Obama's New Clinton Administration

National Review: So Far, President-Elect Obama Has Acted With A Ruthless Pragmatism

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Rich Lowry.

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Barack Obama has succeeded where Hillary Clinton failed. She hoped to win a third Clinton term, but it is her vanquisher who is reconstituting the Clinton administration.

Obama’s just-named nominee for treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, served under Clinton Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Summers himself is Obama’s choice to head the National Economic Council. Both are part of Rubin’s circle, known for its brains and its relative moderation.

Few would have guessed back when Obama rose from the snows of Iowa that highly experienced economic technicians would represent “change we can believe in.” Thankfully, Obama’s airy rhetoric about a new kind of politics was more a pitch for impressionable new voters than a description of his governing style.

So far, President-elect Obama has acted with a ruthless pragmatism. He ignored the yowling left-wing blogosphere when it demanded Joe Lieberman’s head, turned (reportedly) to the initially pro-Iraq War Hillary Clinton for his top foreign-policy job, and staffed up with former Clintonites. Obama has been a shape-shifter throughout his brief political career, and the latest shape - an establishment Democrat determined to do whatever works - is the best version yet.

Obama appears to be reconsidering for now his promised repeal of President Bush’s “tax cuts for the rich.” Twice during the primaries, Obama hinted that he might put off the tax hikes if the economy was in distress, but he could never admit what was obvious: Proposing tax increases in the teeth of a recession was madness.

We are entering one of those periodic cycles when liberals have to bless rather than dump on a profitable private sector, because without it there’s no way for Obama to meet his pledge of creating or - in his elastic term - “saving” 2.5 million jobs. One of Bill Clinton’s most valuable insights was that a favorable business climate fostering economic growth trumped any government jobs program.

If Obama is wise, he’ll not only jettison his plans for a tax increase that in aiming at the rich would also hit successful small businesses, but also will put off his plans for a “cap-and-trade” program to tax the use of fossil fuels, forswear all his protectionist sentiments from the primaries, and ditch his support for a “card check” plan to promote the unionization of the American work force. Anything that burdens business should be anathema to Dr. Fix-the-Economy.

For now, the showpiece of Obama’s economic program is a massive stimulus bill that the Democratic Congress wants to have ready for his signature as soon as he departs the Capitol Hill steps after his inauguration. Even some conservative economists believe a fiscal stimulus is necessary to keep us out of a deflationary spiral, but Obama is only asking a Democratic Congress - given to fiscal incontinence even in rosy economic circumstances - to do what comes naturally.

In contrast, Bill Clinton ratcheted down his spending plans upon first taking office, under the influence of the very Robert Rubin who’s the mentor of Geithner, et al. Circumstances have changed, and so have the views of the Rubinites, who aren’t the fiscal hawks they were in the 1990s. The current crisis is yet another indication that a Rubinite article of faith - that the budget deficit basically determines interest rates - is false. The deficit is soaring toward $1 trillion or more while interest rates scrape bottom.

We can’t know what new twists the crisis will take (the latest financial institution in need of rescue is Robert Rubin’s Citigroup). We do know that Obama will need more than a ruthless pragmatism to navigate through it. In his masterly The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath, Robert Samuelson chronicles the extraordinary stalwartness of President Ronald Reagan when he allowed Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to squeeze inflation painfully out of the economic system the last time we had a downturn this severe, in 1981-1982.

That took guts. Obama will need them as well, and they won’t be on loan from any adviser, no matter what his pedigree.

[bjcone8559]

Starting to look like this was ALL set up by the Clinton and others.Something not right about this whole election,ran on change but the same old faces,talk about a con-job,this is the grand daddy of all. We still don''''t know the whole story and may never know but you can bet America will pay the price for being so stupid this election.


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Posted by chad55555



Oh, woe is me!!

How will we ever be able to stand a repeat of the peace and prosperty of the Clinton years?

This is awful!

Obama should be forced to pick an inexperienced and uninformed group of dumazz Texans just like Dubya did!

[chad55555]

Starting to look like this was ALL set up by the Clinton and others.Something not right about this whole election,ran on change but the same old faces,talk about a con-job,this is the grand daddy of all. We still don''t know the whole story and may never know but you can bet America will pay the price for being so stupid this election.

[ojvpuce]

Hopefully Obama''s advisors will not have the mentality of Thacher''s 364 opposing economists.
"How 364 economists got it totally wrong"

see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/03/15/do1501.xml

Better still ask Thacther to advise as well!

[centerfall94]

The NRO: Just more yowling from the failed right wing neocons.

[deathofusa]

ha ha ha! YES WE CAN !

[suzyku]

You neocon idiots are a bad joke. Only this time the joke has been on all of you! Obama is getting the most qualified, experienced people to "change" this country from the horrible mess you have created!
Once again you will be proven wrong, you people are clueless!

[pvperson]

Well let''s see, if you want to find people with knowledge of how government works you have to go to past administrations.
Does Obama go to Bush people, no, their the ones that created this mess.
Does Obama use Clinton people, no, they should be off limits according to you neo-cons.
Does Obama use Daddy Bush people, no, they''re just more failed republicans.
Does Obama use Reagan people, no, they''re just even more failed republicans.
That leaves the Carter people, but no, most aren''t even alive and the neo-cons would just say the same criticisms that they are of Clinton people.

So I guess you neo-cons want Obama to only pick from the completely in-experienced. Many he should start interviewing "horse show judges".

[cbsispravda]

I wonder if Liberals are starting to realize that the so-called "Failed Policies Of President Bush" mantra may actually be just another Liberal myth that they invented merely to win an election.

It is very likely that Barack Obama will be the third term of George W. Bush - and if it comes to pass - America will be the better for it, though I hope that Democrats suffer with it for four long years.

[shimano35]

GOD HELP US ALL!!!