National: Washington Post

January 22, 2009 - 07:27 am
NEWS FEED: Red State

And This Is What We Will Have To Put Up With For The Next Four Years (At Least)

By now, everyone knows about the flubbed Oath of Office. The President initially jumped in and cut off the Chief Justice while the latter was administering the oath, and then the Chief garbled the oath only moments later. This post pretty much captures the clumsy verbal pas de deux. It’s not the world’s biggest deal, the oath was taken, Barack Obama has been President since noon, January 20th and there has been no Constitutional crisis. Just to make sure that things were on the safe side, the Chief came to the White House and administered the oath again.

But of course, this entire episode had to serve as an excuse for various people to lose their ever-loving minds.

January 21, 2009 - 07:35 pm
NEWS FEED: Daily Kos

Hitting The Ground Running

The celebration is over and today President Barack Obama has hit the ground running.

White House press secretary Gibbs announced that President Obama placed calls to President Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Olmert of Israel, King Abdullah of Jordan, and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority this morning and expressed his "commitment to active engagement," in pursuing peace in the Middle East, and that in the aftermath of the recent conflict in Gaza, will work to consolidate the ceasefire and "facilitating in partnership with the Palestinian Authority a major reconstruction effort for Palestinians in Gaza."

In related news, the Washington Post is reporting that former senator George Mitchell will be named as special envoy to the Middle East.

January 19, 2009 - 08:00 pm
NEWS FEED: Daily Kos

Midday open thread

  • It's once again okay to call oneself a "liberal" in DC.
  • CQ has a handy Obama nominee chart.
  • The New York Times is getting all whiny about lack of an Obama sitdown with their editorial board. Check out this pool report, written by a NY Times staffer:

    After three and a half hours at his transition office, PEOTUS Obama took another 6 minute ride through Washington, arriving at 1:57 pm at the nondescript soviet-style building at 15th and L street that houses the Washington Post.

    Around 100 people -- Post reporters perhaps? -- awaited PEOTUS's arrival, cheering and bobbing their coffee cups.

January 19, 2009 - 03:30 pm
NEWS FEED: Daily Kos

Admit It: You're Gasping for Relevance

Give Peter Beinart credit for originality. The Editor-at-Large of the New Republic has invented, in a column in Sunday's Washington Post, a whole new reason for liberals to admit that liberals are wrong about something: doing so will teach young liberals humility.

Now, you might wonder, why is Beinart suddenly so concerned about the endangered virtue of young Democrats? The problem, he informs us, is that the left has made the correct call on just about every single issue since 1991 (when Bush senior routed Hussein in Round One). And that means the kids on the left have gotten the crazy idea that progressive ideas are consistently better than conservative ideas.

January 18, 2009 - 08:00 pm
NEWS FEED: Daily Kos

Midday Open Thread

  • As noted by Kula2316 in Morning Reaction: Inaugural Optimism, both The Washington Post and The New York Times are reporting polls with crazy-mucho goodwill for the President-elect.

    My favorite result from the complete WaPo/ABC poll: When asked "Do you think Obama has a mandate to work for (major new social and economic programs) or for (only small policy changes)?" 71% answered "major new programs," 22% answered, "small policy changes," and 7% answered "no opinion."

  • Washington Post reporters Roxanne Roberts and Krissah Thompson note that professional schmoozers in D.C. are having to adapt to changing times:

    The city's high-level social scene -- dinners, black-tie fundraisers, receptions, ubiquitous book parties -- is the place where money and experience are subtly traded for access and influence.

January 18, 2009 - 04:00 pm
NEWS FEED: Daily Kos

Your Inaugural Guide

With his "whistle stop" train journey from Philadelphia complete, today is the start of three days of celebration in Washington D.C., leading up to the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama this Tuesday. And whether you will be there in person, or watching from home or at work, here's a guide on what's happening, and how you can participate wherever you are, along with some handy information for those who will be braving the crowds and the cold.

Sunday, January 18th

In less than three hours, the We Are One celebration kicks off at the Lincoln Memorial, with President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden in attendance.

January 16, 2009 - 08:43 pm
NEWS FEED: Red State

So, Obama stopped by the Washington Post to reassure them.

Via Glenn, here’s their first and last paragraphs, with my executive summary in the middle:

PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama came to The Post editorial board yesterday with two messages sketchy on details yet reassuring in approach: a commitment to fiscal discipline, and a determination not to be bound by liberal, or indeed any, orthodoxy.

[snip of the President-elect not answering their questions about what he plans to do about controlling the budget, determining what financial sacrifices need to be made, when - or if - Card Check will be passed, what changes - if any - will be made to our current detainee system, and whether all of this means that he's a centrist.