Comments on: Obama Appointees Face Extensive Vetting

Washington Post: An Army Of Lawyers Are Examining Potential Picks With Unprecedented Scrutiny

[flreason]

Posted by pfness:

In a democracy, or more correctly a democratic republic, elections are decided by the popular vote...not be geographic area. The reality is that metropolitan areas have larger populations. They will also tend to have more minorities, well-educated, professional, and high-income voters. Those are the groups that are likely to support more liberal candidates. Many of those people may have left small communities themselves, but have found more opportunities and diversity in metropolitan areas.

I think it''s the height of hubris to presume to know how anyone who lived in a different time would think. My personal opinion is that JFK was intelligent enough to change with the times and that he would have seen this as a positive result of the evolution of thought moving us past our slavery legacy. However, I wouldn''t presume to speak for him.

[wango2007-2009]

Unfortunately, the vetting is a necessary evil dictate by the character assassination tactics that neocons use against anyone who opposes them.

Posted by flreason

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This is EXACTLY how totalitarian governments get their start. They always say, "It is a neccessary evil that we violate your privacy and take away your rights to protect you."

Obama''s vetting process is not needed. It is, however, an indication of how Obama intends to intrude into the privacy of all of us.

Obama IS the new neocon. What we are seeing with the vetting of his staff is just the beginning and it will spread.

Obama''s intentions are already far worse than Bush''s actions.

[bonncaruso]

Wango (how fitting) 2007 wrote: "There is no reason to back president-elect Obama. Nothing has changed, and he is still not experienced or qualified to be president.

Obama is the Jimmy Carter of the 21st Century. We will suffer through one miserable term (while he will continue to blame Bush for EVERYTHING) and then Obama will be out."

Sure, there is reason to support him. He won, McCain lost, by more than 8 million votes. So, get over it. This is the meaning of democracy, no matter how hard the neo-cons tried to dismantle it.

And I am sure that Obama will be re-elected in a landslide much larger than this one.

Your very behaviour is the reason why the GOP got a pasting in 2008 and will get pasted again in 2012.

[wango2007-2009]

I just think it is appalling that 53% of Americans voted for Obama an 46% of Americans voted for McCain and then there are people saying that "AMERICA" voted for Obama...no, just 53% of about 300 million.

Posted by pfness

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You are right, excpet 300 million is the total population of the US. Only 125 million actually voted.

Of that 125 million, 59 million voted for McCain... that means 47% of America thinks Obama is the wrong person to be president.

There is no reason to back president-elect Obama. Nothing has changed, and he is still not experienced or qualified to be president.

Obama is the Jimmy Carter of the 21st Century. We will suffer through one miserable term (while he will continue to blame Bush for EVERYTHING) and then Obama will be out.

[paidgopshill]

A true maverick can effectively vet someone with a casual conversation in the ten items or less line of the local supermarket!

[bonncaruso]

pfness wrote: "Here in Indiana the whole election map showed red on election night EXCEPT East Chicago area and the Indianapolis area. What really happened was that the huge cities hijacked the electoral votes from rest of Indiana."

Nonsense. Obama won more votes than McCain in IN. Those people in those large cities have every much as right to vote as those in the outlying rural counties. That''s called democracy, and if you can''t live with it, then move to a banana republic!

And a 53% win is more of a mandate than Reagan had in 1980, almost identical to Bush 41s mandate in 1988, and better than either of Clinton''s or Bush 43''s wins.

[flreason]

Unfortunately, the vetting is a necessary evil dictate by the character assassination tactics that neocons use against anyone who opposes them. The unintended consequence of this is that you will tend to get candidates who are conformists, rather than people who challenge societal norms. Thomas Jefferson would never have survived this vetting process. Neither would Madison, or Paine, or Franklin.

Having the best and brightest doesn''t equate with the most virtuous. Even William Buckley smoked marijuana, although he took his yacht beyond the 12-mile U.S. nautical border to do it. Americans need to stop expecting their politicians to be saints. Saints tend to be intolerant, obsessive, and unbending. Those are qualities that start wars and undermine diplomacy. I''d rather have an intelligent and pragmatic sinner than a sanctimonious saint who firmly believes that his is the only way, and that anyone who disagrees is in league with the devil. We''ve seen all to well the consequences of that mind-set.

[oldguy4truth]

Loyalty to the messiah can never be a question.

Hail Rush.

[cheteunice]

He will do vetting as effectively as he did with Rev. Wright all those years?

[old300d]

This is a good thing ! Some of those Obama lovers creep me out !

No doubt they are a sorted group ! ! !

[wango2007-2009]

This vetting won''t do any good as all the political toadies Obama is hiring all have skeletons in their closets.

After all, Obama in his book admitted doing grass and cocaine... that makes Obama a major hypocrite.

[pfness]

I just think it is appalling that 53% of Americans voted for Obama an 46% of Americans voted for McCain and then there are people saying that "AMERICA" voted for Obama...no, just 53% of about 300 million.
Here in Indiana the whole election map showed red on election night EXCEPT East Chicago area and the Indianapolis area. What really happened was that the huge cities hijacked the electoral votes from rest of Indiana. Huge masses of people in large cities got swooned into idealist oratory at big rallies, the rest of us did not.
America''s 53% voted to have a black president for historical purposes. I think they should have waited for a candidate with better credentials. Just like they voted for President Bush to have a deal like what the Adam''s had...a father and son being presidents. Now how well did THAT work out for us? To do things like this just to get a historical event in the record books is a poor showing of the intelligence of Americans. JFK would be turning over in his grave to see what the Democrat party has become and what it is leading America into.

[kazoodan]

The real Barack Obama is still unknown, supposedly. One take is that he is a smart guy who will move toward the center and govern moderately and competently. Another take is that he is the most radical person to ever hold the position of President who will take the US on a hard left course into a socialist state lacking any resemblance to the country our founders gave us.


I also have a third scenario, and it is my scariest one: he will do the latter, but make it appear like the former. That is, he will be take the US on a hard left course, but in such a way so as to not scare the Christopher Buckleys and soccer moms of the world too much, too soon.

Taxes, spending, regulation. Taxes will be increased, especially on people who pay them. Social Security taxes will be applied to all income levels. The Death Tax will be restored in full, and then some. We might get totally new taxes, such as a national sales tax, a value added tax, or a wealth tax. Spending will go up, perhaps dramatically, on everything but Defense. New regulations will be imposed on everything from investment banking and hedge funds to work rules and insurance mandates.


Posted by Olivia4441 at 10:01 AM : Nov 18, 2008

Attributed to Randall Hoven

Gee, Olivia, not an original thought to be had by you, huh?

[kazoodan]

I have no doubt that you, as well as all your friends, are anxious to see changes promised by our beloved comrade, the Next President to be implemented. So I decided to suggest the following ditty to your and your readers attention as a brief summary of incoming events.

Promise of Change

Life will be better,
Economy will be stronger,
Our necks will be thinner,
But miraculously will grow longer.

It is a very adequate translation of a ditty popular in Russia in Stalin''''s time (before WWII). Many people got 10 years in prison camps just for quietly singing it to family or friends (stooges were around quite often).

That is the material for another prophesy after January 20th.

With best wishes,

Vetting? Has anyone really vetted Obama??

Posted by Olivia4441 at 09:53 AM : Nov 18, 2008

You forgot to attribute this to Dr. Leon Iofin.

Are you a plagiarist?

[nwihoosier]

Peace and Love
Can''t you people play nice?
Peace and Love

[oldguy4truth]

Let the hate and fear parrots go on. Don''''t dissuade them. Encourage them! They are the best argument for the end of the GOP as it has become. The purveyors of hate, racism, lies, and slander repulse the vast majority of fair minded and thinking Americans. These parrots do nothing but illustrate that the GOP has become morally and intellectually bankrupt.

Agreed. Excuse my previous anger, It is a "hot button" issue for me when people questions one''s patriatism.

[melissapat]

You are correct oldguy4truth.

Olivia4441 obviously reads Coulter and listens to Hannity, O''reilt, and pill popper Limbaugh all in one day then posts everything.

Olivia4441 is an Un-American, facist, nut case. They need to go away if they hate the Obama and the people who voted for him which is the vast majority of Pro-Americans. They obviously hate America.

[dburfears]

Let the hate and fear parrots go on. Don''t dissuade them. Encourage them! They are the best argument for the end of the GOP as it has become. The purveyors of hate, racism, lies, and slander repulse the vast majority of fair minded and thinking Americans. These parrots do nothing but illustrate that the GOP has become morally and intellectually bankrupt.

So do not try to reason with them or slap them down. It is not possible to reason with hate and willful misinformation. It is not possible to silence idiocy. Let them spew their hate and ignorance for all to see. 95% of Americans see them for what they are- the backwater dead-enders that populate the Rush Limbaugh audience and believe everything Sean Hannity and Fox News pour into their empty heads.

The more they write and talk the more they look like fools. So encourage them to continue proving what blind followers of a failed GOP really stand for: Hate and ignorance. In the end, all their frothing at the mouth will accomplish is a "New GOP" that will regularly win Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Utah, Idaho, Alaska, and Oklahoma. Wow. Impressive.

[dburfears]

Alberto Gonzales? He was a perfect example of why you do vetting. So was FEMA "heckuva job Brownie", and the rest of the incompetents who bush put into power just because they were his buddies. The DOJ will take YEARS to fix after Gonzales. FEMA left Americans wondering how an incompetent fool could select another incompetent fool to run America''s disaster agency.

[melissapat]

Olivia4441

Brainwashed? From your obvious pasted posts of some other humans words, you are the one who reads something and then believes. That is brainwashing. You need to go to a facists country where leaders tell you what to do and think since you cannot think on your own..and you are Un-American.

Democrtas are free thinkers unlike you who need to be told what to think in order to think. However, what you think is complete non-sense.