back about 100 years, IMO. That's what I despise about her.

DC, no matter how many Clintonites are in the Obama White House (no different from the Nixonites/Fordians.Reaganites in Bush Sr. and Dubya's House), and no Carterites because all those Carter people are either dead or in the retirement home (except for Volker of course)...just remember this:

OBAMA is still the boss. Yes his assembled crew so far is impressive, and even some right-wingers like Fred Barnes (yes, THAT Fred Barnes) actually are sort of digging it. Remember, alot of those same folks months ago were preaching weekly of how Obama was a socialist naive liberal muslim terrorist.

Then again, remember when Dubya came into office in 2001? His Cabinet was seen by the media as impressive.

*=Vice-President Dick Cheney was Chief of Staff under Ford and Secretary of Defense under Poppycock.
*=Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was US Ambassador to NATO, Secretary of Defense under Ford, and Special Assistant to President Nixon.
*=Secretary of State Colin Powell was National Security Advisor for Poppycock.
*=NSA Condi Rice was under Poppycock's Director of East European Affairs on the National Security Council.

And so on.

Yet 8 years later, here we are.

Ultimately DC, Obama has campaigned over 16 months to get this elusive gig. Now that's he got it, he's the daddy now, which means fairly or not he'll earn all the praise, and the blame, for what is to come.

Bill Clinton mentioned for wife's Senate seat

After eight years as senator from New York, Hillary Clinton is trading places, moving from Congress to the incoming administration.

On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama announced that he asked his former rival to be his secretary of state.

That means the scramble begins to replace Clinton on Capitol Hill. Among those mentioned to take her seat as New York's junior senator is her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

At a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, after Obama announced her selection, Clinton said she wanted to "thank my fellow New Yorkers who have, for eight years, given me the joy of a job I love with the opportunity to work on issues I care deeply, in a state that I cherish."

Clinton added that "leaving the Senate is very difficult for me."

The task of choosing a successor falls to David Paterson, New York's Democratic governor. Whomever he picks would serve for two years, before a special election in November 2010 to decide who fills the last two years of Clinton's term.

Paterson has a strong bench to choose from. There are a number of contenders, including at least eight members of New York's delegation in the House of Representatives, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, Caroline Kennedy, and her cousin, Robert Kennedy Jr.

"This is not an election. This is not a campaign. It's a constituency of one. David Paterson. It's all about what the governor wants to do," said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report.

"Paterson has said he would prefer someone from upstate New York, or a woman or an Hispanic candidate," Rothenberg said.

As for some of the more unconventional picks, Rothenberg said Paterson could "try to make a splash with a big name like Robert Kennedy Jr." or a "quirky interesting pick" of someone like Caroline Kennedy, who is not a politician.

But some are suggesting the former president should take his wife's seat.

In an op-ed column last week in The Washington Post, journalists Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac urged Paterson to "send Bill Clinton to the Senate."

If that happened, Clinton would become the third former president to go from the White House to Capitol Hill.

President John Quincy Adams lost his re-election bid in 1828. Two years later he returned to Washington after winning election as a congressman from his home state of Massachusetts. He served in the House of Representatives until his death in 1848.

President Andrew Johnson also served as a Senator from Tennessee in 1875, 7 years after the Senate acquitted him of impeachment charges. He died a few months after taking office.

Bill Clinton would bring gravitas to the job, and he obviously knows his way around Washington.

But some Democratic strategists who used to work for Bill Clinton don't think the former president would want to go from leader of the free world to being the junior senator from New York. Clinton's office deferred to Paterson's office when asked for a comment.

In a statement released Monday in which he praised the choice of Hillary Clinton for the nation's top diplomatic post, Paterson said, "In order to appoint the best possible candidate to replace Sen. Clinton, I am consulting with a wide variety of individuals from all across New York State.

"I expect to announce Sen. Clinton's replacement when the position becomes officially vacant," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/01/clinton.replacement/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Thank God I don't live in NY.

Jersey's gotta get it's stench from somewhere (or someone)...

I think it blows in from Indiana (those who use IT'S instead of ITS) lol

Two Years From Now:

Hillary - I was pretty much kept in the dark.


Obama - Thats ok. We have time. Is there anything else you can tell me about why I am now being blamed for the economy, and my polls are tanking?

Hillary - I ran into Sarah Palin in Beverly Hills. She said you were being tough about the negotiations for the debates in the 2012 race, and that if I helped her there would be something in it for me.

Obama - And you believed that story.

Hillary - There was something in it for me...on my own.

Obama - I've always taken care of you.

Hillary - Taken care of me. You've taken care of me? You're a kid and I was passed over.

Obama - That's the way the people wanted it.

Hillary - Its not the way I wanted it! I'm smaht, not dumb like everyone says, I'm smaht and I want respect. And what do I get? Hillary go meet some dignitary at the airport. Hillary go negotiate with some mickey mouse dictator somewhere....
I can handle things.

Obama - Is there anything else you can tell me about these poll numbers.

Hillary - My husband Bill leaked some bad stuff to the press. He belongs to Palin.

Obama - You can leave the administration now. I don't want to see you in the government buildings, I don't want to see you on Meet the Press. When you come to Washington I want to know three days in advance so I can have you watched. You're nothing to me now, Hillary, you're not my secretary of state, and you're not my friend.

Hillary ... Barry......

DT loves his GF quotes.

Most approve of Obama's Cabinet picks, poll shows

By Paul Steinhauser
CNN Deputy Political Editor

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new national poll suggests that Americans think President-elect Barack Obama's getting it right when it comes to his Cabinet picks, especially Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates.

Seventy-five percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey approve of Obama's Cabinet choices, with 22 percent disapproving.

That's 16 points higher than those in favor of then President-elect Bush's Cabinet picks eight years ago.

The poll indicates that 71 percent approve of Obama picking Sen. Hillary Clinton for secretary of state. Democrats overwhelmingly approve of the choice, with two-thirds of independents agreeing and Republicans evenly split on the pick.

Clinton and Obama were rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination during the very long and bitter primary season, and the two didn't see eye-to-eye on some major international issues. VideoWatch more on the Obama-Clinton alliance »

But the poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, suggests that Americans don't think Clinton will go rogue when she and Obama disagree.

"Will Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton try to push their own foreign policy agenda? Americans say no," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.

Fifty-seven percent say Clinton will follow Obama's policies rather than her own when she disagrees with the future president, and 54 percent think her husband, former President Clinton, will stay out of U.S. foreign policy.

Holland adds that the "favorable ratings for both Clintons have risen dramatically since the election."

Americans also seem to like Obama's move to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon for at least the next year. Gates was appointed two years ago by President Bush. Eighty-three percent of those polled approve of the move, with just 15 percent disapproving.

iReporter Ben Hicks, a self-described liberal who attends the University of Houston, said Obama's choices represent "a good combination of conservative and liberal views." iReport.com: What do you think about Obama's cabinet?

"Bush's Cabinet was strictly conservative, and it's proven that too much of anything cannot be a good thing," Hicks, 23, told iReport.com. "Instead of having an abundance of liberals and pretty much angering every conservative in the nation, you can have both."

Many of Obama's choices for his Cabinet, his White House staff and other high level positions in his incoming administration are people who have ties to Washington and the Clinton administration. But nearly three-quarters of those questioned think an Obama administration made up of such Washington insiders can bring about change.

A similar amount feel that that the Obama Cabinet should be made up mostly of people who have served in the federal government in Washington.

And 88 percent feel that an Obama Cabinet made up of former rivals and opponents of the president-elect will be able to work together.

"Obama is so popular that 52 percent of Republicans approve of his Cabinet choices," Holland said.

iReporter Tracy Crews, a Republican from Jacksonville, Florida, isn't among them. She said she doesn't believe that Obama can bring change with an administration containing people linked to Clinton's.

"The men and women he's chosen these past few weeks ought to be a warning to all the Obama supporters out there. He either can't or has no intentions of [fulfilling] the many promises he's made to the American people," Crews wrote on iReport.com.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Survey was conducted by telephone with 1,096 adult Americans questioned. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

This made me laugh my ass off...

Someone has too much time on their hands

I think Longnecks just waiting for the moment.

For you to be banned (again)?

I mean for when its due.

When what is due?

I hope when Lompac's banishment is due.

Lot of people baying for Lompac's blood. Interesting.

I'd be careful messing with Lompac. After all, he is a Mini Mafia boss!!

Oooh Scary!!

Very Scary

Don't roll your eyes at me MMB!!!

Back on topic... sort of -

Because Hillary Clinton will likely be the Secretary of State, her Senate seat has to be filled by someone else. It's up to the Governor of NY State (David Patterson) to name a replacement. The news is he will be meeting with Caroline Kennedy tomorrow to discuss this.

The last of the "royal" family ....

and probably least controversial of that brood. Unless she's crashed head onto a wall while drunk or left a sinking car with a woman still alive inside that we don't know of.

Seriosly though, it's a politically neutral pick because again, she doesn't piss people off needlessly in a polarizing fashion like other picks could boomerang against Patterson and the New York state Democratic Party, and plus considering one of her certain uncles once held that seat, its good press.

If Caroline does take that gig, will she even run for re-election in the special election in 2010?

How ironic is it that Caroline is in the Senate at a time when a history-making President with young children, just like her family, is about to take office?

I've heard her cousin Robert's name mentioned for head of the EPA. He'd be an excellent choice. He's done a lot of work with Riverkeeper, a local environmental agency.

I was always under the impression that Caroline would not ever get into politics and/or not interested in it (not that I don't think she'd be good at) She hasn't made a decision yet has she?

And yes, Robert would be perfect as head of EPA.



TIS