Nicolle Wallace supports... Obama (?), & blogs that GOP support is growing

[npincus]

Hey! Somebody catch that pig flying by my window!

Wasn't she nattering about Obama's friendship with "an unrepentant domestic terrorist" just a couple of months ago? I guess Ms. Wallace won't be shopping at Neiman Marcus for Palin in 2012.

Well, it looks like the charm offensive (or Obama being Obama) is making a difference.




http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-22/republicans-for-obama/full/

Obama deserves our thanks for letting Republicans root for him, as well. He has created a space within his wide net of support for those of us who fought for John McCain’s candidacy by honoring the McCains at a dinner the night before his inauguration and by listening to McCain’s ideas on national security, climate change, and government reform. The Obamas have also returned the civility and warmth directed at them by president and Mrs. Bush in a way that sets this transition apart from others in recent history. This generosity of spirit has had a ripple effect throughout Republican circles. Two former senior aides to President George W. Bush said to me over the weekend, “I expect him to be there for eight years.” A former senior official of Bush’s re-election campaign predicted that he would contribute to Obama’s re-election effort. When I heard that, I said, “He hasn’t even been sworn in yet.” It didn’t matter. One former White House colleague who I ran into in a greenroom this weekend said, “I’m pleased with everything Obama’s done—it’s the press that’s driving me crazy.”

Two former senior aides to President George W. Bush said to me over the weekend, “I expect him to be there for eight years.”

Republicans seem to be growing more and more comfortable with Obama, and they aren’t shy or stingy with their praise. From Obama’s appointments, to his outreach to conservatives in and out of elected office, to his discipline and calm—Republicans of all stripes are impressed. President Obama was wise to tap into our hunger to be part of the solution. It will most certainly help extend his honeymoon and will prove useful when he seeks to put together bipartisan coalitions to solve big problems like immigration and entitlement reform.

The test is whether the far left can stomach our support. It’s an open question: Will they recognize that Republican support only strengthens Obama, or are they too consumed with anger and hatred for the right to accept our support of this new president? Will they be able to accept a president who listens to us, or will they mobilize, through left-wing blogs, groups like Moveon.org, and their allies in Congress, against any efforts on the part of the Obama administration to forge bipartisan solutions?

[tabatha]

1. Obama knows what he is doing.

[bluestateguy]

2. We welcome them inside the tent if they wish

But this is one campsite that WE will be in charge of, not them.

[ClarkUSA]

3. Fuck Nicole Wallace talking about "far-left"; has she ever denounced far-right hate speech? No way.

What a sanctimonious hypocrite.

[Cha]

12. Right..it's not hard to read them.

She's trying to save face and make a boogie man out of the "far left", simultaneously.

Turns out "the far left" is pretty much mainstream America..get use to it, nicole wallace.

[ClarkUSA]

13. Exactly, Cha... she's playing the "Republicans are reasonable but the far left are nuts" tune.

Wonder what "bipartisan" job she wants in the new administration? What a suck up.

[RichGirl]

4. In my little circle of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers....

...who are republicans, I am surprised how nice they have been toward Obama. Very supportive. I think they say this huge wonderful wave and they want to be part of it.

[bluestateguy]

6. Same here

Much more charitable than I remember in 1993 when Bill Clinton was starting out.

[AndyA]

5. Republicans need to remember that it's a TWO-WAY street.

And right now, they aren't exactly keeping up their end of the deal.

Perhaps the GOP needs to have a chat with DeMint, Cornyn, and Vitter? Not to mention Specter.

Bipartisanship requires BOTH SIDES to give and take, not just one do all the giving and the other all the taking.

Educate your people, GOP.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Right now, this lefty can stomach their support of Obama

I want a pragmatic president. I don't want another ideologue, left or right. I don't want more fissures on ideological lines over arguments that are more often than not were just silly.

A pre-packaged, boilerplate ideology, in which the questions of life the universe and everything else (including the economy) are all answered in ways that can be read in less then a minute, is what we've had for that last eight years and it got us to here. In fact, as far as the economy goes, we've had the same ideology since 1981; it still doesn't work.

FDR (who intellectually resembled Ronald Reagan, only without the ideology to confuse him) did not come to the White House with a pre-conceived idea of what the New Deal would look like. He came to fix the American economy. He left it to his brain trusters to come up with the ideas, he would simply try them until he found one that worked.

We hear some nonsense today that the New Deal didn't work. My dad, who graduated from high school in 1930, begs to differ with them. He's no dummy, but I'd hardly call him an intellectual. He knows that the New Deal worked for him and for most people he knew at the time. Those that are telling us that the New Deal was a failure were the same people who were telling us that the fundamentals of the economy were strong right up to last September 15, when the financial markets melted down and Wall Street tanked. And yet they still can't believe that unregulated markets aren't self-correcting machines rather than human institutions that burn while the emperors on Wall Street fiddle during an orgy of greed.

So, give me the president who is not afraid to try something and fail, and then try something else until he finds something that works. I'll take that to trying something and then calling disaster a spectacular success any day.

[babylonsister]

8. I haven't spoken to one of my brothers in 3 years

because we argued so rabidly about politics. He used to send me these e-mails regarding how fabulous * was, I'd zip something right back, it got ugly.

So he sent this to a sister today-go figure. He's finally seen the light?

Now as for our president… I really hope that he is the best president this country has ever seen. This country really does need a man that can lead us back from where we are today to being what we were, the most powerful nation in the world. And by that I don’t necessarily mean militarily but economically, stragically, humanitarian wise and R&D.

[npincus]

9. good for him!

I hope you two reconnect soon. :)

[Cha]

14. WOW! I bet that

made you very happy!

[wildflower]

10. I am really glad to hear this

I just hope it doesn't mean he will shy away from progressive policies to retain their support. But he seems to be good at explaining his positions and getting people on his side, so I have hope.

[Cha]

11. The far left couldn't stomach your toady

fascist sociopath. Obama's trying to get the work done that bushits not only didn't do but made the worse gigantic crisis for our country that hasn't been seen in a long time.