The Obama Resistance
Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing

click to enlarge
It was less than 2 hours after Barack was declared President that the first "Join The Obama Resistance" shirts were available on Cafe Press. Since then, websites have been launched, conspiracies have been formulated. Hell, even Alan Keyes has filed a lawsuit to verify Obama's birth certificate!
This will not die down and it will not go away.
I remember the week after Bill Clinton was first elected, he and Al Gore appeared on the cover of a news magazine. I was in a bookstore when two rednecks drifted by and said, "Can you fucking believe THEY got elected? He ain't nothing but a draft dodger." That meme is still alive and well.
All the ugliness that John McCain, Sarah Palin and the rest of the right wing hate machine generated over the length of the campaign will continue until Obama is out of office. For us, our job is to always beat it back. The myth busting we did during the campaign will need to be continued... always.
We can't stop.
Ever.






Yes, we must
The onslaught will be continuous, relentless, remorseless and shameful, as it was from the beginning until the end of the Clinton Administration. Obama would do well to be as aggressive in attacking these things for the next eight years as he was during the campaign, and he will need our help.
Clinton actually did a pretty good job of fighting these thugs and liars; if you consider the sheer number of attacks against him and his people, and the horribly sleazy nature (he was a killer, etc.), it was actually remarkable he survived in office for two terms.
Limbaugh is leading the way in the name calling department, but in addition to the nefarious rumors and innuendo, the opposition has also launched the more subtle attacks; deriding, for example, appointments and rumors of appointments from the Clinton Administration as contrary to the promise of change.
I know Obama has tried to be low-key during the transition period, but his people need to start defending the appointments and prospective appointments more vigorously.
From my point of view, I'd like to have seen more fresh faces already. But the reality is, the Bushies screwed up the country - and the world - so badly that the our new president does not have the luxury of appointing very many key people who would face a learning curve. The Obama Admin truly must hit the ground running; failure to at least start addressing these major problems immediately would likely doom the presidency from the start. Thus, he must have in place people who know the system intimately, who can push the right buttons to get legislation moving and to initiate quickly policy changes to reverse the cancers within agencies.
Clinton Administration people and long-time members of Congress and Congressional staff, while rightly termed insiders, are necessary, at least for a while, because of that. There will be scores of new people learning under them, ready to move up, eventually, to the top positions.
And, while these Clintonistas are "insiders" in terms of government service in the past, they have been "outsiders" for eight years. In a sense, going back to what was, in many ways, a highly effective administration does represent change, as promised, from the ineptitude of the Bush years.
Plus, one must remember that people who are skilled managers and administrators are not necessarily wedded to the policies of the past; if Obama wants altogether new policies, who's to say that former Clinton people won't embrace them and enact them skillfully and with passion.
bradford
Hey, as far as I'm concerned
they can keep Bush! Makes me chuckle to think that the local pubbies (saw that used the other day) who voted for McCain/Flalin and all other repubs are joined by their Backwoods brothers and sisters from the Appalachin mountains to the Ozarks!
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Progressive Discussions