So Much for Three-Dimensional Chess!

For those convinced that every time Barack Obama make’s an inexplicable move (like Hillary Clinton for State, keeping Robert Gates as Def Sec, or using his influence to enable Joe Lieberman to stay in the Dem Caucus), he must have a complex plan that involves so many future moves that nobody else is smart enough to figure them out, I think Tom Daschle’s withdrawal for HHS kind of ends that line of argument.

Barack Obama may be inspirational and brilliant, and certainly he is worlds above what we’ve had leading us in Washington for the last 8 years, but there’s no way Daschle’s withdrawal amid a cloud of controversy can be spun as more evidence that Obama is way ahead of us all in his strategic planning!

This proves that Obama’s judgment is fallible, and I say this knowing it’s a statement Barack would accept and agree with. In fact he has said as much, admitting in a recent speech that “there will be setbacks and false starts,” and accepting responsibility for the vetting failure that caused him to lose a key cabinet choice.

It also proves that the most important role for Obama’s supporters, going forward, is not to sit back and wait to see what the chess master Obama will do, but to make known our wishes, even when they don’t mesh with Obama’s stated policy goals. We should express our skepticism when his methods for achieving our preferred goals seem to call for skepticism.

Like, say, when he nominates an anti-labor Republican as Commerce Secretary knowing full well the Democratic Governor is only going to appoint another Republican!

“Bipartisanship” may sound great on paper, and in fact it may be Obama’s quickest and best chance of fixing a sick and dying country. But until Republicans, and even Blue Dog Democrats, show that they view “bipartisanship” as something other than a one way street to getting more of what they want (i.e.: not the change we’ve been hoping for), I find it hard to envision a successful strategy that doesn’t ultimately end up marginalizing conservatism conservative obstructionism to the fringes of social acceptability, and creating something approaching “unipartisanship” toward progressive leaning Democrats.