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Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Obama camp claims clean hands
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barack Obama’s transition office has released its report documenting its contacts with Illinois Gov. Rodney Blagojevich regarding appointment of a successor to Obama’s Senate seat.
The report in effect states that the Obama camp did nothing wrong and was not aware of wrongdoing by others, including Blagojevich. That’s in part because, according to the report, Obama had decided from the beginning not to support any specific candidate to replace him. And since he wasn’t asking Blagojevich to name anybody in particular, the governor had no leverage to ask for or demand anything in return from Obama.
The report also states explicitly that Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had no improper discussions with Blagojevich or his staff. If the report is in any way misleading, incomplete or wrong, that fact will presumably become known thanks to FBI tapes and other evidence. But as it is, there’s not a hint of scandal in any of the behavior documented in the report.
The entire report is available here.
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Obama to use Lincoln’s Bible
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President-elect Barack Obama will take the presidential oath of office using the same Bible used by President-elect Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
There’s a lot of historic resonance to that decision, including the obvious fact that Lincoln, like Obama, was a president from Illinois.
It was Lincoln who led the nation through the Civil War fought over slavery and Lincoln who issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in rebellious states. There is poetry in the fact that our first black president will be sworn into office using the same Bible used by Lincoln, and the pettiness of those who find fault with that decision won’t detract a bit from it.
But go ahead any way.
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The gentry and the Democratic Party
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Joel Kotkin, writing at Forbes.com, has a piece that rings uncomfortably true about the growing role of what he calls the gentry in Democratic politics, led by Barack Obama.
“… the core of the elite liberal constituency — academics, high-tech businesspeople and media figures — has been growing steadily in wealth and influence. By marrying this constituency to poor minority voters, gentry liberals have turned our core urban areas into a collection of electoral “ditto heads,” with so-called “progressives” winning as much as 70 or 80% of the vote in presidential elections.
This year’s thrilling primary battle between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama represented a clash of these two tendencies. Although Clinton herself enjoyed strong ties to some gentry liberals, she campaigned, particularly toward the end of the marathon, as Harry Truman in a bright pantsuit. Obama, for his part, sallied forth from a solid base of academics and well-educated professionals, as well as African Americans.”
In Kotkin’s view — and again, it’s hard to disagree — the personification of this gentry is Caroline Kennedy, now seeking appointment to the Senate based almost exclusively on her family name rather than hard work and accomplishment in the political arena.
