The NYU College Democrats

Edward Luce over at the Financial Times has written a great commentary about Obama’s tight inner circle of advisors: Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, and Valerie Jarrett. Steve Clemons at HuffPost has also written a commentary on Luce’s commentary. This whole issue of poor advice and dissent between the people closest to the President has been on my mind for a while now. Why is it that such a sucessful group of political campaign operatives, who we all know were lauded for their messaging, could not fix the messaging and the narrative of the President’s first year in office? Honestly, I’m bewildered. I don’t think campaign operatives naturally translate into good policy/governing operatives, which is one aspect of the problem. I also have grown to loathe Emanuel in recent months because of all the little comments leaked by his “fucking retarded” liberal underlings. My thinking is this: if you have little sucess to claim after such a phenomenal campaign and polling numbers in 2008 and early 2009, something has to be done. Someone (or some people) have to leave to make this White House work.

And on a related but funny note… here’s Rahm.

-Maddie

Alright- new year, new focus on getting this blog up and running for real.

Everyone should really check out this great article by Lawrence Lessig on The Nation. It’s all about why Congress is broken and is ruining any chance of reform. I know everyone is up in arms about the issues caused by the fillibuster parlimentary rule in the Senate, the conservative/status quo oriented nature of our political institutions, and the Citizens United decision last month. We’re all pissed that nothing is getting done. Lessig really synthesizes the problems inherent in Congress in a very sophisticated manner. There’s a reason campaign finance reform has been an issue in our politics for such a long time…

On a similar note, here’s Congress at its finest: Sen. Shelby (AL) has put a hold on all executive branch appointments STILL awaiting confirmation. One has to wonder what he thinks he’s going to get by essentially ransoming these confirmations for tens of billions of dollars in pork. Even Nelson couldn’t get that much money.

Join us this Thursday at 6 pm in Kimmel 910. We’ll be discussing climate change and environmental policy with Professor Steven Soter, a professor of Environmental Studies who also works at the American Museum of Natural History.

And, as always, there will be free food.

Questions about health reform? Then join us this week as Wagner Professor John Billings tells us everything there is to know about health care reform.  The House of Representatives just passed its health care bill, and now’s your chance to get all of your questions answered. We’re meetingthis Thursday at 6pm in Kimmel 910.

And as always, there will be delicious food.