That Hopey Changey Thing

David Bromwich has a devastating article at TomDispatch on our presidential 'leader'. The title, "Symptoms of the Bush-Obama Presidency", makes you think that the article is mainly about the similarities between the two, but I think it's more of an indictment of Obama for retaining the wrong people and getting rid of the right people. You really should read the article, as it spells out quite clearly his reasons for naming the names he does.

First, the list of "The Saved", i.e. Advisers whom the president entrusted with power beyond expectation, and sought to keep in his administration for as long as he could prevail on them to stay:

Larry Summers, Bob Gates, Rahm Emanuel, Cass Sunstein, Eric Holder, Dennis Ross, Peter Orszag and Thomas Donilon. Bromwich is especially incensed with Sunstein.

Then, the list of "The Sacked", i.e., Advisers and nominees with views that were in line with Obama's 2008 election campaign or his professed goals in 2009, but who have since been fired, asked to resign or step down, or seen their nominations dropped:

James Jones, Karl Eikenberry, Paul Volcker, Dennis Blair, James Cartwright, Dawn Johnsen, Greg Craig,  and Carol Browner.

Bromwich's concluding words:

the president lives now in a world in which he is certain never to be told he is wrong when he happens to be on the wrong track. It is a world where the unconventionality of an opinion, or the existence of a possible majority against it somewhere, counts as prima facie evidence against its soundness.

Obama’s pragmatism comes down to a series of maxims that can be relied on to ratify the existing order -- any order, however recent its advent and however repulsive its effects. You must stay in power in order to go on “seeking.” Therefore, in “the world as it is,” you must requite evil with lesser evil. You do so to prevent your replacement by fanatics: people, for example, like those who invented the means you began by deploring but ended up adopting. Their difference from you is that they lack the vision of the seeker. Finally, in the world as it is, to retain your hold on power you must keep in place the sort of people who are normally found in places of power.