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sideshow.me.uk - 12/1/2008

I've got a theory we should work this out

— sideshow.me.uk — Digby knows our place : The problem for the left isn't Obama, per se, it's that the... political establishment, including some members who are now populating the Obama administration, see the left as the Omega wolves of the American political pack. They ... (more) I've got a theory we should work this out

White House

Barack Obama

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"Obama's Secret Plan" Theories Still Thriving
Open Left - Front Page — Theories about how Obama will govern in a much more progressive manner than his policy proposals, his top advisors, and his campaign rhetoric have demonstrated remarkable staying power over the last year. In December of 2007, Mark Schmidt became the public face of the "Obama is a secret progressive" theoroticians when he described all of Obama's campaign rhetoric as a non-literal subversion: ...

Can Minimalism Be Transformative?
TalkLeft — ... One of the major concerns I had about now President-Elect Barack Obama (when he was candidate Obama) was his then apparent adherence to a theory of transformative change that would be post partisan. I think post-Democratic Convention Obama utterly abandoned that approach and as President-Elect, his rhetoric has been bold and progressive. No doubt some of this is attributable to the incredible challenges the country faces. But perhaps this has been his plan all along - the Mark Schmitt Theory of Change. At any rate, President-Elect Obama is a far cry from the Post Partisan Unity ...

How Obama's Tax Cut Gambit Is Shrewder Than You Think
The Stump — ... In a sense, this is an early application of the "theory of change" Obama hinted at during the Democratic primaries, which American Prospect editor Mark Schmitt  brilliantly sized up. Back then Schmitt wrote: ...

Sound and Fury, Signifying -- What, Exactly?
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — ... By "means" I refer to a "theory of change", by "mode" I refer to something close to a style or even a brand. These definitions are of course complementary, although there are some politicians (Barack Obama probably among them) who borrow from the populist brand without really endorsing its mechanisms. ...

Outrage Works
Open Left - Front Page — ... Mark Schmidt presented these three theories back on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. I think his diagnosis of the three theories remains accurate, even though the end of the primary season makes their continued attached to the three candidates less relevant. ...

What Would a "Bipartisan" Obama Look Like? (Hint: A Lot Like the One We're Seeing)
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — ... the term, should not necessarily be confused for "compromise". Rather, it implied behaving in good-faith -- hearing out opinions from different sides of the aisle and identifying the best ideas regardless of their partisan origin. Bipartisanship, to Obama, was a process rather than an outcome. He could plausibly have been acting in a bipartisan manner, even if he hadn't gotten many Republicans to go along with his agenda. As Mark Schmitt wrote in his excellent article on the Obama's "theory of change" in December 2007: ...

The Three-Body Problem And The Axis of Moderation
Winds of Change.NET — ... I think the answer to Mr. Kuttner's conundrum can be found in an article, ironically enough, by one Mark Schmitt, who happens to be executive editor of, you guessed it, The American Prospect. Way back in December 2007, when supporters of both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards were pummeling Obama on what they deemed was the wishy-washiness of his bipartisan appeal in the face of so nasty an opponent, Schmitt published an influential (among liberals) argument, "The 'Theory of Change' Primary". In it, Schmitt argued that liberals were "too literal in believing that ...