Barack Obama, seven days ago, when announcing his national security team:
"I am going to be welcoming a vigorous debate inside the White House," Obama said.
Steve Hildebrand, deputy national campaign director for Barack Obama, yesterday:
This is not a time for the left wing of our Party to draw conclusions about the Cabinet and White House appointments that President-Elect Obama is making.
Um, what? Obama himself said that he is "welcoming a vigorous debate," but one of Obama's top deputies writes that "this is not a time for the left wing of our Party to draw conclusions." Was "the left wing" just disinvited to participate in the debate?
Two weeks ago, I met with the Obama transition team. The meeting included members of Obama's senior staff, and they were all quite welcoming. There was no berating, and no orders that people like me stop criticizing Obama's cabinet picks. We smiled, shook hands, chatted, asked each other questions, and talked about ways we could work better together. It was very positive, and quite different from being told that we shouldn't participate in the overall debate and / or draw any conclusions about Obama's cabinet picks.
Let me draft what would have been a more appropriate, coalition-sensitive response from Hildebrand:
While some members of the left-wing of the Democratic Party are concerned over some of President-elect Obama's cabinet selections, they can rest assured that President-elect Obama welcomes a vigorous debate inside his administration, and that such debates will include voices from the left.
How hard would that have been? Just invite the left into the discussion and the debate. Say that Obama is listening to a diverse range of voices. Let progressives know that they are included, but that they won't dominate, because Obama wants to hear from all sides.
Being told, instead, that this isn't a time for the left to draw conclusions will, to most people on the left, sound a lot like "the left shouldn't criticize Democrats during election season." To be told, again, when the election is over that it still isn't time for the left to criticize Democrats kind of sounds like there is never an appropriate time for the left to criticize Democrats. It sends a clear implication that left-wing viewpoints are simply never welcome.
There are some members of Obama's transition team that have made it quite clear that the left-wing of the Democratic Party is welcome to participate in, and debate with, an Obama administration. This piece by Steve Hildebrand is not one of them. Instead, it sends a signal that it is open season on the left-wing of the Democratic Party. Even worse, combined with Obama's bi-partisan rhetoric, it sends a message that Republicans are preferable to left-wing Democrats in an Obama administration.
This is a pretty wretched piece by Hildebrand. David Sirota tore it down yesterday, too. Hopefully, it isn't representative of a broadly held view among Obama's senior staff.
Update: Some of you might want to notice that I was criticizing a single piece by Steve Hildebrand, not either Obama or all of Obama's staff.
And to participate in a debate without making any statements and only asking questions is, well, kind of difficult.
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