Good presentation of the the new Cabinet nominees. Biden is really comfortable in the role, calm, funny, reassuring.
read the whole thing https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/democracy-and-accountability But here's the key, for me. "Quite simply, everything that happens during the first two years of the Biden administration must be planned and organized through the prism and organizing principle of the argument Democrats will make to voters in the 2022 midterm election." I think Obama had 2 significant weaknesses, and this was one of them. I hope that Biden, being a creature of DC for well nigh half a century, will have creating a platform for the 2022 midterms in the front of his brain. It wouldn't hurt if it were on the sides and in the back too.
Speaking of latter, did Donald Trump ever face a difficult foreign policy issue? He didn't make major mistakes that i saw (aside from perhaps tearing up the Iran treaty) but I can't recall him facing a major decision either.
Thank God, no. His diplomacy was really, really bad. The guy violated so many norms and strained so many relationships. More than foreign policy, Trump's insanely bad diplomacy will be his real legacy on international relations.
Pulling out of the TPP was dumb. But yeah, most of his stupidity was in the military/nat security realm.
Good point. I truly hope that will be the case. I get a sense as well that the Biden team is much more coherent and cohesive than Obama's first cabinet. Some of those guys have a ton of experience and have been through the process. I am particularly pleased that the CoS is Ron Klain, who is a smarter, more strategic than Rahm in 09 (He was a disaster). Klain knows what is at stake and surely has 2022 in mind as well. The new DNC chairperson will be important as well.
I wasn't thinking about policy, I was thinking about his orientation toward the job. He was really slow to realize just how nihilistic McConnell and the Tea Party were. Climate change! Jamie Harrison is throwing his hat into the ring. He's charismatic and I think has the background to appeal to all factions of the party. But I don't really KNOW alot about the man.
I heard about Jamie H for DNC. Not totally convinced. I would have preferred a proven state leader like Ben Wikler who is doing a terrific job in Wi (i think he may want to run for Senate in 22 though) or a Susan Swecker, the chairwoman or the Democratic party in Va. She has turned the party in a juggernaut in the Commonwealth.
Crimea was annexed under Obama and Donbass is still technically part of Ukraine. It's just occupied by soldiers that are totally not Russian.
Oh, Jesus my timeline is off! I guess the thing was that the time to really put it to the Russians after pulling that stunt was when Trump won. Obama was tightening the screws, and then Trump let off most all the pressure.
Hope things work out for Warnock and Osoff in Ga. That may be one of the best ads I have seen lately though. He wins. https://t.co/0FwYK9FRVo— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) November 25, 2020
Insanely close race still being counted in Iowa. There are unconfirmed reports that Hart is on track to pick up 26 votes in Scott Co.'s recount, 9 votes in Jasper Co. and has picked up 1 vote in Clinton Co. so far. That would put Hart (D) ahead by *a single vote.*We won't know until at least Monday. Hey, every vote counts.— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 25, 2020
That is a lot of Republican women flipping districts. We do need more women in government, hopefully they did not flip only democratic women, but also some democrat males.
Crimea? That happened in 2014 officially, before that unofficially. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation
A similarly close race in upstate NY. I suppose both of these races will be in litigation until almost the midterms. BREAKING: According to the vote counts I obtained, I can confirm @RepBrindisi now has 155435 votes, @claudiatenney has 155422 votes.Almost unbelievably, Brindisi now leads Tenney by just 13 votes in #NY22 @WBNG12News— Josh Rosenblatt (@JRosenblattTV) November 25, 2020
The trade war with China seems to me like a major mistake that could have long term repercussions. And, does pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord count as a foreign policy issue?
All of them? He screwed up the US's relationship with our NATO allies, he pulled out of Syria and left our Kurdish allies hanging in the wind, the assassination of the Iranian Guard commander pretty much ended whatever influence we had in Iraq and left our Kurdish allies in Iraq hanging in the wind, the tearing up of NAFTA only to make extremely minor changes and rebrand it to USMCA just so he could claim a win when the only wins were because Pelosi forced him to include things, the complete bungling of the pandemic response not only on the domestic front, but completely dropping the ball on the US's traditional leadership roll in leading the global response to crises, etc, etc. The amount of damage he did to the US's reputation internationally is huge and I'm not sure it is something the US will ever recover from.. Not that I want the US to return to the position it held previously, but it would be nice if the US at least had a voice in world events and Trump pretty much killed that and did it at a time when the world needed a strong unifying voice to respond to a global crisis.