Maybe some of you don’t know this, but the chief of staff to the president is, in some ways, a more powerful figure than the president himself. The chief of staff has control over what the president knows and who he sees. Some of the highest members of the cabinet can muscle their way in to to see the president, but that’s about it. I suppose the intelligence briefer can tell the president whatever they want. But the chief of staff exerts a tremendous amount of power. At no time was that more true than in the last year of President Reagan’s second term, when Reagan was truly suffering with the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s no exaggeration to say that Ken Duberstein was once (1988-89) one of the most powerful men on Earth. So, it’s significant that he came out today and endorsed Barack Obama.
Duberstein flat-out does not believe that Sarah Palin has the capability or that John McCain has the judgment to be president of the United States. And he’s concerned enough about that to endorse a candidate that has very little in common ideologically with the president that Duberstein served.
Duberstein’s not all that unique in thinking this. He’s actually a little late to party. There are some grown-ups (to use one of the Village’s favorite terms) in the Grand Old Party. There are conservatives that can see beyond ideology and truly put Country First. And it’s very important that so many of them are coming out and endorsing Obama and Biden because they are signaling that the new administration has legitimacy. They are putting the lie to all the noise about Obama being a radical or mysterious or an enigma, or worse.
What this means is that a really wide swath of contemporary political actors and thinkers are going to have no problem saluting the flag and following orders under the leadership of our nation’s first black president. A big part of Obama’s job of unifying the country has already been accomplished before we even hold the election.
It’s even more important that this is the case because of all the damage McCain and Palin have done in their long-shot effort to discredit and disqualify Obama. People have been badly misinformed and needlessly biased against our next president, and a lot of negative energy has been whipped up. I don’t really know what is going to become of the rank-and-file Republican Party. I do know that, if they don’t get their Palinites under control, the GOP Establishment isn’t going to be able to get a nominee in 2012 that is acceptable to the broader public.
I have never seen a major U.S. party crash and burn like this before. It will be both interesting and frightening to watch. Looking forward, though, the Democrat Party’s tent is stretching at the seams.
Duberstein and Panetta being interviewed by Judy Woodruff on BloombergTV as I write..discussing how soon should Obama name his cabinet, the Palin factor…who should be chief of staff, should Gates stay, should Paulson go.
Duberstein predicts we’ve moved on from the ‘Bradley effect’..expects a massive turn out on Tuesday with Obama garnering 350 + electoral votes.
My eyes absolutely popped out of my head when I read this earlier. I just can’t believe it. A Chief of Staff??? Well, damn! That’s a pretty good prize. (I know we’ll never know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nancy Reagan quietly voted for Obama, I really wouldn’t. She knows McLame is a moral runt, Oh, that would be delicious.)
Will the last sane Republican please close the door on your way out?
You’re right. That’s a big endorse. Poor McPalin.
Not many understand the power of a Chief of Staff. He’s not just a gate keeper. Duberstein noted a CoS guides the President. It’s a relationship of trust between the two wherein the CoS can say to the president…”No, that direction will not serve you well”
Duberstein is gutsy unlike Chicken Eagleburger who just back pedalled on his stating earlier “Palin was not qualified to be vice-president.”
Shorter Eagleburger: “Lawrence, how about a game of Solitaire…”
Keep Gates & Paulson? Does Obama want to be Bush’s third term? Did we do all this to keep the war in Iraq rolling? Or was it to keep Reaganomics rolling? Those two should go on January 24.
The two, Duberstein and Panetta, agreed Obama would want to put his own stamp on his Administration…but given the two wars and the financial meltdown he may ask Gates to stay on “for a while” (who btw, is respected among the professionals and policy wonks)
Paulson may want to exit, 12:00 Noon Jan. 20, 2009, given he led the charge on April 24, 2004 to deregulate, lift the SEC rules allowing leveraging to 35:1 …a main factor that led to the implosion. Not a day too soon. Also, Bernanke may wish to be relieved of the mess he inherited.
Sure, let’s keep Mukasey,too. At least until the Gitmo trials are over. After all, he has lots of experience and was praised by the Democratic Senators who voted for his confirmation. We wouldn’t want to have a break in the War on Terror, would we?
This could be the first time a negative campaign fails. The people are possibly be sick of this crap on the left and the right.
I hope it stretches till it bursts, personally. I think the healthiest democracy can only happen when people of differing opinion work towards a common goal of equitable, lawful and reasonable governance. I welcome the consensus, wholeheartedly, with my ideological foes in this unique moment in history and I truly hope for the complete destruction of the modern Republican Party (ala Kos). But I also look forward to the friction and learning that comes with intelligent debate between ideologies – sane ones, that is.
I hope you’re right, but we haven’t won yet. Don’t jinx it, Boo.