January 21, 2009

1/21: The Obama Era Begins

Needless to say, liberal bloggers were pretty excited about Barack Obama's inauguration. Even Obama's critics on the left were moved by yesterday's events. It also cannot be emphasized enough how much joy lefty bloggers felt at finally being able to say goodbye to George W. Bush. Indeed, the netroots' happiness yesterday was as much a product of Bush's departure as it was a product of Obama's victory. It was, after all, Bush's disputed victory in the 2000 election that gave rise to the netroots.

Conservative bloggers, naturally, had a far different reaction to yesterday's events. Righty bloggers are criticizing Obama's "pedestrian" speech, blasting Rev. Joseph Lowery's "race-based" benediction, and paying tribute to Bush. Several conservative bloggers are expressing their desire to see Obama fail, either because he is "morally depraved" or because he is "a Trojan Horse for communism to push its nose under and into the tent".

INAUGURATION: Things Done Changed

Liberal bloggers were thrilled about Obama's inauguration:

• Open Left's David Sirota: "I've got policy differences with Obama, I think he's still way too afraid to confront moneyed power, and I've got hopes he'll be more progressive, but let me just reiterate a fundamentally awesome truism worthy of euphoric celebration, because it's only now really sinking in: An African American named Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States. That's pretty amazing -- and pretty awesome."
• Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher: "If America is truly an exceptional nation, there is no clearer manifestation of that than the fact that we had the courage to elect Barack Obama."
• TPM's Josh Marshall: "It is hard not to feel as though I'm under an assault from history, knocking down well-built walls of skepticism, perhaps cynicism, ingrained knowledge that no real and lasting moments of change are possible."

INAUGURATION II: Say Goodnight To The Bad Guy

Liberal bloggers were ecstatic about the end of the Bush Presidency:

• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "Let the joyous news be spread, the wicked old witch at last is dead."
• Mother Jones' Kevin Drum: "I know this isn't quite in keeping with our shiny new postpartisan spirit, but watching Executive One take off almost brought tears to my eyes."
• Obsidian Wings' hilzoy: "I've been trying to figure out what to say about the inauguration, with no success at all. I will only say: it feels like waking up from a horrible dream."
• Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas: "Bye bye Bush. I hope the door hits you on the way out."

INAUGURATION III: Thank You, Mr. Bush

Conservative bloggers, in contrast, are paying tribute to Bush:

• RedState's Directors: "George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney leave Washington today. For eight years they have ably served the nation, keeping us safe. [...] Through it all, George W. Bush remained an affable, likable, profoundly decent man whose political opponents could not understand him because in a Washington, D.C. where people rarely do as they say, George W. Bush governed as he said he would and tried his best to keep his word."
• Townhall's Carol Platt Liebau: "[I]n my judgment, most of [Bush']s decisions -- and especially the big ones -- will be vindicated by history. He did what he thought best for the country, and he kept us safe. God bless him and his family, and thank you."
• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "As we noted here, President Bush's strong anti-terrorist policies stopped a long string of successful terrorist attacks that stretched back to the late 1970s. His record in this respect is truly extraordinary, and he deserves an enormous amount of credit for it. [...A]t present it looks like a good bet that history will record Iraq as a successful foreign policy initiative, and possibly one that started the long process of reforming the Arab world, to everyone's great benefit."
• Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: "On foreign policy, Bush mostly triumphed. [...] On domestic policy, Bush governed from the center. [...] A great president? Likely, no. But George Bush did a good job in a very difficult time, and I think history will eventually treat him with considerably more kindness than present-day media did, or at least fairness, which present-day media never bothered to use. He kept America safe, and whatever his flaws are, Bush had the interests of America in mind foremost. Thank you, Mr. Bush."

INAUGURATION IV: Praying For Failure

Like Rush Limbaugh, several conservative bloggers are expressing their desire to see Obama fail:

• RedState's Leon H. Wolf: "I hope that Barack Obama is a failure as a President. Before you recoil in horror that I could express such a sentiment, allow me to remind you what the pleasant face and smooth rhetoric hide in the case of Barack Obama: they hide a morally depraved and crooked man. [...] A man who has gotten to his position of power by climbing the greasiest and dirtiest ladder in all of politics. [...B]ecause I know who Barack Obama is and what he really stands for, I will oppose everything he does, and I will do so from day one. Who among you will join me?"
• RedState's Warner Todd Huston: "I did not vote for the man. I do not support his socialist ideas. I stand four-square against his votes for infanticide, his votes to gut the Constitutional right to self-protection, his vague ideas of nationalizing various industries, his intention to enlarge government to unheard of proportions and his softening on terror producing countries. And since these are the things his entire life's career point to as probable goals to 'succeed' upon during his presidency...well, I want him to fail. And I want him to do so spectacularly. If Barack Obama is but a Trojan Horse for communism to push its nose under and into the tent, I want him to fail in the attempt."

Morrissey disagrees: "I'm not going to be rooting for his failure, because I'm rooting for America. I believe most people feel the same way; Obama won the election and for better or worse, he's our president. But that doesn't mean that any of us will sit quietly for the next four years or the next four days. [...] When Obama does something right, I'll praise it, but I'll speak up when policies go bad and mistakes are made. That's part of being an American."

INAUGURAL ADDRESS: Hitting The Right Notes

While liberal bloggers weren't blown away by Obama's inaugural address, they felt that its somber tone was appropriate to the times:

• Firedoglake's Spencer Ackerman: "The speech itself wasn't one of Obama's best, but it accomplished its principal goal of establishing Obama as a historical figure who's prepared to take up monumental challenges."
• Sirota: "Obama's speech was, [in my humble opinion], excellent to quite excellent. It sounded the appropriate alarms about the economy and foreign policy, it saluted the historic nature of his election, and it hinted at radical change in policy."
• The Atlantic's James Fallows: "I think that the speech was in fact very well-pitched to this moment in history and the messages Obama wants and needs to send."
• The Reality-Based Community's Mark Kleiman: "Overall, it wasn't Obama's most exciting speech. But it may well have been the right speech for him to give at this moment."
• Arianna Huffington: "It was clear from the beginning that the speech was a warning bell. For me, the most compelling moment of the speech came when he quoted the Bible. While we remain a young nation, he said, 'the time has come to set aside childish things.' There was something very powerful about watching this relatively young man, one of the youngest to ever hold the highest office in the land, telling the American people to grow up."

Several liberal bloggers interpreted the speech as a surprisingly forceful rejection of the Bush Presidency:

• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "[M]y initial reaction is that this was a dense and powerful speech, and a more forceful rejection of the status quo than I'd expected. [...] I didn't see George W. Bush's face at the time, but the new president's remarks were a rather specific rejection of the most recent president's entire worldview."
• Firedoglake's Blue Texan: "What surprised me about Obama's inaugural speech was what a stinging rebuke of Republicanism it was, in particular, Bush era Republicanism. For all the talk lately about how Obama is a 'post-partisan' Democrat, its partisanship was marked, especially in its stark rejection of the notions that the 'free market' cures all and that the rule of law must be subjugated to security."

INAUGURAL ADDRESS II: Underwhelming

Conservative bloggers were not impressed by Obama's inaugural address:

• NRO's Ramesh Ponnuru: "I thought it was pedestrian, and at times petty in its many shots at Bush."
• RedState's Pejman Yousefzadeh: "Given Barack Obama's speechmaking fame, I expected big things. But I have to say, I was disappointed."
• Townhall's Jonathan Garthwaite: "Perhaps I'm not an impartial judge but President Obama's speech seemed very off-key to me. [...] Perhaps the cold got to him but the speech sounded like they were trying to thread the needle of the sobering reality we face and lofty hope and change from the campaign -- and missed the mark."
• AmSpec Blog's Philip Klein: "I thought the speech was a bit flat. To be sure, it wasn't terrible. But it was solid and workmanlike whereas the gravity of the moment and all the buildup suggested he'd offer something more. The idea that we're facing tremendous challenges and can overcome them if we work together is nothing new, and it wasn't a theme that was presented with particular creativity this time around."

ROBERTS: Wasn't He Supposed To Be Unflappable?

Several liberal bloggers chastised Chief Justice John Roberts for making a mistake while administering the Inaugural Oath to Obama:

• Atrios: "Awesome Job, Roberts. Idiot."
• Benen: "The presidential oath of office is quite straightforward, and only 35 words long. [...] Somehow, Chief Justice John Roberts, with the whole world watching, managed to flub it."
• Moulitsas: "It was Roberts' f'up. Reading from a script is hard. [...] The liberal justice didn't flub the vice-presidential oath..."

Firedoglake's looseheadprop downplays the significance of the incident: "Evidently, FOX news twerps are jumping all over the way Justice Roberts fouled up the administration of the oath of office to President Obama. I've been told they are even speculating about whether or not President Obama actually IS legally the president. Give it a break fellas! There have been deviations from the language in the Constitution before -- and not just because someone got tongue tied. On religious grounds, Franklin Pierce chose to 'affirm' rather than 'swear'. Sorry to ruin your daydream Fox Boys, but Obama is truly and legally our president."

LOWERY: Outrage On The Right

Conservative bloggers are blasting Rev. Lowery for including the following sentence in his benediction at yesterday's inaugural ceremony:

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right."

• Hawkins: "[D]id he write that 40 or 50 years ago and promise to read it when the first black President is elected? As far as I'm concerned Joseph Lowery and Barack Obama can both kiss my white ass and shove their pathetic, crybaby grievance mongering where the sun doesn't shine."
• Michelle Malkin: "The 'white would embrace the right?' Who wrote that line? Jeremiah Wright? And what would Obama's grandparents and mother have to say? Like I said last night: Feel the post-racialism!"
• RedState's Jeff Emanuel: "It was likely inevitable that at least one of the many aging leaders of the civil rights movement would use his time in the limelight today to make an effort to keep the embers of the race-based flame wars from being extinguished once and for all. In this case, it was Rev. Joseph Lowery, who used his opportunity to pray before the masses to rehash the long-past ills of a bygone age of racism and inexcusable ethnic discrimination."

GUANTANAMO: An Encouraging First Step...

Lefty bloggers reacted with cautious optimism to the news that Obama is seeking a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving Guantanamo detainees:

• TAPPED's Adam Serwer: "The move is an important first step to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison. Still up in the air is how the Obama administration will handle cases in which the evidence against detainees is tainted by the use of torture."
• Drum: "This only gets two cheers until we see what the current procedure gets replaced with, but it's a good start."
• MyDD's Todd Beeton: "The next (big) question is when will he actually shut Gitmo down? The President has pledged to do so and I hope this will end up being merely step 1 toward fulfilling that promise."
• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "This maneuver will hopefully buy the new administration 120 days to determine how to proceed with the detainees. The best possible course of action, from a rule of law and human rights standpoint, would be what the ACLU is calling for -- the withdrawal of charges and an end to the military commissions process, with cases that warrant prosecution proceeding in regular federal criminal courts. Should the military commissions judges refuse this request, unlikely as it seems, the administration should take more definitive action, such as ordering that the charges be withdrawn."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Obama As The End Of Hip-Hop Culture

The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates critiques Mark Hemingway's claim that Obama's ascension "suggests the era of hip-hop might be ending":

"I've dealt with this silly, silly argument before. The only thing new I have to add is this: It seems foolish to listen and read pundits in a way that suggests they're talking about actual human beings. I know they claim they are, but they're lying -- to themselves, mostly. In reality, the pundit is arguing about two-dimensional caricatures that exist in his head. Only a two-dimensional caricature listens to Tupac [Shakur], and then decides to be a bad father. Only a two-dimensional caricature sees the election of Obama and then says, 'Hmmm, guess this means I can't listen to Jeezy anymore.' Only two-dimensional caricatures say, 'Hmm, got a black president, better pull my pants up.'

In the real world, where real people live, and breath real air, a multitude of forces -- cultural, social, economic, etc. -- weigh on people. Barack Obama will certainly change something about black culture. But anyone who's spent any time around actual people should know better then to act like they know what that is, or how it will play out. These guys are Skip Bayless, telling you who's going to the Super Bowl next year."

LEST WE FORGET: Hillary Clinton Mouthing Along To Presidential Oath

From The Onion:

"WASHINGTON -- Network news cameras covering Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony Tuesday captured Hillary Clinton silently moving her lips along with each word of the minute-long presidential oath of office. As she stood watching several yards from Chief Justice John Roberts, the former Democratic presidential candidate could be observed placing her left hand on a leather appointment book and raising her right hand slightly from her hip. Clinton, who carefully followed the swearing-in procedure with her eyes shut tightly, only varied from the president's words once, when she soundlessly mouthed her name instead of Barack Obama's. Clinton was later seen at an inaugural ball pretending she was dancing with first lady Michelle Obama."

Posted by Ian Faerstein at January 21, 2009 01:10 PM