Barack Obama and Strange Bedfellows
I present for you three comments aboot P.E. BAM’s recent cabinet picks. First, we have conservative economist Larry Kudlow of National Review:
“In fact, there is no question that Obama’s economic team is right of center. All three are market-oriented. They’re also pro-free-trade. Hopefully Summers and Geithner maintain the Robert Rubin King Dollar policy of the Clinton years. And if Ms. Romer can stop tax hikes, that will help the greenback even more.”
Next, we have conservative editor Bill Kristol of Weekly Standard:
“I like all these choices, you know? Because [Hillary Clinton] has been a little more hawkish than the mainstream of the Democratic Party, voted for the war in Iraq, gave a very good justification for the war in Iraq, which she’s never retracted, to my knowledge, tough on Iran. And that’s fine with me if she’s going to be secretary of state. And Jim Jones, who served on the Clinton and Bush administrations at very high levels in the military, obviously, as national security adviser – - that would be — that would be interesting.”
Finally, we have liberal columnist Christopher Hayes of The Nation:
“Not a single, solitary, actual dyed-in-the-wool progressive has, as far as I can tell, even been mentioned for a position in the new administration. Not one. Remember this is the movement that was right about Iraq, right about wage stagnation and inequality, right about financial deregulation, right about global warming and right about health care. No one who comes from the part of American political and intellectual life that has given birth to all of these ideas is anywhere to be found within miles of the Obama cabinet thus far.”
When and/or how exactly did we get to where the left is critical aboot BAM and the right has been pleasantly satisfied? Don’t ya just love politics?
P.S. For a calm, rational, grown-up take I give you Richard Cohen.
