Grave Error

Either the Obama Transition team read my mind or they read Grave Error questioning whether the ongoing post-election, donation-seeking emails were spam. Was it a coincidence that I just received this nice email from Joe Biden entitled “The Big Misconception”:

Eric –

A lot of people think the work of a campaign ends when the election is over.

Well, not if you win.

In fact, folks are working around the clock to prepare our team to hit the ground running on January 20th. At the same time, supporters all across the country are busy defining the role this grassroots movement will play in the administration.

It’s a new and unprecedented set of challenges, and Barack and I still need your support. I know we’ve asked a lot of you recently — but that’s because we’re continuing to do things differently.

Past transition teams have taken donations from corporations and lobbyists. Our team will not accept any donations from Washington lobbyists, and individual contributions will be limited to $5,000.

So while half of our funding comes from a government grant, the second half is in your hands.

Will you make a donation of $100 or more to support the presidential transition team?

It’s crucial that our presidential transition reflects the same values as the campaign — transparency and accountability to the American people.

One month from now — on January 20th, 2009 — Barack Obama will be sworn into office.

Between now and then, he needs to carefully assess agencies and build a strong team to take on the challenges our country faces.

With the enormous tasks of restoring our economy, meeting our national security challenges, broadening access to health care, and solving our energy crisis, we can’t afford to wait until Barack takes office to get started.

The most important thing you can do right now is make sure the transition team has the resources it needs to find the right people and prepare them for their work in the White House.

Make a donation to the transition team now and support a strong start in January:

https://donate.barackobama.com/transition

Thanks,

Joe

That is exactly what I was thinking, Joe. And while I see your point and am happy that normal Americans and not lobbiests are donating to fund the transition, I was just wondering whether all that money we donated earlier was already gone?

I just received this email from the Obama campaign:

You must order your limited edition Obama fleece scarf before midnight tonight for it to reach you or a loved one before December 25th.

We encourage you to act quickly as supplies are likely to run out today.

Your Obama scarf will be a statement of your ongoing support for change — and it will help the Democratic National Committee retire the considerable debt it took on during the push for victory.

Make a donation of $25 or more before midnight tonight and get a limited edition Obama scarf for yourself or a loved one.

Get your Obama scarf

In the weeks and months ahead, it’s going to take all of us working together to bring change. Show your support by giving the gift of change this holiday season.

Thank you for everything you’ve done to build this movement.

Happy holidays,

Obama for America

Obama raised more than any other presidential candidate in the history of the United States, more than George W. Bush and John Kerry spent in 2004 combined. I did receive an email a few months ago from the campaign asking for a donation to help Hillary pay off the debt she incurred trashing Obama. So what exactly is the money for this time? And I don’t mean the scarf. I thought the campaign was over, we won didn’t we? So why the campaign emails?

Look, I supported Obama and continue to give him my support (as long as change.gov still has my resume in its database). Obama has the potential for being a truly transformational president, but it’s way past the time for the campaign to close shop. The emails were once cool, now they are spam.

Although I recently argued in favor of Obama’s transition to date, I have also had my moments of doubts. I can’t remember where I read it first, but the argument was pretty much that Obama was selecting a cabinet that would have been identical to that of Hillary were she elected. Then, I saw a CNN video podcast that replayed the highlights of the election year. Almost every other footage of Hillary (and Bill) were of their gutterball campaign tactics. As a matter of fact, when you look back at 2008, the Hillary campaign’s attacks against Obama were much nastier and divisive than those of McCain Palin (and even paved the way for the Republican duo’s later attacks, including Bill Ayers).

In Richard Cohen’s column today in the Washington Post, not only does Cohen make the first point of an Obama administration indistinguishable (at least in terms of personnel) from that of a hypothetical Hillary one, he also says the obvious about the bad blood from the primaries:

Remember when Clinton had no integrity, no character, when she lied about almost everything and could be trusted about almost nothing? Remember when she was excoriated for diabolically exonerating Obama of the charge that he was, secretly and very ominously, a Muslim by belling her cat of a remark with the portentous phrase “as far as I know”? And remember when her husband had supposedly revealed himself to be a racist? That was a calumny, a libel and a ferocious mugging of memory itself. But it was believed.

Both in watching the CNN election recap and being reminded of (what I still see as) the Clintons’ lack of integrity, I am tempted to amend my earlier stance on the transition and think of Obama as sell-out. But Cohen goes on to make a good argument that Obama, by accepting Hillary, is showing that he is above the frey.

As is sometimes the case with passionate love, one can look back after a campaign and wonder: What was that all about? Usually, the passion of the campaign is shared by the candidates themselves and, for sure, their staffs. They live in a bubble infected by rumor and suspicion, a latter-day Borgian court of intrigue. But with Obama, he seemed always to distance himself from the heat of the campaign and to look down at it, as he did with that immense crowd in Berlin, as being of short-term use.

A presidential campaign is really a government looking for a parking space. Obama’s campaign showed us a candidate of maximum cool. He has always remained ironically detached, and that has served him — and now us — very well indeed. It’s now clear that he will not govern from the left and not really from the center but, as his campaign suggested, from above it all.

No matter how you look at it, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, a believer or not, I think that Obama has shown a degree of seriousness and urgency that we didn’t see in the Clinton or Bush transitions. It is more about governing than bringing in your Arkansas, Texas or Chicago cronies. That in itself is change that we needed.

I think that it is worthwhile to discuss whether Obama’s transition team, in what appears to be picking mainly former Clinton 42 officials for future Obama posts, is really offering change or just recycling and reshuffling Washington insiders. As my brother puts it, “for those of you that had all sorts of hope for Obama his cabinet selections should be removing any lingering ‘change you can believe in.’” (more…)

It’s time to close the Obama 08 section and open the new Obama 44 one. It’s been fun and historic, but it’s over.

As a caveat, let me say that it was never my intention to turn this into a political blog. I hope to continue my main focus on daily digressions, commentary on literature, Jazz (i.e., right now I’m listening to Straight Ahead by Oliver Nelson with Eric Dolphy), living abroad and other things that interest me, including politics. As mentioned, anything that has to do with the 44th President of the United States, good or bad, will now go under Obama 44.