Many bloggers and pundits quickly jump all over any statement or move by Obama that smells of old style politics and some gleefully point out that it makes him seem a hipocrite for his prominently stated intention to change Washington to a new style of politics. Their argument springs from the idea, I suppose, that Obama should exclusively practice his new brand of politics despite the fact that he is seeking office in a world still operatiing under the old rules.
It's time to debunk this preposterous assumption. Consider that just because Obama wants to change politics into a different game, it doesn't mean he does'nt know how to play the old game still in progress.
To be sure, Obama does run his campaign in different ways than traditionally our candidates have done. His stand on PACS and lobbyist money and his extention of it to the DNC feature in this. His consistency in denouncing ad hominem attacks against McCain do so as well.
But the central theme of Obama's new politics is the rejection of wedge politics in favor of unity politics. That is the real Obama brand and he doesn't necessarily act inconsistent with that brand or devalue the change theme of his campaign when he adds more nuance regarding an issue or even shifts a position as events unfold.
There are plenty of things Obama deserves criticism for, not the least his unwillingness to lead Senate opposition to telecom immunity. Let's not hold back the criticism that he earned with his vote: that it is a misjudgment that fails to sufficiently honor citizens' constitutional rights of privacy and the nation, as it always does after adopting such laws, will eventually come to regret so empowering a federal police state. But let's not criticize Obama for being a politician.
We need a President who is a great politician. We need a candidate who has a politician's skills to win the office he seeks. We need a candidate with a politician's skills to forge a governing coalition with the legislative branch.
During the last two terms the current occupant has demonstrated possession of a surfeit of the first kind of political skill, winning office, but who, at the same time, maintained a gunslinger approach to governing that positively eschewed the very idea that anything more than his own will should ever be necessary in order to implement his pet policies of pushing the public fisc into the pockets of the wealthiest among us and putting the regulated entities in charge of the federal administrative agencies charged with policing the enforcement of laws passed for the health, safety and security of the American People. We also must not forget the crony, no-bid capitalism enabled by the Long War and its many secret budgets. Meanwhile, the incumbant and his minions have practiced, without exception, the meanest and most advanced brand of wedge politics ever seen, notwithstanding our rich history of political invective and the politics of division.
Obama's promise of change offers a chance to beat back the practitioners of wedge politics, to restore rule of law in federal regulatory and law enforcement operations, and in the government in general and to end to crony capitalism that has stripped trillions from the public purse. Not the least, he will abandon the Neocon's shoot first approach to foreign policy. He will stop work of the current White House Working Group to Perpetuate Middle East Wars Forever and Shovel the Oil and Profits to Our Buddies in the Awl Biddness. He will immediately start working to get our troops redeployed and out of harms way while still attentively protecting American strategic interests in the region.
Obama's message of change and hope bears no tarnish from the fact that he is, will remain and will govern as a politician. Being a politician, it should surprise no one when Obama sometimes does things that appear nakedly political. He has never promised he wouldn't. Or shall we next criticize fish for swimming?