Woody wrote:

Medvedev throws down a gauntlet to Obama

Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday became the first world leader to throw down a gauntlet to US president-elect Barack Obama, declaring that the Kremlin would station missiles in the tiny Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, in response to US plans for an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe.

Mr Medvedev, speaking in his annual address to Russia’s Federal Assembly, also proposed extending the presidential term to six years from the current four, a step which had been proposed under former president, now prime minister Vladimir Putin, who had rejected it.

...


“This [the missle deployment] had been rumoured for some time” said Mr Trenin “I think this is a message to Washington and Warsaw that they’ll be safer and better off if they call off their plans for ballistic missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic.”

However, he added that Mr Medvedev did appear to be holding out an olive branch to Mr Obama with the line: “We hope that our partners – the new US administration– will make a choice in favour of fully-fledged relations with Russia.”

Same as it ever was.

It isn't just that Barack Obama won. It was the way he won--a comfortable popular vote margin (though I wouldn't call it a landslide or a mandate) and where he won--he took the blue states, which was to be expected, but also won in Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, and maybe North Carolina. He showed strength in other areas as well.

Shit. The last time a Russian leader challenged a young President, we got a Cuban Missile crisis. Fucking Russkies.

Interesting - a strategist on NPR was saying that he doesn't expect Republicans to be a problem for Obama (as in they'll start out with an open hand and be conciliatory and try to work with him for a while), but that Democrats may be if they're unwilling to take his lead and be less "partisan".

For Obama to maintain success, he does need to fix that congressional approval rating. Going forward, you can't convincingly blame the big problems on Republicans.

VoxOrion wrote:
For Obama to maintain success, he does need to fix that congressional approval rating. Going forward, you can't convincingly blame the big problems on Republicans.

nope. it's 2008, and I still hear labour trot out the ol' line about 'all this is the conservative's fault'. That's after 10 years in power. the only people you convince are your own diehards.

I mean, I'd hope he sees that.

VoxOrion wrote:I'm still a sucker for the "drama" of front pages of newspapers. I was hoping I could find more examples on the web, but this is it so far (the rest just have their websites).

Here are a whole bunch

including

TenuredVulture wrote:It isn't just that Barack Obama won. It was the way he won--a comfortable popular vote margin (though I wouldn't call it a landslide or a mandate) and where he won--he took the blue states, which was to be expected, but also won in Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, and maybe North Carolina. He showed strength in other areas as well.

i think indiana is the most significant state on this list, and some of that might be from obama being from neighboring IL (but just speculating).

but the win in VA - i don't know if VA itself has changed as much as solidly blue northern VA has grown wildly in the last 8 years, as an expansion of the DC metro area. it now expands into louden and prince william counties. either way, it probably means its in play from both sides going forward.

so, i'm not really convinced yet that this is a systemic, sustainable change. could be, but there's the matter of the next 4 years to determine that.

phdave wrote:

VoxOrion wrote:I'm still a sucker for the "drama" of front pages of newspapers. I was hoping I could find more examples on the web, but this is it so far (the rest just have their websites).

Here are a whole bunch

South Africans asking what all the fuss is about.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, all the votes in Minnesota have been counted and Norm Coleman leads Al Franken by 601 votes.

I'm pretty pumped for the lawnmower clinic

I just read that Obama has asked Rahm Emanuel to serve as Chief of Staff. Not sure if this is semi-substantiated rumor or "someone talking shit" rumor, but it's interesting. Emanuel in the Clinton administration and Congress was the hardest-edged Democratic partisan I can remember over the 20 years or so I've been following this stuff--the closest guy to a Tom DeLay among the Democrats. I'm not sure I like that sort of personality controlling access to and setting the agenda for the president.

OTOH, a lot of Republicans seem to think Emanuel's pretty okay on policy grounds. He's no flaming Bolshevik; he's a policy moderate with a taste for blood.

More broadly, I'm a little surprised at how many of the rumored Cabinet names are old standbys: Larry Summers coming back to Treasury sounds likely, Gates probably will be asked to stay on at Defense, Lugar and Kerry are both in the mix for State, Napolitano is rumored to be the leading candidate for Attorney General.

A few comments --

calif, where I live -- had record turnouts -- Obama won bigger than Reagan or Nixon had HOWEVER -- i do NOT see it as a mandate for liberalism. BECAUSE Prop 8 is winning (That's the repeal the Gay Marriage laws) Black and Latino church-goers are not liberals, but voted Obama.

Obama is a centrist, he's always been a centrist and he won in my opinion due to a couple things -- the financial crisis was the perfect storm at the perfect time -- the being fed up with 8 years of Bush the worst and one of most unpopular presidents ever -- a couple unpopular wars

There was cheating but a lot more people watching this time so we got a more realistic count except for places like the Senate race in Georgia...

McCain made a couple mis-calculations... his concession speech, my girlfriend turned to me and said, "if he had conducted his campaign with that tone he could well have won..." many people got turned off with the negative campaign stuff...

The hard-core racists, bible-thumpers were never voting for Obama, and good to know once again, that they are still a minority -- BUT -- that does not mean that most of the country is liberal. Most of the country is moderate to cautious.

The Prop 8 vote, 52-48 with 95 percent reporting, is really heartbreaking.

It's a reminder that, notwithstanding the symbolic value of Obama's win as a validation of America's possibilities, the fight against bigotry, irrationality and fear goes on. That evidently it was the same African-American surge at the polls that gave Obama his CA landslide that won it for the homophobes, is bitterly ironic. I've thought for years that homophobia is our last socially acceptable presence, and I'd be lying if I denied that I've used homophobic slurs myself. As time goes on, it ebbs away, and I feel certain that we'll see this issue overcome in my lifetime. But at a moment when we should be celebrating the widening of the American circle, it's terribly sad that millions are still forced outside of it.

On a totally other subject, that jerseyhoya mentioned before he went to sleep... Alaska, wtf? And they told me machine politics was dead... I guess pork really is king.

One more from me before I start to transition out of Playoffs/Election All-the-Time Awake-and-Asleep and try to start, y'know, doing work and making money again...

Democrats take New York State Senate

This was probably inevitable given the disappearance of the Republican Party everywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line, but if I was ambivalent about the prospect of the Dems reaching 60 seats in the U.S. Senate, I was much more conflicted about the Ds taking unified control of our state government. For one thing, on all but a few issues (gay rights being one), our state GOP was/is pretty reasonable ("bought off by the unions" might be an alternate description). For another, our state Dems tend to be unprincipled and incredibly profligate. With the state budget wedged deep in the crapper, this could get scary pretty fast.

dajafi wrote:I just read that Obama has asked Rahm Emanuel to serve as Chief of Staff. Not sure if this is semi-substantiated rumor or "someone talking $#@!" rumor, but it's interesting. Emanuel in the Clinton administration and Congress was the hardest-edged Democratic partisan I can remember over the 20 years or so I've been following this stuff--the closest guy to a Tom DeLay among the Democrats. I'm not sure I like that sort of personality controlling access to and setting the agenda for the president.

OTOH, a lot of Republicans seem to think Emanuel's pretty okay on policy grounds. He's no flaming Bolshevik; he's a policy moderate with a taste for blood.

More broadly, I'm a little surprised at how many of the rumored Cabinet names are old standbys: Larry Summers coming back to Treasury sounds likely, Gates probably will be asked to stay on at Defense, Lugar and Kerry are both in the mix for State, Napolitano is rumored to be the leading candidate for Attorney General.

I heard the Emanuel thing a week or two ago. I think it was in one of the Hill rags down here. He'd make me crap my pants. Dude is smart and gets things done.

Yeah, so Norm is up 600 in Minnesota. Smith is winning in Oregon with 75% reporting and all of Portland in (though the county Eugene is in has only reported 33%). Stevens won in Alaska. I guess Georgia ended up narrowly going to a runoff, but hopefully we can win that as black turnout shouldn't be so high on some random Tuesday a month from now. When you throw in Lieberman as a wild card, the GOP caucus could well be 44-45 strong in the Senate. That's awesome.

Last night, down ballot, went so much better than I thought it would.

dajafi wrote:The Prop 8 vote, 52-48 with 95 percent reporting, is really heartbreaking.

It's a reminder that, notwithstanding the symbolic value of Obama's win as a validation of America's possibilities, the fight against bigotry, irrationality and fear goes on. That evidently it was the same African-American surge at the polls that gave Obama his CA landslide that won it for the homophobes, is bitterly ironic. I've thought for years that homophobia is our last socially acceptable presence, and I'd be lying if I denied that I've used homophobic slurs myself. As time goes on, it ebbs away, and I feel certain that we'll see this issue overcome in my lifetime. But at a moment when we should be celebrating the widening of the American circle, it's terribly sad that millions are still forced outside of it.

On a totally other subject, that jerseyhoya mentioned before he went to sleep... Alaska, wtf? And they told me machine politics was dead... I guess pork really is king.

Good comments Jeff. The one thing I heard this morning, is that the 30 and under crowd OVERWHELMINGLY voted NO on Prop 8, meaning that its just a matter of time.

Alaska is a joke. Palin may appoint herself Senator, she'll be like Clarence Thomas was to the Supreme Court. Totally a puppet, totally transparent and representing the absolute worst in this country. And completely unqualified.

dajafi wrote:I just read that Obama has asked Rahm Emanuel to serve as Chief of Staff. Not sure if this is semi-substantiated rumor or "someone talking $#@!" rumor, but it's interesting. Emanuel in the Clinton administration and Congress was the hardest-edged Democratic partisan I can remember over the 20 years or so I've been following this stuff--the closest guy to a Tom DeLay among the Democrats. I'm not sure I like that sort of personality controlling access to and setting the agenda for the president.

OTOH, a lot of Republicans seem to think Emanuel's pretty okay on policy grounds. He's no flaming Bolshevik; he's a policy moderate with a taste for blood.

More broadly, I'm a little surprised at how many of the rumored Cabinet names are old standbys: Larry Summers coming back to Treasury sounds likely, Gates probably will be asked to stay on at Defense, Lugar and Kerry are both in the mix for State, Napolitano is rumored to be the leading candidate for Attorney General.

you're seriously surprised? i'm not. he has john kerry on 5-person list for secretary of state. might just be for show, but why? his VP's been around for 30 years. i don't get why people think obama will be a centrist. he's never been anything of the sort and with party control on congress, he has no real reason to be.

we have a legit economic crisis and what's at the top of the dem's priorities in the senate? UNION CARD CHECK. if obama's serious about governing from the center, he'd make his party table that bill for a while and ask they work on something more relevent to people's financial lives.

i hope he at least starts from a bi-partisan perspective. we'll see.

gr wrote:

dajafi wrote:I just read that Obama has asked Rahm Emanuel to serve as Chief of Staff. Not sure if this is semi-substantiated rumor or "someone talking $#@!" rumor, but it's interesting. Emanuel in the Clinton administration and Congress was the hardest-edged Democratic partisan I can remember over the 20 years or so I've been following this stuff--the closest guy to a Tom DeLay among the Democrats. I'm not sure I like that sort of personality controlling access to and setting the agenda for the president.

OTOH, a lot of Republicans seem to think Emanuel's pretty okay on policy grounds. He's no flaming Bolshevik; he's a policy moderate with a taste for blood.

More broadly, I'm a little surprised at how many of the rumored Cabinet names are old standbys: Larry Summers coming back to Treasury sounds likely, Gates probably will be asked to stay on at Defense, Lugar and Kerry are both in the mix for State, Napolitano is rumored to be the leading candidate for Attorney General.

you're seriously surprised? i'm not. he has john kerry on 5-person list for secretary of state. might just be for show, but why? his VP's been around for 30 years. i don't get why people think obama will be a centrist. he's never been anything of the sort and with party control on congress, he has no real reason to be.

we have a legit economic crisis and what's at the top of the dem's priorities in the senate? UNION CARD CHECK. if obama's serious about governing from the center, he'd make his party table that bill for a while and ask they work on something more relevent to people's financial lives.

i hope he at least starts from a bi-partisan perspective. we'll see.

Not really sure how to respond to this, other than to suggest that your definition of "centrist" and Philly the Kid's seem pretty far apart. Which I guess isn't a huge surprise.

I believe the Democrats won this year because, on balance, they came across as much more serious about governing than did the Republicans. The GOP doesn't come back until they show that they're more serious about addressing the country's problems than about self-perpetuation and self-enrichment. By the same token, the Democrats will blow it in 2-4 years if they show themselves to be as unserious in addressing problems as Bush was.

I hadn't heard about card check as "the top priority," but let's face it: unions have been getting hammered in the tuckis, and not in the Matt Stairs sense, for a long time. I'm pretty sure you and I disagree about their role and value by enough that arguing about it here wouldn't be a lot of fun for either of us. But they played a big role in getting Obama across the finish line, validating him among those "hard-working white Americans" in places like Ohio and Indiana. He's not going to table card-check, though I also don't think it'll be a huge concern that the titanic struggle over this will exactly paralyze the federal government.

A "bi-partisan perspective," like you and PtK regarding "centrist," is in the eye of the beholder. I really do believe Obama will want to work with people like Lugar and McCain and Graham and the Maine ladies; the question is whether their own leadership, people like McConnell, will try to block everything to create gridlock and a situation where they can blame the Dems for failing to deliver on promises, or if they're more interested in sharing the credit and passing legislation. It's the same issue of how serious everyone is about governing as opposed to pure politics.

so that's how you spell 'tuckis'