My guess (actually it’s been my hunch for a while) that Mr. Obama might have more problems with the “Left” of his party than with the “Right” of the other guys. (That was even more my hunch when I heard his first named “go to guy,” Chief of Staff, would be Rahm Emanual, not exactly a wilting flower. I thought, “Maybe my hunch could be correct.”)
Already there are grumblings about Mr. Obama’s foreign policy team, not so much from the “Center Right” folks, but from the “Left Leaning” folks. Sigh.
This is my guess. When President-Elect Obama got his first intelligence briefing, he might have said to himself, “I knew things were bad, but, Oh my, this really and truly is a terrifying foreign policy world.” And folks like Mr. Gates (Secretary of Defense) were asked to stay on for the good and safety of the country. What Mr. Obama would call a “practical,” not a partisan thing. (Actually he most likely would not call it a “thing,” far too many smarts to sound like Dr. Seuss.)
So here is one of my favorites, what I would call the ever eccentric (I’ve always liked eccentric people), ever outspoken, to the Left, Congressman from Massachusetts, Mr. Barney Frank:
“‘It would be very helpful if the president-elect would become more involved in resolving the issue over the source of the funds,’ he (Barney Frank) said.”
(No offense to Mr. Frank, but President-Elect Obama has been kind of busy lately, with trying to put together a new administration and everything.)
Mr. Frank goes on to say, “Having lived with this very right wing Republican group that runs the House most of the time, the notion of trying to deal with them as if we could be post-partisan gives me post-partisan depression,” … (The entire article from the Huffington Post can be read here.)
I can’t help wondering whether Mr. Frank’s good old North East (reminds me of a good old New Yawker) combative spirit, might be part of the reason, although not all of the reason, there has, to my knowledge, not exactly been a “love fest” between Mr. Frank and the Republican Right.
And that, hope against hope, Mr. Obama’s calm, practical, (and let’s not rule out tough, don’t forget Mr. Emanuel), inclusive, problem solving approach, not to mention scary melt-down times, could be slightly more effective than the, at times, entertainingly “bombastic” style of Barney Frank.