"How Are You Guys? Good to See You!"

What we like to call the peaceful transfer of power. Imagine former heads of the same state feeling comfortable enough to spend time with the current head of state. All alive, all healthy, with no thoughts of coups or other such nonsense.

Too many places still the transfer of power is very bitter, or violent, or only takes place after the predecessor dies.

It is also the most exclusive club in the world-a club with no auxiliary. Membership is bought with the greatest of effort and the deepest of pain.

Bush, Clinton Obama, Bush, Clinton, Carter..

I'm not sure Mr. 4th from the left isn't the most upset of all, but that's politics for ya.

G.H.W. Bush and Obama are probably sharing a laugh about appointing a "non-intelligence guy" for CIA.  Bill and Jimmy are likely thinking good thoughts from their own time in that particular office.

Dubya looks like he's just caught a glimpse of someone with a shoe in their hand.

Al what do you make of this Bloomberg report re: Governor Kaine as head of DNC and chairman of the Southern Governors' Association.

Rented the HBO mini-series John Adams during the holidays.  (Which makes me want to delve more into McCullough's books.) There was something quite cathartic about travelling back to the times of our Founding Fathers so soon before the Inauguration.  The movie spanned the dawn of our democracy through the presidencies of Washington, Adams and Jefferson.  The capitol was in Philly then moved to D.C.  Population of the colonies was approx. 500k.  The White House was being built... I found this helped restore some of my appreciation for this important office which so many more have since inhabited.

May our new President Obama be remembered as one of the greatest and the honor of this office, our country and our Constitution be restored.

Sorry, I forgot to include the link.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aXyrR9n88Nxc

"That 43 is quite some guy. I know how to make 'em, huh?"

OT, what's up w/ Carter's body language? Looks like he doesn't want to be too near the Bubba.

I have zero doubt that the president-elect will have him give up the SGA post when he takes the helm of the DNC.

Some things are so predictable that I wait for them to happen before wasting bandwidth on them.

"So what do you think?  Should I go ahead and rename it the Black House?"

Witness for Peace, one of the many NGOs, labor unions, and organizations that outright opposed the Merida Initiative, also known as Plan Mexico, releases its "The Change We Need for Latin America" sign-on letter to Obama:

The Change We Need for Latin America

President-elect Barack Obama’s historic campaign and victory transformed U.S. politics.  We know that this is just the first step to truly grasp the country’s desire for change and forge a new path at home and abroad.

Our partners in Latin America awaited the results of this election with almost as much anticipation as we did – given the enormous influence the U.S. President has on their lives as well.  They hope that President Obama’s message of change will translate into real policy change for them.  Now is the time to ensure that President Obama forges a new path in the Americas.

Please sign your name to this letter to Barack Obama - which lays out six policy changes that would represent the Change We Need for Latin America. We will deliver it to his transition team before he takes office in January.

Dear President-elect Obama,

Congratulations on your historic campaign and Presidential victory.  Your call for change resonated with the American people, and we hope that as a country we can build true change, both domestically and abroad.

While your foreign policy challenges will be many, we urge you to bring your message of change to the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.  As people who care deeply about the role of U.S. policy on our sisters and brothers in Latin America, we call on you to forge a new relationship with our southern neighbors – one that supports peace, promotes justice, respects sovereignty, and builds up sustainable economies.

Specifically, we urge you to:

• Transform our trade policy so that it prioritizes people and the environment over corporate profit. Renegotiate NAFTA and CAFTA and reject other trade agreements that follow the failed NAFTA-model, including the U.S.-Colombia trade agreement.

• Promote humane immigration reform that respects the human dignity of our immigrant neighbors and addresses the poverty and trade policies at the root of migration.

• Rethink the failed “war on drugs” in Colombia. Instead of spending billions in a failed “supply-side” strategy that funds human rights abuses, destroys the environment and fuels a decades-long armed conflict, end military aid and invest in real alternative development abroad and drug prevention and treatment at home.
  
  
• Close the U.S. Army School of the Americas, once and for all. This school, whose graduates continue to return to their countries to commit heinous human rights violations, has no place in 21st century relations with Latin America.
  
  
• End the travel ban and trade embargo on Cuba. After fifty years of this cruel and ineffective policy, it is time to positively engage with our island neighbor.
  
  
• Forge a new type of diplomacy in the region based on mutual respect. Instead of bullying our neighbors to follow our interests or ideology, engage in a true dialogue, respecting their sovereignty and listening to the needs of their people.

Sincerely,

To sign on, go here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5436/t/2467/petition.jsp?petition_KE...

That must have been fascinating, Former Presidents having to deal with the issue of still being alive when their successors are ruling. That was uncharted territory. In the previous monarchial system, succession was either through death or coup with a very rare regency. The idea that a former head of state could just retire quietly to the country was totally new.

That's why there was no set role for a former President. Nobody really thought about that too much, or maybe they assumed most Presidents would be too old to do much more than just live a few quiet years afterwards. So the provisions for a former President weren't there. There was no pension, no assigned job, not even an honorary role where they could say represent the Country in a ceremonial role.

But medical science outstripped what the Founding Fathers once anticipated.  A 50 year old man back in their day lived maybe another decade: these days, Clinton retires at 54 and will have at least 20 more years of retirement. Obama (if he serves all 8 years) will retire at 55 and with his habits probably make it to 75 or later. President Bush (the first one) was born in 1924, Carter also-but both men are still active and capable of doing something, almost two decades, and in the case of Carter, three decades, after they were in office.

So should we give them something concrete to do?

Al, I hope your intuition on the SGA matter proves prescient as it has so many times before.

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says she intends to support President-elect Barack Obama's choice for CIA chief, Leon Panetta.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/01/feinstein_says_she_support...

what an image...so powerful

I thought Dubya's expression was the most interesting.  "Hey, what's up, Dad?  First you make friends with Bill, and now you're yucking it up with HIM?  When do I get some quality time, huh?"

"Neat place for a basketball hoop."

What pleases me: The next time these guys get together, the tall skinny one will be in the middle - now that is balance!

with a couple of crackers on the side...

I find it almost eerie how cool and non-plussed Obama appears at all times.  No wonder that whenever he talks, the markets seem soothed.

It is interesting to wonder whether this ultra-cool quality will ever backfire.  I suppose the possibility exists that a situation will arise where Obam fails to show emotion that others want to see.  But for now, his demeanor sure seems to be the perfect antidote for the times.

boy am I glad that picture isn't Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton/Carter.  It would feel pretty weird to have even more of a "family portrait" feel to that image than it already has.

I wonder what Carter would have to say to the others about Palestine if they all weren't yukking it up for the camera?

Bush Snr: What do you reckon it'll be this time, a Jimmy Choo or a Blahnik?

Obama: Either way, Sir, it will be American democracy in action.

BondiBeachViews

"You know, that cardboard cutout of 43 looks just like the real thing."

...but it doesn't look like it. That man's contribution to our November victory cannot be emphasized enough.

"You could drive a car between Clinton and Carter. Should we nudge left?"

Carter has just told Clinton a 'shoe' joke and dared Clinton to say to Bush43 ...

Clinton (to Bush43): Shoe at 2 o'clock.

Bush43: What, where, not again?

Bush Snr: What do you reckon it'll be this time, a Jimmy Choo or a Blahnik?

Obama: Either way, Sir, it will be American democracy in action.

And Bush43 doesn't get the joke, hence that totally lost look - and the others then piss themselves laughing.

BondiBeachViews

a diary on dkos stayed on the req list all day yesterday slamed the selection of Sanjay Gupta for Surgun general.

1- the diarist used a blog post that accused Gupta of misdeeds which turned out to be bogus because..ahem..because the blogger and the diarist confused this Sanjay Gupta with another Sanjay Gupta...charming. By not verifying their facts, and by making such a horrible mistake , they weakened their argument and made it hard for people to take them seriosly.

2- The diarist and his chorus of fans refused to understand the real role of a SG, and in doing so they faught their battle on the wrong turf, which made their arguments weak.

3- They used trivial bullet points against Gupta that made them look petty and empty...he drives his Jaguar too fast( THE HORROR!!), he is a TV personality and a paper doctor( a practicing neurosurgen and a faculty member at Emory university).

but above all..they picked the wrong battle, they used wrong facts to drum up faux outrage...

that is how you become irrelevant and make people NOT take you seriously.

To Lisa Ballard:

I highly recommend David McCullough's bio of Truman. I just finished reading it and it gave me a new appreciation for the man. Here's a guy who grew up in Missouri freely using the n-word, whose grandparents owned slaves, and yet he pushed hard for a Civil Rights bill and desegregated the military.

And speaking of pensions--he was the first President to need that pension. When he left the presidency his only income was his army pension. $100 a month.

Regarding the picture, I love how Obama looks so comfortable there. The man is so comfortable in his own skin--he projects so much ease and confidence. As Jon Stewart said once, "The guy is inheriting two wars and a financial crisis, and he looks like he's getting an invisible massage."

Folks, nominations are now being solicited for the 2009 Bloggies.  I submitted The Field in the Politics and Best Writing categories, and heartily encourage you to freep this poll in similar fashion.  I also submitted NarcoNews in the Latin America category.

While most of these awards are highly suspect due to the methodologies by which nominees and winners are selected, I was disappointed that The Field was not nominated in the confusingly similarly-named 2008 Weblog Awards (voting now underway).  However, there are some excellent blogs you can show some Field love to, such as FiveThirtyEight.com in Best Political Coverage.

The 2008 Weblog Awards are also worth freeping because of an hilarious blog-war that has erupted.  PUMA scratching post The Confluence is nominated for "Best Liberal Blog."  (No, I'm not kidding.)  The always hilarious Rumproast (itself deservingly nominated as Best Small Blog), which has elevated PUMA-stalking into an art form, began encouraging its readers to vote for Wonkette instead to fend off the inevitable and anemic PUMA swarms.  Wonkette, in turn, noticing the love, took a closer look at The Confluence and joined forces with Rumproast in the battle.

Now threads at all three blogs are jumping with internecine warfare, accusations of cheating running side-by-side with suggestions on how to cheat from The Confluence as it falls further behind in the voting (why does that sound so familiar?), sock-puppetry, and merciless mockery.  Warning: it's addictive.

I'm confused.  I'm getting conflicting info about Kaine and the DNC.  Seems like Al said he was "appointed", but on Charlie Rose the other day someone from Bloomberg News said Kaine was "nominated".  Does the DNC get to vote on this as a nomination?  Or is it an edict from on high?

Tien - Technically, the 300+ members of the Democratic National Committee vote on their chairperson. By tradition, when a party takes the White House, they defer to the president who is considered the top party leader. There's no official nominating process from the president, it's just considered to be what the DNC members will do.

When the opposition party is in the White House, there are election campaigns (as we see today among Republicans wrestling for the RNC chairmanship, and saw four years ago when Howard Dean challenged incumbent Terry McAuliffe at DNC). But when the party is in power, it defers to the elected president. There's no statute that says that has to happen, but it is what has always happened.

Thanks Allan - that made me laugh out loud.

On the Sanjay Gupta appointment - I think it's another great choice - here's Ezra Klein's take (who always thinks out this health care policy stuff clearly)

But Gupta is not leaving CNN and Time to give out medals. The surgeon general has an informal role as the country's leading medical and lifestyle educator, and it's that role the Gupta is uniquely positioned to fill. There's not a doctor in this country with half his media training and experience, nor one with a rolodex of editors and reporters a tenth as large. Expect Gupta to be doing more than health education, though. According to Howard Kurtz, Gupta has negotiated "an expanded role in providing health policy advice." And if he's advising the project, he'll almost certainly be advocating for it, too. Which means Sanjay Gupta, arguably the nation's most trusted health care authority, will back on TV screens arguing for Obama's universal health care plan, lending it his credibility as a doctor, a trusted media presence, and the nation's surgeon general. It's a far cry from the days when Ira Magaziner and Hillary Clinton were reform's best known advocates.

KD

I'm watching the confirmation hearing for Tom Daschle.  It's fascinating!  Looks like he's going to get recommended for confirmation.  What surprises me is how knowledgeable all the members of this committee are. They are all asking such pressing questions and being so civilized.  (Great to see Sen. Kennedy!) 

Especially interesting is to hear someone like Sen. Hatch admit the system is broken.  Seems like they all want to improve health care and wellness straight across the board.

Maybe I'm being naive and they're just all being on their best behavior, but wow, this is really hopeful to me.

No, Yes, No, Yes, Yes

Jimmy Carter looks like he was Photoshopped into that picture.

And Clinton looks like he wishes Carter was Photoshopped into the picture!

"I wish you were my son"

Al,

I have not comment much lately because, well, I think you have said all that needs to be said.  Thank you for that.  I have not donated lately because I am saving up for the big week in DC.  I know you are not planning to go to the inauguaration but wonder if you have any recommendations for events that those of us who are going should not miss.  I know places that have smoking areas are, of course, the best for information.

Thanks again for everything,

Jessica

all the same height, more or less, or arranged on boxes?

amk

amk

You had a webpage address (http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/politicalcartoons/ig/Political-Cartoo...) in the img src rather than an actual image.

Images are being embedded fine, just make sure you put an image. I put the image I thought you were trying to embed in comment in question. If it is incorrect, please edit your comment and put in the correct link.

amk