Preşedintele ales al SUA, Barack Obama, are programată o întâlnire cu fostul lui contracandidat, senatorul John McCain, pe care încearcă să-l atragă într-o colaborare bipartizană. Întâlnirea va avea loc azi şi e probabil că domnul McCain nu intenţionează să-i promită mai mult decât sloganul lui de campanie: „Country first”.
Pe măsură ce parcurge briefinguri şi mai ales de când a început să afle secrete de stat, Obama îşi dă seama că funcţia pentru care (s-)a făcut totul ca să o deţină îl poate depăşi, dacă nu încearcă să împartă responsabilitatea cu cât mai mulţi lideri politici, de preferinţă, rivali din propriul partid şi mai ales, adversari din Partidul Republican. El poate invoca modelul republicanului Lincoln. Pentru a pregăti, în acest fel şi opinia publică să se obişnuiască, treptat, cu gândul continuităţii guvernamentale.
Republicanii sunt în faţa unei dileme majore: să-i lase pe democraţi să-şi frângă gâtul, în frunte cu Obama, ca să se demonstreze că sunt nişte nevolnici, iar dreapta să recupereze supremaţia politică sau să colaboreze cu preşedintele şi să împartă cu el meritul pentru păstrarea supremaţiei Americii în lume.
Americanii sunt pragmatici, europenii sunt cei dilematici.
Ce credeţi că vor face republicanii?
Welcome to Roxania 
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 4:42:31 am
comunist, obama asta… pardon: comunistoid
republicanii nu ii vor acorda sprijinul, dar mccain s-ar putea sa incerce sa se „integreze” intr-o asemenea miscare …
cred ca multe dintre atitudinile lui anterioare arata ca mccain e mai degraba un independent cu idei republicane; in plus, considerind virsta lui inaintata, ii e si lui clar ca, daca vrea sa joace un rol mai semnificativ in politica US, acum e una dintre ultimile oportunitati de a incerca asa ceva
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 6:47:52 am
Asta seara a fost primul interviu cu Obama, pe CBS (60 minutes show). Daca vrei sa postezi interviul il gasesti aici:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/16/60minutes/main4607893.shtml
Gasesti si inregistrarea video si transcriptul. A fost un interviu interesant (chiar si pentru cineva care nu-i este suporter). Nu o pun eu deoarece Marius m-a advertizat ca nu intereseaza pe nimeni ce zice sau face Obama. te las pe tine sa decizi.
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 9:01:42 am
Nu cred ca o sa colaboreze. De dragul tarii probabil ca nu o sa ii faca nici zile negre.
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 10:02:05 am
Era si timpul pentru o colaborare. Bineinteles ca vor exista multe concesii din partea democratilor. Este necesara aceasta cooperare cel putin pana trece criza. Ma bucur ca exista responsabilitate in gandirea conducatorilor Americii pentru depasirea perioadelor negre. Ceea ce nu pot spune despre altii. Si ajungem la vorbele lui Arnold guvernatorul care spunea ca este necesara o modelare a muschilor lui Obama – referindu-se la cei cranieni (chiar daca nu exista anatomic). Figura de stil este revelatoare. Ca o paranteza – si-acum ma bantuie entuziasmul lipsit de fundament al americanilor (am vazut unii actori, pentru care aveam unele afinitati, lipsiti de orice discernamant, exaltati brrr…). Exaltarea, fara baza reala, duce la sinucidere de toate genurile – fizica, morala, economica, sociala si cred ca mai sunt si altele dar nu mi le amintesc.
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 12:29:47 pm
@agaX. Evident că e comunistoid. Dar e în primul rând oportunist. Convingeri n-a avut şi nu are, din fericire, în acest context. El e un puppet în mâinile unor păpuşari. Dar au cotizat şi „ai noştri”. Datoriile sunt împărţite.
Oricum, country first!
Îl desconsideri pe John McCain şi e păcat. Dacă e independent, e oarecum independent de partid, nu de „ideile republicane”, cum spui tu. În partide sunt acolo curente. Şi sunt şi maverici, ca să zic aşa. 🙂 McCain are coloană şi nu va face niciodată nimic care să contravină intereselor Americii şi ale GOP.
Ar fi o performanţă dacă i-ar propune funcţia de secretar de stat şi dacă ar şi accepta-o.
@din Chicago. Mulţumesc. Dv. faceţi cum credeţi, dacă un vizitator, fie el şi Marius, îşi exprimă o opinie, asta nu vă constrânge cu nimic.
@lascaris. Echilibrat răspuns, realist.
@dan. Subscriu.
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 12:46:29 pm
printre altele,
asta am scris eu: „…mccain e mai degraba un independent cu idei republicane”
asta ai replicat tu: „…e oarecum independent de partid, nu de “ideile republicane”, cum spui tu.”
don’t get it …
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 1:03:28 pm
Partidul republican,nu va sustine politica interna si externa a presedintelui democrat ales Barack Hussein Obama,intrucat doctrinele economice ale celor doua partide se deosebesc,iar John Mc Cain,il va refuza!
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 1:36:07 pm
Obama a mers in campanie pe retragerea trupelor(minciuna pe care si-a asumat-o) si acum ,presat de corifeii razboiului antiislamic ,vrea sa-l atraga pe McCain la o colaborare, care sa justifice urmatoarele actiuni militare .Vreau sa cred ca pina la urma,paradoxal, visul american va fi intruchipat de/ in McCain ,nu de/ in Obama…. Vorba aia,probleme Gogule ? Asa repede ?
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 2:15:45 pm
Mc Cain o sa-l bata pe umar la finalul intalnirii , urandu-i :”Good Luck Hussene”
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 2:22:31 pm
Democratii si Obama au dreptul la „privacy”, trebuie lasati in pace sa-si duca la bun sfarsit programele roz-bombone cu care si-au miniti electoraul de fircare data.Clinton a fost o intamplare fericita pentru ei si asta datorita faptul ca Administratia Reagan si Bush Sr. pregatisera drumul neted al economiei americane timp de 12 ani.
Clinton a profitat de „increderea” altei jigodii penale:Alan Grenspan care stiind perfect in ce directie se afla economia americana a preferat sa nu spuna nimic pina dupa alegerile care-l dadeau invingator pe unul dintre cei mai mari excroci pe care Casa Alba i-a gazduit vreodata: William Jefferson Clinton.
GOP trebuie sa se retraga in opozitie si sa lase majoritarii sa se harakirizeze cu propriile arme secrete ,Barack Obama e doar una dintre ele , abia astept sa-i aplaud succesurile.
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 6:26:08 pm
@agaX. Sorry, mi s-a părut că ai zis „de”, nu „cu”. 🙂
@octavpelin. Oricum, country first!
@Radu Humor. 😆 Lasă, e deştept că din start face asta. El dacă va avea curaj să spună că n-a cunoscut situaţia reală şi că nu poate îndeplini ce a promis va fi bine.
@Marius Mina. 😆
Perfectă analiză! Dar prea puţini văd realitatea.
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 6:37:38 pm
Din fericire aici nu ne confundam cu politica de tip dimbovitean, unde ciolanul este singurul scop (cu putine exceptii). Imi pare rau sa va contrazic, dar cind interesele nationale au cerut-o republicanii si democratii came together, lasind la o parte toate rivalitatile. Aici ce se spune in campanie este una, ce se face dupa este cu totul si cu totul altceva (vorbesc de „atacurile” practicate in campanie).
Si ca sa nu ziceti ca inventez iata ce spun istoricii legat de acest subiect:
(Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. )”Can McCain be Obama’s friend in Congress?”
„President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain will meet for the first time on Monday since the election.
The meeting comes at an important time for McCain, who must decide what to do with remainder of his career in the Senate.
With his reputation severely harmed as a result of the campaign – some Republicans furious at him for having lost the White House with a poor campaign and some Democrats furious with the negative tone that his campaign embraced in September and October – he will have an interest in building a positive legacy.
McCain’s best bet would be to form a bipartisan alliance with Obama on as many issues as possible – perhaps with an economic stimulus bill, immigration reform, exiting Iraq and new regulations on Wall Street.
Doing so would help the president secure bipartisan support while McCain would go down in the record books for helping the nation, through legislation, in a time of grave crisis.
Bipartisan alliances usually happen when two people of opposing parties need each other for their own self-interest. This is the situation right now. Obama could use McCain to make sure his legislation survives the Senate. McCain needs Obama to help restore his legacy in political history.
There are not many models for McCain to turn to for inspiration, but he might think a bit about the Republican Wendell Willkie, defeated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.
Though not a legislator, Willkie became a very important ally to FDR after 1940, fighting against isolationism in the GOP and building support for the president’s foreign policy. He traveled around the globe to meet with foreign leaders and wrote a book that promoted the internationalist outlook.
In fact, there is a long tradition of this kind of cooperation in congressional history. We have seen how this can work on foreign policy.
Michigan Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, who coined the phrase „politics stops at the water’s edge,” worked closely with President Harry Truman in 1947 and 1948 to find support in the Republican Congress for the creation of the modern national security state.
In 1953 and 1954, Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson of Texas worked with President Dwight Eisenhower on a series of foreign policy issues. The White House was under attack from conservative Republicans led by John Bricker, who sought to curtail executive power on foreign affairs.
Bricker proposed an amendment to limit the ability of the president to enter into international agreements without Senate consent. Many southern Democrats supported the amendment fearing that the U.N. Charter opened the opportunity for the president to expand civil rights.
Eisenhower thought the amendment would be extremely dangerous and handcuff the president when dealing with foreign policy. He turned to Lyndon Johnson, who brought along Senate Democrats to stifle the measure. Johnson hoped to make Senate Republicans seem like the obstructionists in Washington and to boost his own reputation as a leader.
Johnson’s adviser, George Reedy, explained that the contrast of Republican intra-party warfare and „a dignified but pointed record on all issues” from the Democratic Party would be „potent campaign ammunition.” The strategy worked. Johnson was selected as majority leader in 1954.
These alliances have also furthered the social agenda. As president in 1964, Johnson turned to Illinois Sen. Everett Dirksen to help him push the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through the Senate. In the 1960s, Southern Democrats, who chaired the major committees and were masters at using the Senate filibuster to block bills they opposed, were the chief opponents of civil rights.
So when Johnson pushed for the Civil Rights Act in 1964 he needed Republican support to break a filibuster. He found a partner with Dirksen, one of several Republicans who saw how the GOP could benefit from embracing civil rights as Democrats were divided.
„We dare not temporize with the issue which is before us,” Dirken said in a speech before the Senate, „it is essentially moral in character. It must be resolved. It will not go away. Its time has come.”
Dirksen’s role in the passage of civil rights defined his role in the history books.
Bipartisan, inter-branch alliances have also bolstered the reputation of legislators who tackled unpopular fiscal issues such as deficit reduction. The alliances became less common after the 1970s as a result of polarization in Washington that diminished the role of centrists and the opportunity for compromise.
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush worked closely with House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski to design a deal that cut spending and increased taxes to reduce the deficit. Republicans were furious with the president for breaking his pledge in 1988 not to raise taxes.
Rostenkowski’s career would go down in ignominious fashion as a result of a scandal, but his work on deficit reduction remains a testament to his ability to find bipartisan opportunities in rough, bipartisan waters.
„What’s at stake here?” he asked his colleagues about the deal, „Nothing less, in my opinion, than American self-respect.”
There are many other examples in American history where legislators enhanced their reputations in the history books by working with presidents, including presidents from other parties. This is McCain’s best hope for strengthening his political legacy.
He will likely never be the kind of legislator who becomes a champion of a political ideology – like Ted Kennedy and liberalism, or Newt Gingrich and conservatism – nor is he likely to be the kind of forceful party leader like Tom DeLay or Trent Lott.
But what McCain can do, as he has done in the past with campaign finance and ethics reform, is to team up with the opposition and get legislation through Congress. According to Congressional Quarterly, former Bush and McCain adviser Mark McKinnon has predicted that „Senator McCain’s interest after this election will be not any political ambition but a genuine desire to make his last chapter in Washington all about bipartisan healing.”
Now he has a chance to enhance his mark in the history books, this time with the person who defeated him, and then his legacy would not be the failed political campaign of 2008.”
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 8:00:45 pm
Intilnirea a inceput la ora 11am (central time).
Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist , said he expects the former rivals to „bury the hatchet” when they meet.
„I think John McCain can serve a very important role as a liaison in the Congress to Republicans, and I think he’ll be willing to do that,” Rollins said.
Obama last week met with two former rivals for the Democratic nomination – Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Bill Richardson – about the secretary of state position in his administration, sources told CNN.
Rollins said Obama’s meeting with Clinton „makes the Democratic Party very powerful.”
„I think it shows Barack Obama’s a bigger man than most people in the sense that he’s willing to take the person who gave him a real race for his money into his Cabinet,” he said.
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 9:18:41 pm
2 minutes ago:
President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain said Monday that Americans are looking for leaders who will come together and „change the bad habits of Washington.”
In a joint statement issued after their first meeting since the presidential election, the former rivals said they hoped to work together on challenges like the financial crisis, creating a new energy economy and protecting the country’s security.
„At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time,” the statement said.
„It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family,” they said.
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 10:13:50 pm
Cred ca asta o sa va intereseze pe toti (legat de cei 700bilion bailout):
(from FoxNews)
„Paulson Tells Congress Obama Will Control Half of Bailout Funds
The Bush administration has told top lawmakers it does not plan to use at least half of the $700 billion bailout fund that Congress approved this fall to aid the financial industry, congressional officials said Monday.
These officials said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson passed the word over the weekend that he intends to leave $350 billion untouched when the administration leaves office on Jan. 20. That would mean the incoming Obama administration would decide whether and how the funds should be spent.
The disclosure comes at a time when Democrats are working to pass emergency legislation to spend $25 billion of the bailout money to provide loans to the battered auto industry.
These officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose the developments.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto neither confirmed nor disputed their account, adding that any decision about the use of the remaining $350 billion were up to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
„He said he’s working to continue to design and develop programs, and when it’s the right time to use them Treasury will announce it. And if it then makes sense to go to Congress, he’ll recommend we request to drawdown the second $350 billion,” Fratto said.”
Luni 17 noiembrie 2008 la 11:21:50 pm
@din Chicago. Ştiu că republicanii au dreptate: country first!
Poate daţi şi sursele – linkuri, etc.
Deci, cum spuneam, nimic la întâlnirea Obama-McCain. O declaraţie ca o apă de ploaie.
În schimb, referitor la declaraţia lui Paulson, jocurile sunt împărţite, totul e bipartizan când vine vorba de bani.
Marți 18 noiembrie 2008 la 12:58:55 am
Nu chiar toti o au pe cea cu „country first”:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/14/gop-senator-mccain-betrayed-republican-principles/ p” „We have to be honest, and there’s a lot of blame to go around, but I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I’m afraid I even have to mention John McCain,” he said.
DeMint offered a long list of complaints about McCain’s record in the Senate and on the campaign trail.
„McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver’s seat,” DeMint said. „His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn’t fit the label, but he was our package.”
„Bush and Stevens, he said, had corrupted the party brand by expanding the size of government and engaging in wasteful government spending. Had Republicans not strayed from their core beliefs in recent years, DeMint argued, the election results might have been different.”
„Americans do prefer a traditional conservative government,” he said. „They just did not believe Republicans were going to give it to them.”
DeMint said he would introduce a Senate resolution next week to boot Stevens out of the Republican caucus, and „force votes” on Senate seniority rules that have allowed certain members to hold onto power. However, DeMint twice confused Ted Stevens with Ted Kennedy, drawing chuckles from the audience of Republicans, who hold neither senator in particularly high regard.
„One of our principles is that power corrupts, and you need to disperse it,” DeMint said. „And if our own party allows ourselves to be destroyed by this idea, and are not willing to stand up, then we have to change everyone at the top.”
Marți 18 noiembrie 2008 la 1:45:42 pm
@din Chicago. Am vorbit de partid. Şi are dreptate DeMint. Eu sunt adepta liniei dure a GOP.
Marți 18 noiembrie 2008 la 5:57:20 pm
@Roxana. Dreptul tau. Dar chiar sa te intorci cu artileria grea impotriva lui McCain eu zic ca este prea de tot (nu de tine vorbesc, ci de DeMint).
Eu cu democratii find as putea spune „cu atit mai bine, incurca-i drace”…dar nu o fac. Indiferent de optiunea mea politica sint personalitati in acel partid care nu vreau sa le vad terfelite. Si nu toti la cei care ma refer sint de partea lui Obama (ca sa nu ma intelegi gresit).
Marți 18 noiembrie 2008 la 7:27:57 pm
@din Chicago. Înţelesesem că la DeMint vă referiţi. Dar ştiţi, sunt necesare astfel de dezbateri, sincere, deschise, dure, în care să-şi zică tot ce au de zis şi pe urmă să treacă la fresh start. Amintiţi-vă că în 2004 PD-ul american era praf, distrus, pur şi simplu. Mult mai rău decât sunt republicanii acum.