Of Punching Hippies and Jumping Ship

From the NY Times opinion page.

"Summers, who, according to insiders, was the dominant voice in the administration’s economic policies, announced on Tuesday that he’s returning in January to Harvard (a place that, for him, may not be any less stressful than the White House); Axelrod, the man at the nexus of the Obama campaign in 2008, will leave Washington to start planning the president’s re-election campaign of 2012; and Emanuel, the hard-driving chief of staff, is playing it coy but is widely expected to depart and run for mayor of Chicago following the surprise announcement that Richard M. Daley will not seek another term."

...

"Apparently yes men and women, unwilling to challenge Obama’s basic assumptions or deliver inconvenient truths, are in high demand,” adds Jennifer Rubin at Commentary. “This peek at the White House’s circle-the-wagons mentality suggests that Obama is not one to reassess, clean house, and chart a new course after the midterms. It might take him out of his comfort zone. That’s bad news for the country, but music to the ears of the 2012 GOP presidential contenders."

...

"“The announced departure of Lawrence Summers as the president’s top economic adviser is welcome news … I expected the president to have kind words for a man who deserved none if he were to be fired. But Obama’s effusive praise on Tuesday went well beyond the requirements of professional pink-slip courtesy and suggests that he is still in denial over the role of key Democrats like Summers in getting us into this mess … Obama had absolutely nothing to do with the causes of the financial meltdown, but he wasted two precious years being misled by Summers and Geithner as to how to respond to it.”

Why did the guy who promised to change the whole system bring in the guys who are most wedded to the system?” asked Cenk Uygur at Huffington Post. “Why is Barack Obama obsessed with appeasing the establishment? Was he being completely disingenuous when he ran on change? How could he possibly have thought that Larry Summers or the corporate executive who might replace him would bring us real change?"

...

"When it comes to the biggest open mouth in the White House, Rahm Emanuel’s, the press is in a bit of a tizzy. “White House aides are preparing for the possibility that Rahm Emanuel may step down as chief of staff as soon as early October,” reported Time’s Michael Scherer. Not so, says Fox News: “The White House Monday dismissed as ‘ludicrous’ a report that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel plans to leave his post after becoming frustrated with the Obama administration.” The Times’s Jeff Zeleny has a timetable: “So when will those boxes be packed? The best guess from many inside the West Wing is two weeks — or less.” Well, that doesn’t give progressive bloggers much time to think of fond farewells, does it?"

I think Obama is finding out the same thing Clinton did: to get anything done, you're going to have to learn to compromise and move to the right a little.