Obama’s Empty Suit Filled With Clinton Brain Trust

Six members of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team for government operations worked in the Clinton administration, and one of them runs a consulting firm that has listed Freddie Mac as a client. Image Credit: AP

Obama’s Empty Suit Filled With Clinton Brain Trust

What happens when a junior Senator from Illinois campaigns on the themes of Hope and Change, with the thinnest of resume’s and record of accomplishment has to fill a branch, the Executive Branch of government and its’ staff, assumes the highest office in the land?

Why one fills the positions with the staff appointed during the previous presidency held by the political party you come from … in this case, the Bill Clinton 42nd Presidency.

Where is the Hope? Where is the Change?

Of the names being placed for the 47 top positions of the executive branch, 31 of the names were people who served with Bill Clinton whose eight year presidency ended eight years ago.

Where is the shiny? Where is the new? Where is the fresh?

This excerpted and edited from Politico –

The Clinton band is back together
By BEN SMITH & CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 11/14/08 4:48 AM EST

As one Clinton loyalist noted with some satisfaction (if anonymously) on Thursday, Podesta’s role in the transition, and the new prominence of Clinton administration officials, suggests that Obama has absorbed one of Hillary Clinton's talking points: That it takes experience to make change happen.

Thirty-one of the 47 people so far named to transition or staff posts have ties to the Clinton administration, including all but one of the members of his 12-person Transition Advisory Board and both of his White House staff choices.
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The highest-ranking member of the group with deep ties to both Clinton and Obama is [Rahm] Emanuel, a Chicagoan who is very close to Obama and his chief strategist, David Axelrod.

Though the transition is still young, former Clintonites say they feel a change in the atmosphere.

"It's heartening to see that that was just primary rhetoric," said a former Clinton aide of Obama's criticism of Clinton's administration.
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Soon after the primary, top Clinton policy aides, such as economic adviser Gene Sperling, were quietly integrated into Obama's campaign. The only member of Clinton's inner circle to join Obama's campaign staff was her policy director, Neera Tanden.

A campaign's policy shop feeds the bulk of a new administration's appointments: Most of the key positions on White House staff and in executive agencies are policy posts.

But while the Clinton policy shop may feel like the gang is getting back together, the political team has yet to be invited in.

Said one former Clinton campaign aide, "Obama has clearly made a distinction between the small group of Clinton campaign staff, who clearly aren't much welcome, and the large number of Clinton White House personnel who are."
Reference Here>>

With the announcement of Eric Holder being considered for the position of Attorney General, apparently expediency over judgment is the dividing hallmark of which former Clinton White House personnel are welcome (see Marc Rich pardon at end of the Clinton Presidency).

This is the reason why placing someone with previous executive experience (ideally within a construct of civic or state politics) is preferred to bringing a fresh approach to Washington politics than a Senator, any Senator, because the candidate who wins the election for president would staff the “new” executive branch with people who are competent in the workings of an executive effort but from OUTSIDE Washington without the legacy to the way thing were done before.

Where is the shiny? Where is the new? Where is the fresh? Where is the Hope? Where is the Change?

With Barack Obama and the personnel he is picking … it’s SAME-O, SAME-O!

We, at MAXINE believe it's going to be a real fun Carter's Second Term with a heavy spice of Clinton thrown in for good measure.

"Obama Is Going To Pay For My Gas And Mortgage!!!"

I Voted - And I voted in a way that my vote was not purchased through income re-distribution by the federal government or through a four to one commercial buy on television. The Main Stream Media did not suppress my vote or depress this voter even though I live in a bankrupt Blue State that is 18 Billion dollars in debt. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2008)

"Obama Is Going To Pay For My Gas And Mortgage!!!"

This IS the “Obama Effect” most people are looking for.

Yep! An Obama win will signal the end to self-determination, self-reliance, and the uniqueness that has made our country the envy of the rest of the world for the better part of 100 years.

What is wrong with this homemade political fence sign (photographed while standing in line at the polling station)? ... well, the sign is placed over 100 feet from the polling station so that not it ... Oh!, that is a Mercedes-Benz logo placed inside the Obama "O" ... NO, it's NOT a peace sign! We need high retention, better educated voters out here. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2008)

Opportunity will forever spelled with a small “O” because the big “O” will have been taken up with the tax-giveaway space that a Barack Obama presidency occupies.

People, as teenagers, really never rebelled against their parent’s control over their lives in earnest … they could not have been serious, because if they were, they would NEVER vote for an agenda that the Democrats and a Brarck Obama will bring to their lives.

Operation Enduring Freedom - The proven path toward peace. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2008)

The amount of control the federal government will expect if one has a dissenting voice while receiving a handout will become unstoppable.

Rashid Khalidi Unmasked

Rashid Khalidi sees perils for the U.S. in empire building while ignoring its own professional Middle East experts and the history of the region. Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. He formerly taught at the University of Chicago. His talk [at UCLA] was in part to promote his new book, Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East. Caption and Image Credit: UCLA

Rashid Khalidi Unmasked

For some people, the process of judging ones character and the validity of ones judgment must begin with the calculation of affiliation and association.

The Los Angeles Times finds it more important to withhold information to a consuming and curious public at a time when their receipts are way down … subscriptions dropping like a rock, because they understand how important the calculation of affiliation and association really is.

The following article might give a some insight as to why the LA Times will not release the video they have with Barack Obama sharing dinner with Rashid Khalidi. The post carries a link to a shocking video from a Rashid Khalidi lecture and may give insight as to why the Los Angeles Times is running interference for Barack Obama.

Columbia University Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies, Rashid Khalidi's keynote address at the "Palestine: 40 Years of Occupation, 60 Years of Dispossession" conference in Portland, Oregon, on June 23, 2007.

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media -

This Is the Khalidi, Obama Embraced
October 31, 2008 - by Jennifer Rubin

Many others have surmised that the Los Angeles Times is running interference for Barack Obama, declining not just to provide the tape of the Rashid Khalidi goodbye event which Obama attended in 2003, but a complete transcript [assumed, because that is what we are told].

It is reasonable to ask - what could have been so bad about the event ... what could possibly have been so objectionable about the speeches or proceedings that might concern voters at this late date?

Well, the original Times report gives us only the sketchiest account. But now we have a video of a complete Khalidi lecture from June 2007. It is quite an eye-opener.

Viewers curious about the views of the man whom in 2003 Obama gave a “warm embrace” (physically or verbally?) should skip to the fifty-minute mark on the video tape.

You see, Khalidi tells us, the U.S. is repeating the same error of the Cold War in pursuing its war against Islamic terrorists. According to Khalidi it is the same “blind, foolish, reductionism.” And the U.S. policy is designed according to Khalidi to “get Palestinians to destroy one another.” And on it goes.

His view of Israel?

It is worse than “apartheid.” Continue to the end of the tape when he is asked about the massive Israeli media conspiracy headed by none other than Mortimer Zuckerman.

He doesn’t quite buy into that, but his description of American Jews who control the money and votes to manipulate Congress sounds an awful lot like Mearsheimer and Walt’s “The Israeli Lobby.” Or General Tony McPeak for that matter.

So it would be very interesting to see precisely what Khalidi said in Obama’s presence four years earlier. Was the rhetoric above the sort of language which preceded the warm words of praise from Barack Obama? The specifics matter, the context is crucial.

Obama claims he was never present for the anti-American and anti-Israeli rants of Reverend Wright. But he was there for a tribute to Khalidi, and voters should have the right to know if he sat impassively when Israel was vilified or if he seemed concerned when, as the Times tells us, “a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel.” (According to the Times, “If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, “then you will never see a day of peace.”).

Did he seem concerned when “One speaker likened ‘Zionist settlers on the West Bank’ to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been ‘blinded by ideology’”? We don’t know. The Times won’t tell us.

But we should know. Obama has presented a certain face to the voters and we should see if it matches up to the face he showed others before he imagined anyone outside his circle of like-minded comrades might take particular notice.
Reference Here>>

In a Carter's Second Term (if Barack Obama becomes president) ... What role will this association of President Obama's play - would this guy become our chief adviser to the Middle East ... or just the ambassador to the Palestinians?