I would have selected a different national security team. But I can see what Obama is doing. He has effectively sidelined critics of his foreign policy vision to the kiddie table over there in the corner. You can take a look to see who’s at the kiddie table. There’s Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. There’s Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer. There’s Joe Lieberman and John McCain. There’s even Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney. They will all continue to screech now and then, and the adults will look over condescendingly and tell them to pipe down or there’s no dessert.
In saying this, I’m not suggesting that Barack Obama’s foreign policy and national security team is going to be right about the policies they pursue, or that they shouldn’t listen to anyone screaming from the sidelines. My greatest concern with the team is that it doesn’t (so far) include any of the strong voices that bravely opposed George and Dick’s excellent adventure in Iraq. My point, though, is that Obama has just carved out a huge swath of territory within which he can safely maneuver.
The Clintons are now inside the tent. The bipartisan Realist School is now inside the tent. The center-left Establishment is now inside the tent. And most of the left is pleased about the selection of Eric Holder to Justice and Susan Rice to a cabinet level ambassadorship to the United Nations (that bypasses Clinton and reports directly to Obama).
Concerns remain, and anti-war progressives are still looking for seats at the table where their superior judgment will not only be rewarded but put to good use going forward. But progressives can take comfort in the fact the field has been cleared politically to such a degree that they can move freely. If they remain marginalized, the neo-conservatives are newly marginalized, and to a far greater degree. Additionally, progressives are now empowered organizationally and have a far greater ability to mobilize public opinion than their opponents on the right. Palinists are truly out in the cold, and will remain there until there is some glaring failure or crack in the new governing coalition.
Obama has successfully disarmed an opposition (at least for the time being) that has dominated the public discourse in this country since (at least) September 11, 2001. No, they won’t go away. McCarthyite/Palinism has been with us since shortly after World War Two. But they are returned to the sidelines of history…even their media outlets now left without a core mission or cohesive message. What will Fox News do now? Is that Bill O’Reilly I see over at the Kiddie Table?
