There’s Barack the Nice Guy, Then There’s GOP Creepiness
In addition to the competence and steady hand Barack Obama is bringing to the White House, we also expect to get back to the rule of law, away fromt he politicization of government. What we didn’t expect was that Obama is just a nice guy. Contrast with the creepy on the GOP side, Saxby Chambliss, Sarah Palin and Rudy. Eww!
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Barack Obama has put together a knockout foreign policy team. Bob Herbert calls it the “Team of Whizzes,” and while Herbert worries that all these important and powerful people won’t listen to the little guy, I’m just glad Obama chose competence over ideologues. No, that should surprise nobody, since Obama ran a campaign this year that placed excellence over ideology. We have come to expect competence and a calm and steady hand from Obama, and we should not be surprised when we get it. But maybe we can be surprised at Barack Obama the nice guy. I’m struck with this scene from one of the debates, told by Bill Richardson and from an interview in Esquire:
As I’m chatting with Obama, the moderator says, “Governor Richardson, what do you think of that?” And I look at him like a deer in the headlights. I was about to say that I hadn’t heard, when Obama puts his hand over his mouth and says, “Katrina.” So I gave my four-point plan on Katrina. When I was done and the debate moved on, I looked over and said, “Thanks, you’re okay.” He said, “Nothing to it, brother.”
Yeah, in the middle of a debate where he’s trying to beat Richardson, Obama reaches out a hand and helps him out. Does this mean the election season is a sham and these guys are really pals while just seeming to be arguing out their differences, or does this mean that Obama is really just a nice guy? I think the latter. Heck, he even makes his own phone calls. We know that because of the press release from the office of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), via ABC News:
“December 3, 2008
“Miami, Florida — Cong. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen thought it was a hoax when President-Elect Barak (sic) Obama called her twice today and she proceeded to hang up on him, twice.
“Ros-Lehtinen was working in her South Florida district when she received a call on her cell from a Chicago based phone number and an aide informed her that President-Elect Obama wished to speak to her. A gentleman sounding like Obama introduced himself when Ros-Lehtinen cut him off and said that ‘I’m sorry but I think this is a joke from one of the South Florida radio stations known for these pranks’ and hung up.
“A short time later, Cong. and Chief of Staff designate Rahm Emmanuel (sic) called Ileana and stated ‘Ileana, I cannot believe that you hung up on the President-Elect.’ Ros-Lehtinen told Rahm that she didn’t believe the call was legitimate and hung up on Emmanuel (sic). A staffer to the Congresswoman informed her that Chairman Howard Berman of the Foreign Affairs Committee needed to speak with her urgently. When Chairman Berman called, Ros-Lehtinen urged him to recount a story only both of them would know, which he did, and told her that she had indeed hung up on the President-Elect.”
There’s more, but the gist of it seems to be that Illeana Ros-Lehtinen has some problems with competence, but she’s a Republican, after all, and that Barack Obama actually makes calls personally. This guy isn’t “big-shotting” anybody, but is just a nice guy.
Contrast that with Saxby Chambliss, who thanked Sarah Palin for helping with his campaign win in Georgia, and just sounded creepy! From Politico:
“I can’t overstate the impact she had down here,” Chambliss said during an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News.
“When she walks in a room, folks just explode,” he added. “And they really did pack the house everywhere we went. She’s a dynamic lady, a great administrator, and I think she’s got a great future in the Republican Party.”
Chambliss said that after watching her campaign on his behalf at several events Monday, he does not see her star status diminishing within the party.
Maybe we’ve just had too many sex criminals in the Republican Party, but I just can’t read that without seeing the guy leer and point at, ahem, inappropriate places. Or maybe it’s just too early in the morning. Disturbing, Sarah Palin? Well, this picture of Sarah Palin and Rudy is one you won’t want to show to the kids.
So Bible Spice swoops into Southern Baptist Central and wows the troglodytes. Just further proof that the elephant boys are continuing to paint themselves into their rump regional status.
I just can’t get enough of Alaska’s Mother Courage.
There’s a difference between “arging out differences” and “being a asshole”. If you actually feel that you have the superior position, there’s nothing to be gained by “scoring points” by trying to get the other guy to commit a gaffe. That’s the way you play the game when you know the content of your position is shit and you’re trying to trick people into thinking it’s a chocolate bar (the old adage of “if the facts are on your side pound the facts, but if they aren’t pound the table” applies here). Obama always struck me as fairly confident in both in his interpretation of the facts and in his ability to be a messenger for that interpretation. Given that, there really was no need for him to try to force a gaffe (especially against Richardson, who was more of a longshot candidate than a real competitor).
That’s not to say Obama isn’t a nice guy. From what I’ve read most of the people who know him certainly think he is. Just that I think it’s as much a reflection of his confidence in himself and his message as it is his lack of assholishness.
Folks explode when Palin walks into a room? That sounds sort of messy.
Yeah, Roy. Is she triggering some sort of WMD or something? I think we ought to get her to Gitmo to find out.
For some reason, the story about Obama reminds me of something I heard, years ago, about Teddy Kennedy. It seems that if you tried to call a certain Red Lobster restaurant in northern Virginia but dialed the DC area code by mistake, you got Kennedy’s private line.
This kept happening, and Kennedy eventually found it impossible to keep from putting people on:
“Is this the Red Lobster?”
“No, this is the Green Giant.”
Or:
“How much do your lobsters cost?”
“If you have to ask, you can’t afford them.”
Etc. It was pretty funny.