These guys just can’t fathom that what they have been doing for the past xx years does…not…work, and as a matter of fact, won’t work and actually has harmed the rest of the entire f**n world. They’ve got to somehow come up with specious excuses for why Obama won and mcCain lost and how when we all ‘wake up’ that they will win again.
Sorry, boys – a whole lot of people woke up before Election Day, sent you guys a message in a language that you do not seem to understand… and are not listening to you any more.

I often enjoy reading Will. He is one of the goopers who seem to despise the religious right and wish that they could just be flushed out of the party-

Goopers continue to walk around in a daze mumbling “This is STILL a center/right country- this is STILL a center/right country” oblivious to the fact that no one has the faintest fuckin idea what they mean by that.

Hey BT!
In that first part, Will is practically out of breath once he finishes his lines.
I smell desperation. Have for a while with him.
Voodoo economics, indeed.

It’s a mantra, RW — if they say it enough (”I do believe in ghosts..I do believe in ghosts”), then somehow, it will make it true. What they missed, is the the country moved LEFT..so that while they were staring into it, the whole thing appears to have moved right. Only it … didn’t.

Goopers will go through some agonizing reappraisal and then come back with a new message:

“Lower taxes, strong defense, and respect for traditional values”

It’s all they’ve got! They may deep six privatization of social security, the flat tax, and specific mention of some of the nuttier “social” issues.

They’re talkin Gingrich for the next run- whose traditional values are legendary…

What it all comes down to is that the goopers can’t win without the religious right- but the traditional Goldwater libertarian wing of the party mixes like oil and water with the religious nut cases- it’s a problem.

George Will always struck me as someone who constantly has to prove he’s smarter than everyone else!!

I wrote this a couple of threads down:

ABC’s This Week unanimity Fareed Zakaria, Gergen, Cynthia Tucker, and Stephano all spouting the new Conventional Wisdom that Larry Summers is “the” guy for Secretary of Treasury. His sexism is blown off. In fact, they try to portray him as some kind of big time supporter of women’s rights. Only Stephano in a last second throwaway line mentions that Summers will face questions on his role in deregulation of the financial industry. The cognitive dissonance between him being just the guy to fix the disaster he did so much to create just passes them all by.

They also seem to want to keep Gates at Defense. One of them Zakaria I think does mention that this might send a confusing signal, keeping someone on who is tied to keeping troops in Iraq with Obama’s pledge to withdraw them but hey, coherence was never a big part of the CW or what made these guys’ careers.

Quoting the Cowardly Lion seems very appropo. *g*

I don’t see how you can run on a “change” agenda and keep anyone from the Clusterfuck administration- even should they be qualified…Gotta deep six em all….Hagel for defense!!

One of the truly great 20th Century philosophers.

Like the lies McCain and Palin told during the campaign.
If you repeat them enough they become the truth!!

The Rs are terrified of being wrong so they just ignore everything that goes against their own thinking. They don’t seem to get the part about admitting you were wrong and then take a different approach – just not in them to do that. In this election it cost them everything.

Who’s on the GOP ‘bench’ – that guy in the House who whined about Pelosi’s speech? OMG.

Do you really think that the guy is sexist? He raised the question as to why we don’t have a strong proportion of female mathematicians as I recall. It’s a good question.

I first heard the “cente-right” meme put out by Meacham the managing editor at Newsweek during an appearance on Charlie Rose. If it means getting out of Iraq, staying out of people’s private lives, supporting the middle class, taxing the rich, regulating markets, emphazing education, and extending healthcare, then Meacham is right, but, of course, what Meacham is really saying is that Democrats should govern like Republicans with Republicans for Republicans.

This is why the republicians continue to have so many people voting for them
http://members.shaw.ca/jeanalt…..arians.pdf

What’s really disgusting is the constant harping that Obama “must” put a few Rs in his cabinet. I just want to throw back at them, “Elections have consequences – remember when you said that?”

George Will’s head has been exploding in slow motion over the past few weeks. A few weeks ago when Powell’s endorsement of Obama was announced
the first thing he talked about was that Powell was black.

Most americans favor:

War as a last resort

progressive taxation

universal health care

tax cuts

Roe/Wade

transistion to alternative fuels

Clean air and water

Is that center/right?– or center left? or center center?

Goopers constantly compare the US to Western Europe- and by comparison most americans ARE right of those countries—but they’re a long ways from the right wing goopers as well

The media appearances I have seen since before the election always came across as a warning to Obama – “Govern Right. This is a center-Right country. Stay out of the culture.”
Buchanan and Barnard appear on MSNBC shows and are continuously pounding at this precise pattern.

He didn’t get canned at Harvard for advocating programs to bring more women into science and math.

George Will wrote a pretty awful piece in Newsweek. you might find it interesting reading.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167572

can we please throw george will on the pile of the “irrelevant” .. why does anyone still grant these people any credibility .. ??

i’ve been paraphrasing an ol’ churchill quote: never have so few been so wrong ..about so much ..so often .. for so long ..

and yet .. they still draw a paycheck … for what ??

I watched this, and I enjoyed the aspects of Will’s discomfort that you point out. But, what I didn’t enjoy was George S. and his abject stupidity. Fareed Zakaria made point, after point of salient statements; tying together what little cogent aspects of the other commenters could actually be put into some form of reasonable thought. Fareed Zakaria was a bastion of well reasoned expression, only to be followed immediately by George going, “I heard you say the word ‘the’, as in ‘the’ next point in the list of crap I’ve been given to spew,” and he George would take of on some completely unrelated tangent.

When you have a real talent like Zakaria in your midst, you must be a fool not to take advantage of that and play off it, if only to make yourself look a little smarter. But, in terms of George S. and foolishness, I consider the source.

What actually needs to happen is that the networks recognize that these gasbags ARE irrelevant – that they need to get a whole new group/generation of people..people like Jane and Kos and Josh and etc. George Will and his ilk represent the old, the failed, the totally useless at this point. Will is writing for a flaming tree-based medium. Stick a fork in him..he’s done.

I liked Will’s point that McCain got 46% of the vote, but he didn’t continue to add many of that 46% think Africa is a country, the world is 6000 years old and everyone of us can grab our bootstraps and become millionaires if we really wanna.

The biggest mystery of this campaign is why McBush spent all of his money and energy to attract the right wing- the people who he already had- as opposed to the center- which he didn’t have….

The answer to that question may point to what’s REALLY wrong with the gooper party.

It’s got to be Quayle-Palin 2012, not Gingrich.

Unless the far right is all that is left of the GOP.

Ugh…

The Founders’ intent, Ceaser writes, was to prevent the selection of a president from being determined by the “popular arts” of campaigning, such as rhetoric. The Founders, Ceaser says, “were deeply fearful of leaders deploying popular oratory as the means of winning distinction.” That deployment would invite demagoguery, which subverts moderation. “Brilliant appearances,” wrote John Jay in The Federalist Papers 64, “… sometimes mislead as well as dazzle.” By telling members of the political class how not to get considered for the presidency, the Founders hoped to (in Ceaser’s words) “make virtue the ally of interest” and shape the behavior of that class.

Will nearly asserts that just because you won, you are not necessarily Presidential material.
I have 2 words:
Ronald Reagan.

Should Will be added to this list?
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/irrelevant

What actually needs to happen is that the networks recognize that these gasbags ARE irrelevant -

Won’t happen until their ratings drop like the current stock market, imho. I say keep the gasbags right where they are and make the freakin’ networks irrelevant. Don’t need ‘em anymore…. We’re making our own media and they know it.

I think it was pressure to help the downticket Rs – and it seems to have had a fairly significant effect, fewer (and closer) losses.

No problems here – I offer exhibit number 1: Obama’s ears.

I saw a brief (’cause I can’t take much) bit of Huckabee on his FauxShow defending Palin’s lack of knowledge and blaming it all on disloyal campaign workers trying to save their own skins.

I think he’s got of ‘vision’ of him and Bible Spice in 2012. I just wonder if he see’s himself on top, or on bottom?

The biggest mystery of this campaign is why McBush spent all of his money and energy to attract the right wing- the people who he already had- as opposed to the center- which he didn’t have….

I think it was an either/or. He didn’t have the fundies and so opted to court them and in doing so lost the independents. There was also a lot of very fuzzy thinking going on in the McCain campaign. The choice of Palin was supposed to be a twofer: gather in disaffected women for Hillary and appeal to the religious right. But Palin’s extremism and McCain’s support of it pushed almost all those hHillary voters to Obama. And of course there was the economy, the economy, the economy which is what really did McCain in.

The religious right made a strong power play in this election- threatening to hold their breath and turn “blue” unless they got their way- so they got Palin and helped the goopers get their asses kicked…

Bush and Rove began their campaign for governor with the religious right holding the reins of power in the gooper party of Texas- their first act was to kick their Christian asses out…the gooper party will NEVER allow the relgious right further in the door than they managed to squeak this time around.

Limpy Limbaugh is already blaming everything on Obama. As a GOP water carrier, this election shows that Limpy’s not very good. The Republics would be wise to disassociate from him. Being Republics, however, they won’t.

Good question. What the Republics really need to do is buy their souls back from the Bush family.

Zakaria may be more coherent than Will but he is still a mouthpiece for the Beltway Conventional Wisdom as his support for Summers at Treasury and Gates at Defense showed.

yeah mike .. that’s the exact list i had in mind ..

Do you really think that the guy is sexist?

your question wasn’t directed to me, and anyway i don’t have an answer. but summers did NOT just raise the question – he gave his opinion on why. here is the talk he gave – judge for yourself. personally, i find a lot to object to and disagree with:

http://www.president.harvard.e…../nber.html

and here is how it was reported in the boston globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/loc…..draw_fire/

i’d love to get prof foland’s take on what happened, as i think he may have been at harvard at the time.

They need him at least as much as he needs them.

Limburger and Palin represent the “base” of the gooper party- anti-intellectual, small minded, tribal and provincial…it ain’t enough to win an election any more.

Not to mention being one of the “Aw, shucks – we screwed up when we chose the war, but there’s still hope… We’re really sorry about that” crowd.

Poor George. I think we should all go over there and gloat express our sympathies.

And of course there was the economy, the economy, the economy which is what really did McCain in.

I’ve had this conversation several times of late (I’m sure many of us have); does Obama win if McCain doesn’t suffer the blowback from fear of the economic meltdown. Hell, does Obama win–all else being equal–if McCain doesn’t crap himself with the, “Fundamentals are sound,” line?

I like to say that Obama still wins–at least in my neck of the woods–but is that true in every state? Did it take a ’shock doctrine’ moment to get the transilient shift to a Democratic administration? If so, how ironic.

I’m sure the strategists in the GOP have looked at the demographics and are shuddering…they were ok as long as they could keep blacks/hispanics, etc. from voting or could steal or turn the votes. This election showed them what is in front of them: They either have to completely recreate the party — or they have to somehow find a way to steal elections that the other side can’t figure out. They were overwhelmed by the number of voters, and by the courts not allowing them to suppress voters this time. The demographics of this country are…against..them.

Goopers think that the country is “center right” because they define the left as somewhere past Lenin—

Oh, I suspect you’re right. I’m easily swayed by a flashy smile and his abilities are to obviously superior to the rest of the panel–but you do make me realize that is faint praise.

I don’t know if the guy is sexist or not- even after reading his remarks….it SHOULD be possible to take up the question scientifically without getting shelled for raising it in the first place- but perhaps he secretly disrespects women.

What gets me is that even with financial meltdown, 8 years of Bush disasters, a God awful campaign by McCain, and the choice of a nutjob bimbette like Palin, McCain still got 46% of the vote. That is just amazing to me.

Given the fact that somewhere around 25% of the population wouldn’t vote for an african american for president under any circumstances, I’d say Obama did very well

And there’s the percentage that listens only to Limpy Limbaugh who’s show is always and forever demonize the Democrats and blame them for all problems.

I’ve lit upon my theory of 4. There are four types of people who still support a Republican approach to the Executive, at this juncture in our history:

1. They are rich; they actually did benefit and they liked it, hell with everyone else.

2. They are stubborn. Daddy was a Repub, I’m a Repub. I’ll never vote Dem (and, in fact, doing so now would somehow be an admission of wrongness in the past).

3. They are just bone stupid. Overly fundamentalist…poorly informed…falling pray to internet email slanders…just plain dumbasses clinging to guns and bad beer…whatever.

4. They are prejudiced and Dems care too much about brown folk; and now the dirty hippies are actually running one up the flag pole!!!!! (I love that these people now suffer every blessed day!)

We needto hammer this in the future – when they say “Ronald Reagan”, we say “Barack Obama”, and vice versa.

I don’t know if the guy is sexist or not- even after reading his remarks….it SHOULD be possible to take up the question scientifically without getting shelled for raising it in the first place-

It’s anecdotal but hanging out with friends in the physics department, I remember it as one of the most males only, sexist places I had ever seen. Looking back too, I remember knowing only two women who were topnotch mathematicians and they were both Russian. So I think that it isn’t biology but sociology that is at work here.

People vote gooper for many reasons:

1) TAXES—most would like to pay LESS (hell who wouldn’t want to pay less?)

2) Belief that government fucks things up-(well this one sure as hell did)

3) Belief that if you leave the markets alone- you’ll get better results more often than if you contrain them….

4) Belief the security requires armed strength and the will to use it against potential enemies.

5) The belief that the bible tells us how to live so as to serve God and that it should be followed in how we are governed.

Some believe only point five- many believe only one through four. That’s the tension.

Don’t know. I admire physicists but would only show up at the physics department if I took a wrong turn somewhere.

It’s an interesting question. I’ve taught classes involving math skills where we had equal numbers of men and women—and there were usually a fairly high number of women who would freeze when they saw numbers—needed a lot of help to see that they really COULD do it. I can’t say where that comes from.

My wife who has a masters in mathematics discovered the same thing while teaching….

My wife maintains that there are only two reasons people vote gooper:

The rich and the morons.

I have to point out, “Honey, you’re only taking into account the last 8 years. There used to be Republicans who actually had good ideas…no one comes to mind just now, but I think there used to be some.”

My eldest daughter’s 9th grade math teacher told me something interesting – she used my daughter as her ‘canary in the mine’ in terms of whether or not she was getting through. She said once she saw my daughter’s eyeballs start to glaze over, she knew that she needed to try a different direction in terms of teaching the thing..
The big problem with math teachers is that by and large, they are the people who, as kids, got it fast and intuitive. They don’t understand how anyone doesn’t ‘get’ it.

Nelson Rockefeller. He was the one to make the case for SUNY; before then, there were only a handful of public teacher’s colleges. He made the case that the economy of New York State was dependent on having low cost higher ed.

5) The belief that the bible tells us how to live so as to serve God and that it should be followed in how we are governed.

This brings up an interesting point (at least for me). The bible is an amalgam and a construct. Since what the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, there have been debates about what Old and New Testament books should be included in the text. And of course there are completely different world views contained in it. One Judaic depicting the world of 1000 BC based on earlier Babylonian and Sumerian sources. The other a Hellenized, Romanized, Judaeo-Christian one from the first century AD. Neither have much to do in practical terms with our 21th world view determined by science.

as far as i know, he didn’t have any actual evidence to back up his claims – and i’ve heard the same claims used before as an after the fact excuse for the absence of women (in engineering in general, and in academic science w tenure, in certain departments, invited to give prestigious seminars, etc).

i take this stuff seriously (even co-founded a local chapter of awis) but i have to say that he could be a screaming sexist for all i care – if i thought he would do a good job at treasury, with our current economic situation i’d support him for that position.

my big problem with summers is that he has been one of the neoliberals who contributed to our current mess because they ideologically do not not believe in financial regulation but do believe in draconian intellectual “property rights” and all the kinds of shit that got us in the trouble we’re in.

1. My folks were life long repubs but my dad always told me that we had to pay our fair share and that it was our responsibility to pay.
2.
3. Government only fucks things up if rethugs are in charge. See FEMA
4. Not sure where this comes from. When Carter sent troops to attempt to rescue hostages he didn’t go with the army he wished he had, he went with the army he had, after that debacle special ops was created. That was the army that Rummy had.
5. That is only if you think the only thing the bible deals with is some rational for anti-abortion

And there’s the percentage that listens only to Limpy Limbaugh who’s show is always and forever demonize the Democrats and blame them for all problems.

i had a friend in dallas who listened to rush every day and she would say the most amazing things about liberals. i was forever remindering her that i was the only liberal that she knew – and if she didn’t think those characterizations applied to me, how could she be so sure the applied to liberals at all?

don’t think i ever made any progress on that particular front.

yeah there is a question as to whether or not bible really takes the positions that the snake handlers attribute to it (for example there is not one reference in the holy scriptures to what has become the key moral issue of the time- abortion)…

Then there is the issue of whether the Bible should have anything to do with governance anyway.

The other a Hellenized, Romanized, Judaeo-Christian one from the first century AD. Neither have much to do in practical terms with our 21th world view determined by science.

Au contrare, if there has ever been a modern day Hellen, Sarah Palin is the poster childe. Her ’sexy-librarian’ was the look that nearly launched a bomb, bomb, bomb Iran war.

Rethugs apply labels then define the label as bad – end of discussion. Simple solutions for the simpleminded. Resurgent label is now “Big Government” (never mind that the rethugs grow it more than anyone) What do you want to shrink – FAA so planes can play chicken on the runways and in the sky? NOAA so when a hurricane or tornado hits – surprise? FDA so we and our doctors are clueless when we get a med?

Re: Point 5. It would be good if they came a little closer to getting it right. As in, do they have to screw it up? How do you ignore the Injunction to Love Mercy, Do Justice; or look out for the least of these. Or let justice roll down like water.

I guess the point on down about the abortion issue as the only issue is closer to the mark, from their point of view. Just a little hard to ignore everything else.

Well he actually mentions some evidence during his talk- and describes “hypotheses” not conclusions- but it was certainly naive of him to think that he could give such a talk without creating a whirlwind that could consume him- as it did.

He should have kept his mouth shut–it’s not the job of the University President to be “provacative” about such a subject.

“Big government” is selective for the Rethugs. It only applies to more social programs and greater federal regulation of business. Expansion of the military, intelligence, and police apparatus is just fine thank you. The problem for them is that while the former actually create economic activity and prosperity, the latter are a net drain on productivity and growth. One economist once said you could get more economic gain from military spending by simply hiring people to dig a big hole and bury it.

I have read a bit about the birth of the religious right.. Roe/Wade didn’t really upset many of that community at first…the sentiment seemed to grow as a part of an effort to politicize the conservative religious movement- and they discovered that it had political legs…

The original issue that led to the reactionary religious right movement was actually sex education….

The DOD is a black hole for money.

When politics gets mixed with religion- both suffer.

don’t even have to go that far. in my experience most of the people i’ve known who say the bible is their guide, haven’t actually read it except in a very selective way.

it was mean and i’ve mellowed out (and purposefully tried to forget), but i used to invite inside the people who came to my door wanting to talk with me about god and the bible. i’d challenge them using only their own bible, and never did i meet one who could actually defend their positions using the bible. it always came back to what their religious authorities had taught them.

Stirling Newberry upstairs on healthcare.

well, i just emailed prof. foland. maybe he will have some insight for us.

Every kind of program actually favored by Rethugs is a blackhole. The advantage for them is that those programs allow them to funnel money to their friends. Reflects their larger view of government and politics. Because they do not believe in the concept of the public good, they regard government as a patronage system by which the winners enrich themselves and their friends.

Kinda like “to the victors belong the spoils”

Oops. I mean Teddy’s upstairs

Exactly like “to the victors belong the spoils”.

George Will always struck me as someone who constantly has to prove he’s smarter than everyone else!!

I guess he follows the adage, ‘if at first you don’t succeed….

More like the ram banging his head against the wall>

George Will, putting the “suck” in success since before your grandaddy could vote.

The media appearances I have seen since before the election always came across as a warning to Obama – “Govern Right. This is a center-Right country. Stay out of the culture.”

I think it’s more than that. The pundits represent the corporatocracy. The corporatocracy is trying to send a message. Problem is, the message they already sent was millions to McCain. Sorry boys. No tickie, no shirtie.

The real revolution is that we now have a President who commands respect. I think the last President who had that command was Nixon (don’t throw up, please). Ford was widely perceived as boob; Carter was widely, and in some measure justly, seen as not up to the executive parts of his job, though he did do his best; Reagan was the first purely PR President. Bush interim. People loved Clinton but I doubt that many had an abiding respect for him, even before Monica. Bush — aka the shrub — nothing need be said. McCain didn’t command respect either.

So we have a President-elect who from the evidence of his campaign is completely control of himself and his staff, who will command respect. This is something new to the DC media, who have been living off of gossip columns for the past 25 years or so. It’s going to take some time before they learn there’s a new game in town. Corporations, too, are going to have to re-evalue their lobbying strategy. Don’t worry, they will figure something out before long.

freepatriot, if you’re here, i left you a note about the ‘grifter’ hiding in the fdl living room..100% sure it’s her. surprised noone noticed. thought she was banned.now back under a new name. 1/2 of her old name.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake……ent-112653

and i don’t care how this sounds, if this sounds shitty. i have not forgotten how she trashed the place, and jane. and others. what she threatened to do to fdl every time she was thwarted from early off-topics pushing her agendas..if she’s above board why not use her old name? kath-’leen’.

i and others asked her directly the other night if she’s had another name on fdl and she wouldn’t answer directly, ducked it….no wonder.

The GOP keeps talking about labor unions and the loss of secret ballots. This is a veiled reference to the Employee Free Choice Act.
These guys don’t care about secret ballots for labor; they care that EFCA would force businesses to negotiate with unions, even ones they don’t like, or make them seek third-party mediation if they can’t reach an accord.
Obama supported EFCA as a senator and a candidate. I doubt that’s changed since he became president-elect.

Unions really worked hard here and deserve to have the promises kept. I feel confident they will.

we had SEIU members come and work their butts off for the campaign, i was so impressed by their dedication. tireless, great attitudes, made me work harder.

The Republicans will not learn from this election. They are too intellectually inflexible and unable to admit mistakes (even to themselves).

I think that the Republican Party will be a minority for many years to come. It will be left to the far right haters and religious fundamentalists. It will be a fringe party. But we may see the emergence of a new moderate, fiscal conservative party formed from the ashes of the money wing of the GOP. That’s the faction that we will be fighting the hardest.

Either that or the money wing will win and the crazies will split off and form their own fringe party.

But we may see the emergence of a new moderate, fiscal conservative party formed from the ashes of the money wing of the GOP. That’s the faction that we will be fighting the hardest.

For the most part, Democrats have this covered.

He believers in Meritocracy.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison rejected that and that is why the plan laid out in the articel is not how things are done.

It was wishful thinking.

How so?

I could get more used to watching the Sunday shows without George Will and David Brooks. If they ever had truly progressive pundits or columnists on instead of these clowns (not to mention the Kristols and the Roves of the world), it might help their ratings.

CORPORATE media.

It’s simple, really.

They didn’t want to win this one.

Their whole campaign was political theater.

******DING!*****

And of course there was the economy, the economy, the economy which is what really did McCain in

Well, according to Pat Buchannan at least.

I don’t buy that. McCain never had a chance, under any circumstances.

Not the only one who’s sure. Same agenda, same reaction when told to back off on it.

Great video, especially the ending with Zakaria handing Will the Republican obituary.

George Will is always, in case you may not have noticed, someone who is constantly “interpreting” the Constitution for the rest of us. It’s a technique he usually uses as a smokescreen as to why his side lost. Will is a typical Repug, in a world of his own totally separate from reality. And he will stay in that world too-he is absolutely convinced he is right about everything he says and believes.

Is that center/right?– or center left? or center center?

I think there’s one view that whatever the majority want is the ‘center’. But, there’s another which looks at points along the political scale (at least the one we tend to use in America) where distinct differences in world-view and policy styles change. For example, we all favor less government intervention (generally) than Europeans, but unlike the Libertarian view (notice it’s got a distinct name) Dems and Repubs favor a safety net and regulation.

In these terms America moved entirely away from what was all too clearly a dictatorial position (though W had been portrayed as ‘compassionate conservative’ in his 2000 campaign (clearly a lie) and back to the Left a little. They went for Obama’s health care plan and not Hillary or Edwards. They went for getting out of Iraq over staying in. They went for new faces without old agendas and confused complex histories. They didn’t go very far Left, despite the effort of McCain to paint Obama as socialist (boy, wasn’t that idiotic?).

Where I’m not sure the public knew a lot about Obama is that (as I see it) his domestic political position a further to the Left than his foreign policy political position. Maybe I’m projecting, but it seems to me Libs have already complained about his stand on FISA and his hawkish foreign policy positions — relative to their own. But, on domestic policy Libs seem a bit peeved he won’t go far enough. Take these two together and you see he isn’t a Lib, but at least on domestic policy he’s close. Be ready for more disappointments on foreign policy — except perhaps on Iraq.

Still, he’s centrist enough and seems entirely competent and intelligent and all those other good qualities. I think we’ll survive.