Getting out of the Iraq war and fixing the economy is important, yes. But I am also going to judge Obama by the way he carries it out. I just don’t want him fixing the economy for the short haul. He will have to seriously address issues like American people’s negative savings, conspicuous materialistic driven consumption that is plundering the environment, our addiction to oil, toxic industrial animal farms, credit card interest rates etc etc. And he is going to have to fix the economy with the direction of going green. Otherwise he may be able to fix the economy and create jobs, but if the above mentioned issues are not addressed, then his election as President would be no different than the election of ones who came before him. And in the words of Walter Sobchak, we will entering a world of pain. I know that so far he has said he expects more “green” cars from Detroit and the idea to build more green jobs, so I am cautiously optimistic. Lets see what he does on that end.

Personally I care about the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. I used to live in the Middle East and it pains me to see both sides suffering, especially the Palestinians. So far American foreign policy has more unambiguously pro-Israel, and with the advisors Obama has chosen so far, I am even more pessimistic that he going to do anything about it….on his team so far he has Hillary, Rahm, Holbrooke, Dennis Ross and others who are unabashedly pro-Israel and so I doubt there is going to be any change in the way the Middle East crisis is going to be approached. At best, Obama’s foreign policy wont be rabidly pro-Likud as Bush’s has been. I was very optimistic when Obama announced he was running because it seemed to me that he would seek a different approach to the entire Middle East, but he changed tune in order to pander to the pro-Israel constituency. Hillary had clearly expressed her wish to pulverize Iran and her appt as Sec of State still troubles me. I guess we have to wait and see if Obama’s sudden agressive stance against Iran was just political quarterbacking or if he really meant it.

To be honest, I am tired of this argument I have been hearing about “Obama needs to appoint more minorities” now. I just want competent people in his administration. We saw what happened with Bush’s appointing more Bible thumpers to his administration to please the religious right. This is not a “this is our turn” game where each racial group has to play some sort of showmanship because “their” man/woman won. all of America came together to vote for Obama, and even if white folks didnt vote for him in overwhelming numbers, they did vote for him. And now we shouldnt scare the rest of the 49% of Americans who didnt vote for him by screaming “appoint more minorities”. That is the genius of Obama. He knows how to bring people together regdless of whether they support him or not and show them that is human, just like the rest of us. Albeit a very smart one.

Chris Lu for Cabinet Secretary (liason between executive departments) is Chinese American.

Valerie Jarrett for White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison, she is African American.

Patrick Gaspard for White House Political Director, he is Haitian American.

Latino Raul Grijalva is an AZ dem in the house of representatives who is under consideration for Interior Secretary.

For the white women don’t forget Napolitano and Moran. And Emmanuel is Jewish.

smells like affirmative action

I swear that Republicans choose incompetent POC and women to discredit us all!

I’ve harbored that suspicion a time or two myself. Dana Perino gives all us blond white ladies a bad name…

Bimbo slice, I think you are misunderstanding. I am not saying that he needs to appoint tokens and cronies the way that Bush did. I hope you will agree that there are intelligent and able POC, white women, gay people, etc? Then there should never be an overwhelmingly white hetero male dominated executive branch especially in a Democratic administration. There should be a good mix of qualified people from all backgrounds.

I swear that Republicans choose incompetent POC and women to discredit us all!

Could that be the real reason behind the Sarah Palin pick? :)

smells like affirmative action

And there is a good reason for affirmative action.  It’s hard to hire qualified minorities for a position if no minorities are ever in a position to become qualified.

Another Donna—I don’t think you need to worry.  Obama will hire a diverse group.  I seriously doubt he would be comfortable surrounding himself with just old white men.

right on Another Donna!

Hi folks, Mrs. Polly here, annoyingly copying and pasting this. Forgive if you see it on different threads, but I don’t want anyone to miss it.

Hi everyone, I’ve got something important to announce FOR NEW YORK STATE RESIDENTS:

I live in a Mitchell-Lama state-subsidized co-op in lower Manhattan, and they are having a lottery for SPACES on a WAITING LIST for studio and three-bedroom apartments, DEADLINE DECEMBER 16, 9AM. There are 250 slots for studios, and only 25 slots for 3 bedrooms (not many of those).

They’re “middle-income” apartments, but the guidelines haven’t changed in a dog’s age.

I don’t care if he hires inanimate carbon rods. We need people in there who know what they’re fucking doing. We’ve had eight years of people who (regardless of color, ethnicity or gender) were given jobs because they could clearly recite a loyalty oath to the President of the United States while they had Bush’s balls in their mouths.

Alberto Gonezales, Alphonso Jackson, Lurita Doan, Nancy Nord, Condoleeza Rice. Hell, throw Mike Leavitt in there, he’s Mormon. Is this a diverse group?

In one way, yes. In another, far more important way, no.

Because they’re all incompetent asshats who shouldn’t have been allowed near a lever of power more critical than a light switch.