hillary has grown far more comfortable in her own skin, if she had delivered her personal speaches as comfortably as she delivered barak to the nomination, then she would have been the nominee.

she is going to be amazing if barack wins this election

do not forget however, they are ALREADY flipping electronic votes, they are ALREADY gaming this election and they are DEFINATELY going to be more discreet in the early voting then in the general

that means they are going to be even more aggresive in the general election flipping votes then they are now

hang on to hats, no matter how many people turn out to vote for barack, this is not a lock

the more exposed they are the more brazen they will become, as it becomes obvious they cannot win they will be less and less discreet, doing more and more to manipulate the count

that might lead to and uprising which in fact is just what they want, an “emergency” where they can invoge their directive

let’s hope they realize there are far too many people voting barack for them to effect a change in the count

This is great news!!!!

Thanks EW.

digg

Thoughtful post. And now Sunstein is starting to worry how many conservatives he will have to appoint to the plum jobs at Justice, what with Whitehouse ready to prepare another org chart showing 30+ conduits of contact with the Oval Office, though the link shows in this instance simply Fried returning to teach conservativism Harvard style, much like Cass’ own cautionary pedagogies at UChi. Heck, I even heard a July 2008 interview with Jane Mayer this week depicting Cheney as having problems with perfectionists in constitutional law like Comey and Goldsmith, I think that was the interview I remember. Conservatism buglers.

If you are being held hostage just hit(M)

If I was Obama, I’d wanna send somebody else out on that stage too

the movie “Blazing Saddles” comes to mind for some reason …

(wink)

I’ve got several underscores for Erik Halter for DoJ. They were at Harvard about the same time — so I see a DoJ team led by people they both know, with lots of the legal leaders in Obama’s campaign getting key USA appointments, and perhaps Inspector General positions in the various departments. In two years he has to pick a new FBI director, so look for one or several candidates to be in these ranks. Obama says he wants to appoint Judges — including Supreme Court Judges — who have not spent their entire life writing legal briefs, but know from experience other lives. I look for a few “otherwise experienced” types to receive DoJ appointments in waiting for Judicial openings. I look for Halter to quickly propose a reorganization of DoJ as a way of minimizing the positions of Bushie hold-overs in the Civil Service.

The way I work is add names for a position, and then add an underscore when I get reason to confirm the guess from an independent source.

Richard Clarke at Homeland Security. His deputy will probably be Jamie Lee Whit — an inside/outside play.

I think Obama will give Carolyn Kennedy a high position, either at DoJ or perhaps Interior. (remember, she has written two books on Constitutional Law and has done a huge behind the scenes organization job on the campaign)

He’ll keep Gates at DoD for perhaps 6 months or so — until the plan for leaving Iraq is inked. But the Deputy will be an Obama appointment likely to move up. (This morning’s news is interesting, Russia has announced they favor the extension of the Coalition Mandate through the UN for a few months as it would not be good to suddenly remove US forces Jan 1. This leaves to Obama the negotiation of a SOFA. Dan Schorr talked about it on NPR, with interesting historical parallels.) But the fact that Gates stays doesn’t mean Obama ultimately doesn’t have to appoint a Defense Team.

I think he really wants to appoint Richard Lugar at State — badly, and I think Lugar might actually be good at the job. Remember, he is the one who once flew off to Manila, and talked Marcos out of the country. Lugar is also an organization freak, nearly invented the idea of Metro Government when he was Mayor of Indianapolis. This would allow him to put Nunn in as Deputy Secretary for disarmament and non-proliferation, and this is core Obama agenda stuff, and absolutely critical to dealing with Iran issues. I think we see the return of Samantha Powers, either at State or as a specialized delegate to the UN dealing with Humanitarian issues. (She got canned for dissing Hillary’s campaign, and that’s now irrelevant.) She could head AID, for instance.

Obama’s top National Security Advisor has been Tony Lake, who, if you remember got scrubbed by the Republicans in 1996 when Clinton tried to name him to head CIA. So I see Lake moving to National Intelligence Director. (a little thumb in the eyeball). For the past year I have been off and on reading Larry Johnson’s stuff trying to figure what is really behind his Obama Hateful writings — I think it is Lake. Johnson was up to his eyeballs in scrubbing Lake’s nomination to CIA — why, not sure, but Lake fits Obama’s style. (as FDR said about someone, “I like the cut of his Jib.”) Oh yea, I see Steve Simon and Daniel Benjamin as appointees in National Security — WH staff or one of the agency positions. Susan Rice will have a major Foreign Policy position, and I will add the name Susan Eisenhower to the mix. She led the string of Foreign Policy Republicans moving to Obama.

I’ve got Robert Reich underscored half a dozen times but which Department??? Secretary of the Treasury? Commerce? don’t know — but an economic position for sure, and something to do with recovery. Maybe WH Staff??? Reich was not present during the Florida meeting on the bailout policy, but was authorized to do interviews as an Obama advisor both before and afterwards — I think he was hooked up by phone link to the Florida meeting. After the bill finally passed, he was shut down, no more interviews. Anything about bail-out comes from the Campaign press releases (not much) or from Congress. Very smart. Give McCain nothing to shoot at. Let him aim at Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.

Apparently the origin of Obama’s health care package is Jim Cooper of Tennessee. He is not beloved of Ted Kennedy, who is apparently “writing his bill” while getting his chemo — and Ted is also organizing big time. (Cooper supposedly is overprotective of the insurance industry.) I think it is going to be very difficult for Obama to put a Health leadership team together with this huge fracture — a fracture he can’t afford if he wants to accomplish something. I suggested to Amy Klobuchar that she consider putting one name in the mix, Mike Osterholm — I am not sure for what position, he was our State Epidemologist for years, and is close to Gore. Center for Disease Control maybe — perhaps something at NIH. Yes, Yes she says — a perfect appointment. HHS secretary — no, don’t think so, but we’ll see. Mike’s great skill is doing public health on TV in such a way that when he finishes explaining the problem, everyone lines up and does what is recommended. He gets trust based in understanding of the science behind public health practice.

Some suggest that former Governor Hunt of NC will get Secretary of Education — he seems to be in near total agreement with Obama on policy, and I’ve seen the suggestion in a number of independent places. The only other suggestion I’ve seen is Bill Daley — but while I am sure Obama will have a place for Bill Daley, I don’t think this is it. Bill Daley was on the same board at one point with Bill Ayres — and I suspect anyone connected with that will be out for an obvious appointment.

I’ve got a big Question Mark after Howard Dean. Obama really owes him big time in ways that are hard to count. He settled the mess with Hillary’s delegates to the convention masterfully, he created so much of the state by state base that merged into the Obama base campaign, and gave up ownership once the nomination was clear. But where to put him so he is inside the tent pissing out, instead of outside pissing in? Labor maybe? He might be go at things like mine safety and OSHA regulation. He might even be good at SEC — remember before he went to Medical School he was a stockbroker. I’ve got the same problem with Wesley Clark — great skills, but where to put him usefully? Deputy Secretary of Defense for Procurement??? And what about someone like Richard Holbrooke? Do you send him to Pakistan to straighten things out? Ambassador to Afghanistan?

Aside from Lugar and Cooper — I don’t see many appointments from Congress. Obama is going to keep his friends there to help along his program. At lower levels, he may appoint hill staffers with special expertise — but I don’t think many currently serving members will be appointed.

If Obama moves quickly on a Green Agenda — partially as job creation, partly as a component of a Global Warming Agenda, partially as an energy independence agenda — who gets Secretary of Energy? It is one of the most critical departments should Obama move on these matters — but it is also one of the most problem riddled departments in Government. It is totally hollowed out as a result of outsourcing everything to private companies, as of now it has two long term interests, Nuclear stuff, including its role in weapons — and the oil-coal interests. But it owns the National Labs, and if anything is going to go forward, they need new missions and roles. So do you go with a science/technology type, or a crackerjack administrator with good political creds? An awful lot depends on this appointment. Any ideas???

I’ll review my lists and see if I have additional guesses — but everyone can join this game.