Reply #20: I was a tad guilty

[zipplewrath]

When they first started, I raised an eyebrow, but thought that I had to be realistic and understand that alot of the "qualified" people were going to be folks from the Clinton Administration. He could still "lead" them towards where his vision was. When I saw a few folks like Dean get totally ignored, I thought that there was probably still some "bad blood" and it wasn't particularly indicative of anything. I said Rick Warren was just a "rookie mistake". And in July, when he was signaling that the Public Option was dead, I was sorta like Dean and just thought it was a bit of stage managing to get it out of committee, and the senate.

But by deep in the fall, with the escalation in Afghanistan, the torture photos, his defense of the toturers, and his speech on Gitmo, it was starting to become obvious that I was kidding myself. Spector and Lincoln just solidified it all for me. Truth is, McCrystal is a classic example. His "sin" was basically suggesting the policy wasn't working. Instead of taking it as an opportunity to get out, he fired the guy and looked for someone who could ensure that we would keep trying anyway.

He's a centrist getting exactly what he wants. If anything, he is frustrated by constantly being pulled left, as we see in how hard he has to be pushed on DADT.