The Magic Senator Strikes Again

Just like his infamous “magic bullet” (click here for more info), Senator Arlen Specter has changed direction once again. For years he caucused with the GOP, but this year he was one of three Republican voted for the Democrats’ stimulus package. Now he’s decided to run as a Democrat in 2010, joining Joe Lieberman in my club of “kinda Jews and kinda Democrats who make me embarrassed to be both.” Specter claims that he finds his “political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” but this is clearly a bid to hold onto his political future in a state that went blue in the presidential elections last year. But Specter has a big bargaining chip that will get him a lot of Democratic support in 2010. If Al Franken is seated as the Junior Senator from Minnesota, Specter would give the Democrats their 60 vote filibuster free majority, an advantage that would allow them to push some serious policy through in the next few years. Obama sees this golden opportunity, and has welcomed Specter with open arms, and is apparently “thrilled” to have him on board. I hate to admit it, but so am I. Recessions make strange bedfellows I suppose…

Really???

The right has been spending a lot of time calling Obama a socialist. I even heard him referred to as “Chairman Obama” on the radio the other day. Silly, right? Yeah, but remember all those years we spent calling Bush a Nazi? Bush may have been a war-mongering buffon, but he wasn’t Hitler. Obama may support socializing health care and certain key industries, but he isn’t Mao. We need to be more careful about what we call eachother, because we’re all Americans…

Chess with the Bear and Obama’s “Big Stick”

The game with the Russians has always been one in which only the Pawns have suffered (The Viet-Cong, The Afghan Mujahideen, the CIA-trained Cuban Nationals, etc.) while the Kings and Queens remain safely out of play. Early in his brief administration, Kennedy found himself in Check, and cautiously moved his Knights and Rooks into a naval blockade of Cuba. While this tropical corner of the Chess board caught most of the international attention, other pieces were in play in Turkey, where the US had it’s own missile installations.

With an imminent power shift in Washington, and a foul stench of totalitarianism wafting from the Kremlin (talks of extended Presidential terms, and possibly seeing Putin return to the position) our pieces are back in play on the Polish border. This, coupled with the economic crisis, means that President Elect Barack Obama will encounter the challenges that greeted FDR and JFK in their first terms—at the same time. Obama is like the young Bobby Fischer going up against Russian Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian.

President Bush has let out a rip-roaringly stinky fart in the Oval Office before leaving, without the decency to light a match.

What allowed FDR to pull us out of the depression? He acted like a socialist.

What allowed JFK to avoid nuclear war? Keeping a cool head while the Joint Chiefs clamored for conflict.

The National Review cites that Obama was “an active member of the Democratic Socialists of America.”

Ebony recently cited Obama as one of the 25 “Coolest Brothers” of all time.

Obviously I feel less comfortable quoting those sources than I would quoting the fricking Bible, but I’m trying to prove a point. Obama needs a bold and noble vision like FDR, and an even cooler head than JFK. But he also needs to swing around Teddy’s big stick.