tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804802152746318140.post8470108312724231605..comments2014-06-07T06:05:19.904+01:00Comments on I Have Two Questions...: Obama's team of centrist rivals...Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022162237032568520noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804802152746318140.post-60173076715478221942008-12-26T19:15:00.000+00:002008-12-26T19:15:00.000+00:00And hello again, from the perennial excuse-maker. ...And hello again, from the perennial excuse-maker. I've got a few days off, at long last, and I had unfinished business on this blog.<BR/><BR/>I'm very much an outsider on this post, and have no business commenting on this! - but for what little it's worth, I've read both of Obama's books, more than once. <BR/><BR/>What I liked most about his ideas was the substantive focus on policy issues, and their merits in that capacity. He seemed to have this ability to acknowledge multiple facets of a problem - often articulating his opposition's arguments with a great deal more clarity than I suspect they might have had themselves - and finding innovative mechanisms to address the substantive claims on all sides of the debate. <BR/><BR/>Perhaps that is what his new bipartisan cabinet is all about - picked more for their clarity and effectiveness in formulating and executing substantive or innovative policy, than for their political affiliations. <BR/><BR/>Again, I acknowledge the danger in commenting on foreign, er, domestic policy. But I have to say that I recognised the relevance of some of his comments to my own country's political scenario. We have a bitterly divided political class, who are quick to abandon substantive policymaking for (or conflate it with) bipartisan point-scoring - and to use the latter to fill the media-space. (The Mumbai strike may have begun to change things.)<BR/><BR/>There's a lot to be said for a leader who can combine different points of view in formulating his decisions. As we learned back in TP1, that is the hallmark of good policy-making.RNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08186223256896404183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804802152746318140.post-11906174344341001982008-12-18T16:58:00.000+00:002008-12-18T16:58:00.000+00:00what do you mean "losing?" where else are they go...what do you mean "losing?" where else are they going to go? is eugene debs going to run again?<BR/><BR/>i personally love the centrist nature of his cabinet.Blakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10022162237032568520noreply@blogger.com