Saturday, January 10, 2009

Obama, Jimmy Carter and the Fear Factor

Joel flags the David Broder piece from Saturday's WaPo, in which Broder calls the Illinois Senate mess "an early drubbing for Obama" (link). Actually, when I saw the headline, I thought that Broder was talking about the Obama stimulus package, which seems to have been greeted by the Democrats in Congress with about the same respectful attention as the school lunch menu over the PA system in a junior high school. Sheesh, it isn't even opening day yet, and the blackboard behind him is covered with spitballs. And back to the Illinois Senate thing--Michael Froomkin is quick on board with the assertion that it isn't really Obama's fault (link) which is technically true, but can we imagine this sort of thing happening to, say, Lyndon Johnson?

I think there is a theme here: they don't fear the new guy. They think he is not so much Lyndon Johnson as Jimmy Carter. They think they can pretty much make up their own rules, and the new guy will swallow it all as part of the cumbaya.

I hope they're not right. I hope at least that somebody--Rahm Emanuel?--has the brief to turn all their bowels to water. Maybe the well-placed destruction and humiliation of a self-inflated independent gasbag might catch some attention. One way or another, the new guy needs something, something to make it clear that, for all the wonkiness, and all the conciliation, he is not to be messed with.

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