Last night on The Rachel Maddow Show, Ms. Maddow lamented the choice of Rahm Emmanuel as Chief of Staff as a sure sign that Barack Obama had succumbed to Beltway Politics As Usual; thus; there was now no hope of real Change®. She asked to be "talked down" by a guest commentator (from her hysteria, I guess), and he gamely tried without noticeable effect. Well, let's face it; it's pretty obvious all is lost, isn't it?
At least we gave Barack a fair shot. It had been nearly 48 hours since the election was called in his favor, and the pundits, bloviators, bloggers and other members of the Permanent Commentariat had waited a decent interval before pronouncing Barack's presidency dead. You can't wait forever, after all. And the choice of Rahm Emmanuel, who's the brother of the guy who serves as the model for super-agent Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage," well, what more can you say? The Obama Presidency is doomed. Rahm is "tough." Some say he's ruthless, a hammer, that he once sent a dead fish to a Republican opponent, in the style of "Godfather I." Barack's so nice we were all expecting him to appoint someone like Mr. Rogers to the post of Chief of Staff.
What's the computer IM expression? Oh yeah: STFU. Shut The F*** Up. Not that there is any chance whatsoever of that. The blogosphere and the 24-hour news cycle of cable television were kicked into permanent high gear by the outrages of the Bush Administration and there's no going back now. Everyone loves the sound of their own precious opinions too much - hey, I ought to know. But still: don't you think it would be a good idea to allow Barry the chance to take the oath of office (which he will actually uphold, by the way), settle into the Oval Office and, like, do the job for a year or so before we summarize his presidency?
People are writing blogs like mad right now with titles like "What Barack Must Do in His First 15 Seconds in Office." "Nine Critical Tasks During the Drive from the Inauguration to the White House." "The 223 Most Important Issues for Michelle Obama to Consider in Assuming Her Role as First Lady." "Melia & Sasha: What Should Be Their Role in Barack's Foreign Policy?" "The White House Puppy: Would a Black Dog Be Too In-Our-Face?" "Barack & Basketball: Should He Post Up Once in a While or Just Keep Firing Away from 3-Point Land?"
Enough already. Let me just note one thing. Yesterday I saw some footage of Barack arriving at a meeting, perhaps his first security briefing. He got out of the back seat of a car, stood for a moment waiting for an aide to join him, and then walked through a door. He was carrying a briefcase, a kind of soft valise, with the strap over his shoulder. Get it? Barack had information with him. He'd been reading. Have you ever seen any film of George W. Bush carrying anything, let alone a briefcase? No, you haven't. It's W's conception of the CEO Presidency. He just listens to other people and then makes the call "from his gut." That gut, at this point, has just about dissolved all of us in its digestive juices. Someone with an intellect, however, knows that one can never understand the essential nature of an issue without running the details through one's own cerebral cortex, and the very best way to analyze information is through the ingestion of data through the reading process. Barack Obama knows this and has always done it. It is why he is such a graceful and fluent writer himself. It is why he was the President of the Harvard Law Review. It is why he was a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.
We have elected a deep thinker, a fast learner and a decent, mentally healthy man as President of the United States of America. Let us sing hosannas from the highest roof tops for now, then stand back and let Barack grow into the job. He's always grown into everything he ever tried. He will not disappoint us here.
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