Hillary Clinton should not become Obama’s
Secretary of State, but should remain in the Senate instead, working to preserve unity among Democrats.

Having her on board, working in the Senate to clear the health care initiative, is of far more importance than having her out of the country all the time — regardless of how politically expedient it would be for Barack Obama to have her out of his way.

When the new Congress convenes, Democrats will have a strong majority in both chambers. Not the filibuster-breaking majority they wanted, but still. However, the mere fact that the Democrats will not have such a majority, means that they will still have to make deals with some Republican members of Congress in order to get proposals passed. In that reality, it would be a smart move to have Reid work the Democrats on the left while Clinton works the Democrat ‘Blue Dogs’ and the moderate Republicans. (Okay, the few moderate Republicans that still remain after ‘Bloody Tuesday’ of last November 4.)

Of course, there will be times when Clinton will want to make a fist and celebrate her own, possibly vengeful victories over the Obama White House. So be it; that’s what you get when you essentially copy the old Roman ways of governance. You get a rowdy Senate, with senior Senators who see themselves as the Saviours of the Nation. Again, so be it. Obama will have to deal with it and he probably can, thanks to people like Rahm Emanuel.

The smart old lion of the Democrats, Ted Kennedy, probably sees things the same way and has therefore undercut the entire Secretary of State-game for Obama by publicly asking Clinton to lead the health insurance initiative.

By doing so publicly, Hillary can’t turn the offer down; thanks to her hard work trying to get her own failed health care initiative through Congress back in 1993, turning down Kennedy’s request would be equivalent to her erasing part of her legacy.

And if there is one thing the Clintons hold dear, it is their legacy.

Barack Obama looks set to become the 44th president of the United States. With national and state polls being what they are, McCain can’t win. So it’s time to take a look at what an Obama presidency would be like — and more interestingly, whether such a presidency would truly be very different from Bill Clinton’s presidency. One thing Obama should watch out for, is not making the same mistakes Clinton made.

When Bill Clinton beat contender George H.W. Bush in 1992 and entered the White House, he had everything going for him. He won many ‘Red States’, giving him a solid mandate and a lot of political capital, and he had a Democratic Congress and Senate to boot. Nothing could stop him from rolling out a true Democratic political programme.

Boy, was he wrong.

Guess who stopped him? That’s right: his friends, the Democrats in Congress. When Hillary Clinton went straight for the Holy Grail of Democratism, namely the establishment of Universal Health Care, she behaved like a wild elephant in a porcelain cabinet, crashing and thrashing everything inside. The Republicans managed to sell her plans as being ‘Socialist’ or even ‘Communist’, in the states where incumbent Democratic Senators and Representatives had to defend their seats.

So when majorities of voters in those states came out against Clinton’s health care plans, incumbent Democrats made an about-turn. They wanted changes to the plans. When Hillary Clinton refused, those Democrats – fearful of losing their well-paid daytime job in Washington, D.C. – voted down the plans.

By then, the midterm elections of 1994 were upon them, and the health care debacle was used by the Republicans as paint to colour the Democrats as closet Socialists. That, combined with scandals surrounding some Democrats and a highly effective Republican propaganda campaign, resulted in a ‘Republican Revolution’ that swept away Democratic rule from Capitol Hill for 20 years.

Faced with a hostile Congress, Bill Clinton had to abandon his strategic plans and focus on tactical gains instead. He could no longer win the war for Democratic causes, but could at least try to win some public battles, in order to be re-elected and save his presidency, and thus his legacy. He succeeded for a while — until Monica Lewinsky showed her appetite for cigars, of course.

Fast-forward to 2009. Barack Obama will enter the White House as a Democratic president, very likely backed up by a strong Democratic majority in Congress. Like Clinton, Obama also wants to finally establish Universal Health Care and he will need Congress to sign off on it, too.

The question is: will it?

So far, the similarities between now and 1992 are striking. Just like in those days, there already are so-called ‘Blue Dog Democrats’ in Congress, Democrats hailing from solid Republican ‘Red States’ who will have a hard time convincing their constituencies that a collective public, government programme is not ‘Socialist cockamamie’.

And those are just the incumbent ones. Many more, from even more ‘Red States’, are set to join their ranks on November 4, when Republicans seem set to be ousted in large numbers, in favour of conservative Democrats.

In 1992, when Bill Clinton made introduction of Universal Health Care one of his priorities in his campaign, he failed to get many Representatives and Senators to publicly back that cause before his election. So when he was inaugurated, few members of Congress felt obliged to sign up for his health care plans.

Barack Obama has so far held several meetings with incumbent members of Congress on matters like national security, social security and the economy, but he has thus far failed to get a public commitment from them on his health care plans. He also hasn’t asked first-time contenders in the Red States, who seem to be sailing to victory, to sign up.

That could spell trouble. It would be very wise for Obama to get those public commitments now, also from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid, before the election is held. It is very important that at least those plans finally get turned into law, because the financial crisis, the deep recession and the enormous damage done by the criminal Republican administation, will already put a strain on Obama’s treasury.

He will have to make some tough choices, ditching some plans to save others. But it could very well be that ditching his universal health care plans – one way or the other – will force him to make the same decision Clinton made: abandoning the war in favour of winning some battles.

Napoleon Bonaparte made that decision during the difficult years of 1813 and 1814, and he lost the war. Just like Bill Clinton did. Let’s hope that Obama is the smarter one.

Whoa Johnny! John McCain is suspending his campaign, and he wants this Friday’s debate cancelled so that he and Barack Obama can “concentrate on the economy” in “bipartisan fashion”, so that they can “act as Americans, and not as Democrats and Republicans”.

Something happened in McCain’s Campaign HQ, that much is clear. Just 48 hours ago, the first polls that were showing movement by the electorate towards Obama were trickling in. Just 24 hours ago, a steady stream of big polls noted swings of 3 to 5% to Obama. And then, today, a veritable avalanche of local, regional and national tracking polls showed that the swing was now 5 to 7% towards Obama!

Somebody in McCain HQ woke up, looked at the polls, scratched his head, looked at the polls again, whistled a tune, and reached for his mobile phone to tell his boss that “Mr Senator, we have a problem”.

The problem: the news has been almost solely about the economy the past week. The economy is of course Obama’s strong suit and McCain was seriously losing ground in the polls because of it. The Economy is the one major, central issue on which McCain simply cannot beat Obama. As said on this blog before, Team McCain has done everything to try to neutralize the issue in the eyes of voters.

And so now, suddenly, Senator McCain — the man who in the past months went from the Straight Talk Express man to the Cheap Mud Salesman without a moment’s hesitation — is suspending the campaign, in a most cynical effort to claim the leadership mantle on the economy.

And that after Obama had suggested that they simply put out a non-partisan, joint statement, urging Congress and secretary Paulson to agree on the emergency rescue plan as soon as possible.

Instead, McCain’s team yelled “Eureka!” and slammed McCain on television, where he announced that he is suspending his campaign and going to Congress.

It is sickening.

McCain once had a soul, until he hit an election crossroad, met the Devil and sold it. This man, this Senator, always prided himself on his cleanliness, his political sobriety. It is the man who infamously said of the mudslinging by his then-competitor, Mitt Romney: “Never get into a mud-wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”  But who had no problem whatsoever to become a pig of enormous proportions.

And so now he is desparately trying to remove The Economy from the front pages by neutralizing it, so that he can go back to attacking Obama on other issues, issues where McCain is strong. In the process, McCain may be hoping that the focus on his and Obama’s return to Washington will bury the polls, which the coming days are sure to show more Obama gains.

Utterly disgusting. For America and the world, I sincerely hope that the financial crisis is resolved soon, but I also hope that people will see through McCain’s smokescreen, and see his actions for what they’re trying to hide: desparation.

But then again, Bush was elected twice, too… So I don’t have high hopes at all.

John McCain is desparately trying to neutralize the economy as the dominant issue in the presidential election campaign. To that end, he changes tack whenever the winds of opportunity demand it.

Two weeks ago on Monday, he said that the government should not bail out AIG. But Wednesday, after Barack Obama more or less came out in support of the bailout, McCain suddenly supported it.

Last Friday, McCain made several public statements about his plans for the economy — and his ‘plans’ seemed a combination of what Treasury secretary Henry Paulson had been proposing, what Obama said, and what Congress want.

Now, McCain has come out and said what he feels should be changed in Paulson’s plan. And again, McCain’s proposals are a carbon copy of what most Democrats on the Hill have been saying, and what has been emanating from Team Obama for several days.

Of course, Obama came out officially stating what he feels should be changed — which is almost exactly what his co-Democrats on the Hill want, which is logical as Obama is a Democrat too — and now McCain is yappin’ like a little kid that Obama is copying his ideas!

It seems to be policy in the McCain camp.  Whatever the plan or idea, if it clashes with popular opinion, don’t mention it. Stick to whatever’s popular instead, and stick to it like velcro.

During the weekend, Democrats and Obama started objecting to some points in the Paulson, and guess what? McCain started objecting, too. Then on Monday, Democrats wanted the government to impose bonus and pay limits on CEOs of investment banks that are being bailed out.

And almost immediately, there was Mr Deregulator, John McCain, who said that he too is now in favour of pay limits. PAY LIMITS!? John McCain, a Republican, wants to regulate the pay of CEOs of private companies…???

Is John McCain the second coming of Karl Marx? Not even Newt Gingrich can believe what McCain is saying these days.

But of course, the Anybody But Obama crowd can. They’ve never even heard of socio-economic ideology. All they know is what they’ve been told by their parents, and that is that anyone titled ‘Democrat’ is an instrument of the devil himself. And so they’ll vote for McCain.

And so it will be.