Entries for November 2008

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

While Barack Obama has taken pains to say that we have only one president at a time, his rolling pronouncements about the economy have prompted some commentators to wonder whether we might have two. But the terrorist attacks in India starkly remind us that while George W. Bush may be forgotten, he's not yet gone—we do indeed have only one president right now, and it ain't Barack Obama. (Bonnie's assertion of his irrelevance notwithstanding.)

Obama can make economic pronouncements and will next week introduce his national security team, but it's still Bush who calls the shots on U.S. response to the incident. If you have any doubts about a lame duck president's power, recall George H. W. Bush committing U.S. troops to Somalia in December 1992, a mission that would have huge repercussions months later in the Clinton administration.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

MSNBC is doing a segment right now about where the Obamas should worship, and are reporting that churches around town are angling to host the (sigh) first worshippers. Seriously? "What church?" is like "what school?"—barring a really crazy Obama decision (sending the kids to a Pakistani madrassa in the one case or bringing Jeremiah Wright to town for special Oval Office sermons in the other) people should lay off and let them make what are ultimately personal decisions without the benefit of excessive public scrutiny. As Sam said the other day: Butt out.

Barack Obama got his campaign money through tapping a huge small-donor network, right? Mmm, maybe not.

The Campaign Finance Institute released a new study that tallied "small donors," whose repeated contributions made them medium- or large-size donors. And the study—partially—punctures the myth of the small Obama donor. And it leaves a couple of questions unanswered.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

The New York Times's David Carr had an interesting column yesterday on Google's appeal: how one is willing to fritter away bits of privacy in exchange for Google's services. (Put another way: No, GMail is not "free"; neither are the Google Maps, Google Calendar, or the host of other popular services—but instead of a cash transaction, you're bartering away bits of information about yourself.)

Why don't we view Google as a malevolent corporate overlord in the manner of, say, Microsoft? Part of it lies in the answer one Google executive gave to Carr: You can pick and choose which bits of Google-ware you want to use; Microsoft got in trouble when it tried to bind you to all its products by making them one seamless group. Google can be seamless or modular. And Google grins goofily while doing it. But more on this answer in a second.

Before I go any further, I want to be clear: I'm a fan of Google. It is successful because its products work well. I asked Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, to write for us on a regular basis (too busy, alas). And God bless it, Google is the source of most of the traffic on the Thomas Jefferson Street blog (you, dear reader, probably got here by Google search, didn't you?). I use GMail and Google Maps. But . . .

I still found the answers Carr got about privacy concerns and dealing with one megacorporation unsatisfying.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

Has William Kristol recently received a sharp blow to the head? Have I? These questions are prompted by the fact that his Times column today on fixing the economy is actually sensible and worth reading.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

So Hillary Clinton will reportedly be the next Secretary of State. It's a strong choice for reasons that Jack Farrell wrote on Thomas Jefferson Street earlier in the week.

As with the Lieberman wrist-slap, it will be important to watch this as the spotlight moves on. What does the rest of the State Department team look like? Are they Clintonites or Obamacons? Part of the answer of course is that it's Obama's administration, so they're all Obamacons. But it will be interesting in terms of intra-administration politics.

Stay tuned.

Here's a lineup you could have caught at the National Press Club Tuesday night but won't be likely to see again anytime soon: politico-cum-historian Alvin Felzenberg, blogger/U.S. Newser/pretend-historian Robert Schlesinger, and retired professional wrestler Bret "Hitman" Hart.