Sometimes I honestly think Daniel Larison is the only person on the planet who can clearly measure up Obama:
While the Blagosphere has been almost entirely consumed with our governor’s corruption and the state fair auction-like atmosphere that surrounded the Senate seat appointment, some bloggers on the left have begun noticing that reporting and commentary have tried to make the Blagojevich scandals into a serious problem for Obama, despite the evidence that shows Blagojevich to be deeply hostile to the President-elect and shows the latter to be uninvolved in any of the governor’s (alleged) crimes. One reason why this is happening is that a lot of journalists and pundits have become bored with the transition. It’s been going reasonably well, and it has been run so competently and with such an obvious emphasis on establishment-friendly appointments and merit (at least as merit is conventionally defined by that establishment) that most observers have been hungry for something else to talk about, and what better than a scandal involving all of the themes of the “old” politics, complete with bribery and shakedowns? You already have the makings of an overreaching and misleading narrative: “old Illinois politics mars transition period for Obama.”
On top of all of this, there is the problem that most people, especially journalists and pundits and even more particularly pundits on the right, seem to go through extreme mood swings when they talk and think about Obama. This is the tendency to swing between treating him, in John Kass’ memorable phrase, as the Mr. Tumnus of politics to regarding him as the canny Chicago pol, the Obama David Brooks referred to as “Fast Eddie,” or in other cases going between debating ridiculously whether he is more Maoist than Stalinist and then rejoicing childishly over the “centrism” of his appointments. In the mainstream media, it has gone from early adulation over the promised reform and transformation of Washington (whence the Messiah Watch) to a desire to play up conflict between Obama and the left, and now this latter theme has been partially replaced by the “Blagojevich taint” narrative.
Having finally recognized that Obama is a savvy political operator who is interested in effective government to pursue what are still broadly progressive goals, and having started to grasp that Obama is not a neo-McGovernite radical dove but is actually rather hawkish and establishmentarian in his instincts, the next thing for journalists and pundits to fixate on would have to be ethics and the political career in Illinois that virtually everyone ignored while they, again mostly in the mainstream press and on the right, were obsessing over his religious or tangential associations. Here we see the collective disbelief that a savvy Chicago pol could be at once more or less indifferent to the corruption of the machine politics around him (a guy who “won’t make no waves and won’t back no losers,” as Kass put it over six months ago), while nonetheless being free from any personal involvement in that corruption. People have a hard time making sense of a politician who can appear as the friend of the Hyde Park Independents and the Daley machine when each connection suits him, because it isn’t supposed to work that way.
We can quibble about how “indifferent” he is to corruption, but for the most part, this is about as clear a reading of the events of the past few weeks as I have read anywhere.
*** Update ***
This is kind of related. Because I am a glutton for punishment, while working on other things I listened to the entire blogginheadstv discussion with Ben Smith and that insufferable prick Michael Goldfarb, and Goldfarb kept repeating that Obama has not really done anything because he hasn’t done anything risky. It kind of shows you how the hive mind at McCain HQ thought, and how the folks at the Weekly Standard think. They only really think you can accomplish anything unless you take great risks and do rash things. The fact that Obama didn’t engage in all sorts of mavericky and risky behavior but still managed to apply enough pressure to get the ethics bill pass in Illinois (the bill, btw, that caused Blago to rush to raise millions before January 1st) seems to have completely escaped him.
TenguPhule
We can begin swinging at him the day he takes office and not one second before.
bootlegger
And since he pushed, or at least supported, changes in how Illinois did business I tend to believe that he was trying to do something about corruption without making a big scene over it. No-drama Obama was his mantra long before we saw him on the teevee.
KXB
Part of the problem for the press is that they have changed the charge from "What was promised?" to "Who did you or your staff talk to?" The first can fall under the category "illegal". The second is not criminal or even unethical. If Emmanuel did talk to Blago, but it never rose above "Here’s who we like for the seat?" – there is nothing wrong or unethical about that.
Stuck in the Funhouse
To throw one more log on the pile of actual facts.
I’m warming up a little to this Larison guy, but i will quibble about the "indifferent" comment given the fact that Obama’s vetting process is probably the strictest in US History, But it’s a minor quibble.
I know that Obama doesn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with the press and piss them off, but this episode of vacuous scandal monitoring will only get worse if he doesn’t nip it in the bud. Maybe he should come out with a hammer and pound this shit into the ground. Well, maybe not a hammer, but maybe a measured smack.
TheHatOnMyCat
I think the whole thing boils down to "Obama is his own man."
He is the kind of person who makes like difficult for wags who want to write new versions of old prepackaged stories.
Obama is clearly a shrewd, practical politician who finds his own way in the middle of the crap that is out there and makes the best of it.
He also appears to pretty straightforward in his approach to problems and situations. Quite the refreshing change from what we have been treated to in the recent past.
I for one welcome our new practical overlords. Because we are going to desperately need them in order to hang on for dear fucking life in the coming shitstorm.
t jasper parnell
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
It seems to me that so far when (allegedly) cornered by some set of circumstance or another this is exactly what Obama does, isn’t it?
DJShay
I wish they’d ask the auto workers what they think about "Blagogate". And the auto suppliers too. I bet they’re obsessing about it just as much as the media.
TheFountainHead
Shorter Media & Bloggers: Everytime Obama talked to Blago God killed a kitten! And that’s WRONG!
Shorter Larison: STFU Noobs!
DJShay
@TheFountainHead
LULZ!!
Xecky Gilchrist
…despite the evidence that shows Blagojevich to be deeply hostile to the President-elect and shows the latter to be uninvolved in any of the governor’s (alleged) crimes.
Such evidence has never stopped wingnuts from screeeching about cahootsism before. Cf. Saddam Hussein / Al Qaeda.
Objective Scrutator
If Barack Obama does not hire someone to personally shoot Blagojevich in the face with a SPAS-12 shotgun, then we should be suspicious of his relationships with Blago. After all, if there was someone corrupt that YOU were accused of being connected to, what would YOU do? Sit down and have a tea party with him?
No. The only solution is to use unparalleled violence against this man. Not a single soul on the planet cares about Blago’s well being, and if Obama wants to do us a favor, then he will blow Blago’s head off. His approval ratings will go up to 94%, even higher than Bush’s 91%!
Stuck in the Funhouse
@t jasper parnell:
Enough so I won’t argue the point. But I’d personally like to see the campaign turn this around and a little more and shove it back down the press Jackal’s throats. I say this as a Cheeto maniac with a keyboard.
demimondian
Actually, John, I wouldn’t be surprised if "indifferent toward" is a poor desrciption for how Obama feels about corruption — but "deeply cynical about and resigned to" is a good one. I don’t think he himself is real big on pay-to-play and similar aspects of machine politics, but I doubt he freaks out about them, either.
To put it differently, it’s generally accepted that if Rahm dropped a dime on Blagalphabet, he did it mostly to protect the President-Elect and to establish who is sheriff, not because he was *shocked, simply shocked* that corruption is endemic in Illinois politics. I doubt that Obama would have been any more surprised. Sad? Well, I hope so. Startled? Yeah, not so much.
r€nato
indeed.
I think we are witnessing the re-enactment of the Clinton years… the desperate attempt to spin this into a scandal which can be hung on Obama, regardless of the facts.
We’re about to find out if Obama is up to fighting back against the right-wing noise machine and their enablers in the so-called liberal media.
I’m pretty sure they are up to it; in fact this may have a very silver lining, it is going to prepare the Obama administration for the next four to eight years of witch-hunts.
Calouste
@Objective Scrutator:
That Obama blowing heads off thing, can you submit suggestions for that on change.gov? I bet it would be the most popular feature on the whole site.
r€nato
Thank you for bringing Larison to our attention.
If there were a lot more Larison’s on the right, they would not be in the terrible fix they are in. The right is so accustomed to being spoon-fed talking points and doublethink, they have completely lost the ability to think for themselves.
Clear thinking is essential to attaining one’s goals; if one is so blinded by ideology and partisan rancor, it’s hard to see your way out of the forest.
That’s why we get this endless hammering on Ayers, Wright and Rezko well after the election delivered its resounding verdict on that nonsense. If that shit works for them, it’s got to work for everyone else! And if it doesn’t… turn it up to 11!
I hope the right never figures out that they need more Daniel Larison’s if they are ever to be anything but a nuisance, minority party which is the exclusive home of the wealthy, ignoramuses and racists.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Objective Scrutator:
A bit too much caffeine OS? or do you have the Mad Cow.
Cyrus
It actually makes me a little nervous. Like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Every candidate, campaign and elected official screws up sometimes, right? Right? They’re only human, and in particular they’re ambitious humans living in a bubble who have lots of enemies. But has Obama screwed up anything yet? Sure, right-wingers would have a long list, but I’m asking sane people. Maybe saying that he would stand by Rev. Wright and then not standing by him would count. And he said he had been to 57 states. Overall though, the Obama screw-up list seems much shorter than any politician in a long time, even considering that the current occupant sets a low bar. So if he hadn’t screwed anything up yet, that just means he’s going to once he’s in office. If he hasn’t screwed up the kind of thing he’s done so far, that just means he’s going to screw up something he hasn’t done yet, and there’s plenty of presidential stuff like that.
If I ever see a news story alleging that Obama knew about his illegal immigrant aunt all along and supported her financially, I’ll breathe a sigh of relief. Far better to get caught lying about that than about cheating on his wife or bribing Blagojevich or…
t jasper parnell
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
I was agreeing with your, more or less. I expect that some time next week Obama will hold some kind of press conference in which the contacts and their contents are laid out in detail and that they are wholly innocent.
Rahm E has denied dropping the alleged dime. {link to story about who did it, cannot find the link to where RE denies. But it, like the truth, is out there.}
demimondian
@t jasper parnell: I know Rahm has denied dropping the dime. I don’t believe him.
DougJ
Larison is sort of right, but only sort of. The media *always* wants to turn whatever is happening into some kind of familiar narrative: neo-McGovernite taking the country too far to the left, out-of-touch elitist eating arugula, shady Chicago politico doing whatever it is that shady Chicago politicos do.
The reality — a hopefully competent administration shoveling Bush’s shit for the next four years — isn’t anything like one of these narratives.
That doesn’t contradict what Larison is saying, at all (it mostly agrees), but when we describe how a ball falls to the ground, we should mention gravity as part of the story. When the media writes about a presidency, we should recognize that all they’re doing is fitting the presidency into some pre-existing narrative about American politics.
Incertus
@Cyrus: There was the bitter comment, but seriously, that’s weak sauce. I’m kind of hoping that what we’re experiencing here is what ought to be the norm, and that it feels so weird just because we haven’t seen it in forever.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Cyrus:
Here is a link to the Blagovich 74 page Indictment, and a synopsis for shorter reading. It might calm your worries.
The Grand Panjandrum
This episode reminds of how Obama handled the Rezko and Wright problems. He’s carefully gathering his evidence from within the transition team. Soon enough it will all be handled and once again the establishment media pundits will get punched in the fucking teeth for being fucking morons. Then as a grand finale a thrill will rush Chris Matthews leg and Bill O will mutter more unintelligle nonsense after once again losing his ongoing battle to save America from the DFH’s.
I LOVE the smell of arugula in the morning.
Tom Hilton
I don’t think you’re alone in feeling that way. In fact, I think there is a more extreme version of this in which the absence of screwing up is itself evidence of far deeper problems, based on the assumption that the intersection set of "too good" and "true" is the null set.
antrastan
Hm, I think Larison is so persuasive because he writes brilliant prose, better than almost any blogger’s. He is best at -sounding- authoritative. But do you notice substantially much by way of evidence or argument in the post?
So the fourth comment on Larison’s site is fair.
antrastan
That strikethrough was supposed to be italic.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@t jasper parnell:
Your right. I want a set of press Voodoo dolls for Xmas, so I can stick needles in them for therapeutic reasons.
DougJ
Yeah, but they’re all elitists. Probably shop at Whole Foods with that fat $73-an-hour pay check.
They’re not regular people like the guys who work at Japanese-owned factories are.
t jasper parnell
@demimondian:
Ah, I see, a case of the old I-will-not-either-take-credit-for-the-morally-correct-action dodge so beloved by politicians? Or whatshisname the prosecutor asked him to keep silent?
HyperIon
but…do you think he likes Obama? i don’t think he does. i think he observes carefully Obama’s behavior and doesn’t fall for media and/or necon BS analysis. but i don’t think he actually likes Obama.
Larison voted for the Constitution Party candidate, no? and the CP guy is a religious nutter IMO. (Which gets back to my core position: Larison is smart but goes off the rails on religious matters.)
Geeno
I would LOVE to here the conversation between Rahm and Blago. An angrier, more profanity laced dialog (with a few ‘cocksuckers" thrown in for good measure) I have a hard time imagining.
Comrade Kevin
Off-topic, but I wanted to pass along this thing I saw over on the GOS, about the McCain campaign selling off a Blackberry, forgetting to erase it first!
What a bunch of maroons.
ezdidit
Excellent, Mr.Larison!
Except, you cynically adapt your prose to accommodate your conservative base. Real progressives, i.e., people who came to the table with no money at all, do not jettison their political allies out of convenience. They do it when they sense immorality because to them, the ends do not necessarily justify the means and the means are equally deserving of study and reflection.
It’s really unfortunate that you and so many other cynical pundits cannot find the meaning of that word in your lexicon: MORALITY is not a theory. It has to do with idealism, a vision of how things ought to be and the willingness to hew to those principles and to people even when it is inconvenient or painful. Note how long it took for Obama to “jettison” his relationship with his controversial pastor and you see a man who agonized over the charges and counter-charges. You call the delay in his repudiation of Wright pragmatic? I was amazed that it took so long, for I can match your cynicism in a twinkling. It takes one to know one.
demimondian
@t jasper parnell: Let me backtrack a bit. I don’t doubt that Emmanuel’s office is the original source of the rumor. It’s possible that they were deliberately disingenuous in its wording, and that the interpretation is subtly off. Giving Blagalphabet the shiv would set exactly the right tone, though, so I don’t doubt that he did something. I don’t know, however, exactly what it was.
r€nato
HyperIon, I think it is pretty clear that Larison is not on the same side of the aisle as Obama. However what John seems to value in Larison (as do I), is that Larison can think clearly about a topic without seeing it through the filter of his beliefs, a quality sadly lacking on the right for at least the last 12 years if not longer.
t jasper parnell
@demimondian:
I am not sure I follow. It strikes me that this
Seems fairly clear that RE didn’t tell anyone anything. Now it might be that he did but that he was asked not to repeat it for fear of compromising the "on-going investigation." But that seems unlikely.
r€nato
Once again, I thank FSM these fools did not win the election.
Punchy
At this point. John, the man-love is getting perverse
demkat620
This is the most right part of Larison’s argument. What is most interesting to me of how Obama is handling this, you don’t see his people all over the tv spinning. Can’t get in trouble if you don’t saying anything.
They are truly frustrating the press by not feeding the frenzy.
Gus
I’m glad you included the link to the vlog. I didn’t watch any of it, but it’s nice to be reminded by looking at the smug fuck Goldfarb how glad I am that McCain lost.
JL
@DougJ:
What a good idea. You could make a fortune marketing them.
Jay C
"Messiah Watch"?
Heh.
Barack Obama may not be able to walk on water, but he sure has the trick of being able to levitate above the mud. And has it down pat.
demimondian
@t jasper parnell: Yeah, I know about that quotation, too. The part that makes my ears stand up and go "boing!" is this: "result of some overzealous reporting."
I read that as "well, yes, there’s something here, but what you actually wrote? There’s an error in it somewhere, and you weren’t supposed to release that until next week."
burnspbesq
Alas, the idiocy has now crossed the Atlantic.
As anyone who knows even a smidge about how the criminal justice system works at the Federal level will tell you, the probability that anything in this article is true is somewhere south of .0001. Let’s parse it out.
Who could be a "source close to the investigation?" Someone from the U.S. Attorney’s office or the FBI? Well, they are all subject to Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which flatly prohibits disclosure of grand jury information. Violation of Rule 6(e) is a felony. Surely no one doubts that Fitzgerald would bury anyone in his shop who leaked Rule 6(e) material under the nearest Federal maximum-security prision.
Who else? Blago’s lawyers? Umm, how would they know unless Blago told them? Which would mean that talking about it to the media would constitute a waiver of the attorney-client privilege with respect to the specific things disclosed, and Fitz would undoubtedly argue that it’s a subject-matter waiver. Which would grievously damage any potential defense. At this point, the word "malpractice" should be running though your head.
Why would the Telegraph bite on a story that is almost certainly an utter fabrication? Well, it is the Toriest of all the Tory papers. It’s the New York Post in a bespoke suit and a Turnbull & Asser shirt. That’s why.
J. Michael Neal
I don’t think that this has anything to do with Fitzgerald asking Emanuel to do anything. It doesn’t do Rahm’s position any good for him to say that he dropped the dime. It does his position a whole lot of good for people to think that he did, but actually saying it, not so much.
All of that is true whether or not Emanuel did call Fitzgerald. I tend to suspect that he didn’t; it’s just too convenient a storyline. He’s more than happy to let people think he did, though.
MNPundit
You know I think I figured it not that long ago. Obama really is non-ideological. He looks at problems and tries to figure out the best way to solve them.
And since reality has a well-known liberal bias, he often comes up with more liberal solutions.
NonWonderDog
@Geeno:
Kossacks have their idea of how it went down. No "cocksuckers," though, which is disappointing.
Will Hunting
I think we need a posting folder at balloon-juice called "John’s Larison Mancrush"
rikyrah
I believe I respect the President- elect, because I have been in awe of his political skills from the beginning.
Why, being from Chicago, I respect Obama more than most.
Obama is no innocent, but considering that he’s been involved in Chicago and Illinois politics – he’s one of the cleanest to come from Illinois.
You’d have to understand Chicago and Illinois to understand how many bullets he dodged.
He was never an Alderman.
He was never a Committeeman.
He was never a Cook County Board Commissioner.
(ALL of these are roads filled with bribes, and a tape recording sometime in the future).
When he knocked out Alice Palmer, I said AMEN. I loved that he showed ruthlessness, and I loved that he wasn’t going to do the tried and true thing of ‘ waiting his turn’. I was more than tired of Black politicians believing that they OWED their political seats, and how DARE anyone think about challenging them. The arrogance of Alice Palmer to just expect someone to give up running for State Senate, because her attempt at Congress failed. Too bad. Find something else to do, but to expect someone else to put off their ambitions -puleeze. THAT’s when I first noticed Obama, and began to root for him.
He WAS a State Senator, and not in the State House. In the State Senate, he found a Black man willing to mentor him politically.
In the State House, he would have been sent out into the field to toil for Massa Michael Madigan. (and yes, I do mean MASSA)
Even though he was a prolific State Senator, he wasn’t part of Senate Leadership. (which had the hookups to the committees, and the appointment of contracts).
He LOST the Congressional race to Bobby Rush ( a stroke of luck that he would thank later.)
By the time Obama got SERIOUS power – as a U.S. Senator – he could be ‘detached’ from Illinois politics, and set up levels of barriers between him and the serious crooks.
That’s why I LOL at folks who wanted him to run for Governor of Illinois. – HELL NO – wayyy too many opportunities to find people that can trip you up.
Last thing: Barack Obama was elected from the only place in the city where he would be credible to ‘reformers’, and ‘Black folk’. Now, he could have probably been elected as a ‘ reformer’ from some North Side District. He would have had the REFORMER credentials, but be credible to Black folk? A Black man elected by White North Side Liberals?
Um, no.
And, because he was elected from the district that he was, it allowed him a certain bit of leeway, because any other district, and certain ‘ rules’ would have to apply – you know? The North Side Liberals, and Hyde Park Folks were always those ‘ crazy, hippie, White idealists’ -you know, so him talking about ethics and reform was no big deal – he was from ‘ THAT’ district – what did you expect.
The shocking thing isn’t that Blago would try and shakedown a President-elect. The shocking thing is that he would do it, knowing that the guvmint’s been after him for a good 4 or 5 years. Of course, he probably believes he’s drinking from the same well as King Richard Daley, II. As I’ve explained, that man has had practically everyone around him arrested, indicted or sent to jail. The local media has done their job – they’ve uncovered scandals and financial corruption that is chugging towards the HALF BILLION DOLLAR mark, and not a whiff of Richard II being arrested.
Hope I helped.
Limniade
Obama hasn’t done any greatly risky things? You mean, other than running for President of the United States as a black man with the middle name of Hussein? He painted a target on himself that you could see from SPACE.
And then, incredibly, astonishingly, impossibly, outlandishly, and unbelievably, he *won*.
It really doesn’t get any riskier than that.
Ace
With all of these outlandish stretches to make this Senate-shopping controversy reach Obama, we clearly see that the media is conflict driven much more than it is driven by politics . . . well, except for Fox and Rush who would claim Obama is the devil if an evangelist saw a vision.