(THE BLOG)

HALLI CASSER-JAYNE - bio
RED, WHITE 'N TRUE™
TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
Posted, November 5, 2008, 12:01 p.m

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Barack Obama wound up with the biggest prize, the presidency, but he will walk into the role of commander in chief of the bruised United States of America saddled with a seemingly impossible task: to fix a nation sinking into the abyss. Some wins would be better a loss.

Meanwhile President-elect Barack Obama’s foes, Hillary Clinton and John McCain will return to the Senate, Hillary as the loyal opposition; McCain as the royal (pain in the arse) opposition. Hillary Clinton, in particular, is poised to become the Senate powerhouse. As Ted Kennedy became known before his illness as the father of the senate, Hillary Clinton will come to be called Big Mama.

Finally, Hillary Clinton’s sheer grit and her classy performance in support of Obama in the face of her defeat by him has won her the respect and admiration she so craved all of her political life. Her stature finally her own, Hillary Rodham Clinton no longer seen as a mere footnote to her husband, the former President Bill Clinton’s legacy.

Look to John McCain to walk away from his failed bid for the presidency having run his campaign his way much to the chagrin of Rovian Republicans who wanted Mac to play the race card against Obama. Although Mac played to the base with his Sarah Palin pick, John McCain tempered his assaults on Obama. And all things considered, he lost his race for the White House with dignity and honor along with his poorly run campaign. It wasn’t always a clean fight, but either was Barack Obama’s.

With the ailing Ted Kennedy no longer the left-wing’s powerhouse in the Senate, the vacuum Kennedy leaves will be filled by not one but by two strong leaders of opposing parties both who share moderate ideals, two Senators who are admittedly good friends, and two souls who will have shared a heart wrenching loss. Between the two of them they can achieve a bi-partisan power unlike any we can remember in our lifetimes.

Look for Hillary Clinton and John McCain to perform as the dynamic duo, working vigilantly for a centrist government. Both could become major headaches to President Obama if he moves too far to the left, or they could become the new president’s best friends.

MAC and Hillary are now joined at the historical hip, both having had what they thought was theirs, the presidency, stolen out from under them by a man both Senators deem not only unprepared for the job of President, but someone both Senators clearly don't like. But politics makes strange bedfellows.

The arch-enemy of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain could prove to be the un-dynamic duo of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Key to Obama’s ascendency to power was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her sidekick in the Senate, Harry Reid.

Pelosi has long been a Clinton adversary, Pelosi a member of the far left of the Democratic Party long at odds with the Clinton’s historic move to the center, which not only got Bill Clinton into the Oval office, but kept him there for eight years, something Democrats hadn’t been able to achieve for a long time. Senator Kennedy and Speaker of the House Pelosi took on the Clinton legacy, and Hillary Clinton, in their support of Barack Obama.

Does Obama owe the left-leaning Pelosi, Kennedy, Reid, Kerry coalition for their support? At the end of the day, rest-assured that Barack Obama will take care of himself first.

It’s interesting that Obama’s first appointment is both Nancy Pelosi and the Clinton’s good friend, Congressman Rham Emanuel. Obama offered Rham Emanuel the job of chief of staff. Emanuel served in Clinton’s White House and is considered a left-leaning moderate. Like Obama, he represents the State of Illinois. He has worked closely with Nancy Pelosi, and some say she had been grooming him to become the next Speaker of the House.

Though said to have mellowed, Rham Emanuel’s nickname is Rham-bo. If he accepts Obama’s offer, Emanuel’s job will be to keep Pelosi/Reid and the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party in line. The perils for the Democratic Party’s ownership of both the legislative and the executive branch are many.

The Republicans have their own problem. In the wake of the Obama whooping, the Republican Party is suffering from a leadership vacuum.  

The only way for the powerless to take back power is to join with the powerful. Of late, this has not been the Republican way.

Only John McCain has proven he knows how to reach across the aisle. Bipartisanship takes finesse, and it is the gift that John McCain has. Hopefully, he will restore his battered and bruised reputation earned in the presidential campaign and regain his “rogue” status. He’ll find a friend in Hillary Clinton whose path to a possible second run for the presidency lies in her ability to be the voice of reason over the next four to eight years.

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Reprints only by permission from Halli Casser-Jayne/The CJ Political Report