Last time I checked, 41% was a failing grade. Not so in the Senate it would appear. No, now that Chambliss has won, apparently having just 41 votes in the Senate is REALLY great news for Republicans and bad news for Democrats, especially President-elect Barack Obama.

On AC360 earlier David Gergen declared:

I think this actually puts a lot more pressure on Barack Obama to govern much more from the center and not from the left. He is going to need Republicans now, he is going to need a bipartisan approach...

Right, a 41 vote minority should by all means have Barack Obama shaking in his boots. I wonder if Gergen said something similar about Republicans on Nov. 4th, perhaps something like...

I think the fact that Barack Obama won 53% of the vote tonight and that Democrats will have won at least 7 more seats in the Senate and 20 more seats in the House puts a lot more pressure on Republicans to govern much more from the center and not from the right.

Oh, he didn't? Ya don't say...

Gergen's refusal to put the burden on the Republicans to be cooperative and "centrist" rather than the Democrats is really a symptom of the persistent beltway "center right nation" conventional wisdom, which always puts the burden on Democrats to be the centrist ones since the Republican Party, so goes the logic, is where the people already are. Was there any greater evidence that the Democratic Party is where the people are than the results on November 4th?

Barack Obama has fed into this narrative, of course, by insisting on being the one who's cooperative and above the fray and never punishing Republicans or one pesky former Democrat in particular for being partisan obstructors. But in fact, the burden should be placed squarely on the shoulders of Republicans in Congress to move toward the center where, let's face it, Barack Obama already is. That's not a slam on Barack Obama, it's merely an acknowledgment of the reality that his agenda, which is largely a progressive agenda, is a mainstream agenda and it's the Republicans who need to move leftward toward the rest of us.

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I've been reading a lot of posts on the Internet yesterday and today where people have expressed concern at how McCain and Palin are whipping their supporters into frothy-mouthed hatred of Barack Obama.

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One of the reasons I liked Hillary in the primary was that I knew she would fiercely fight for the presidency and that she could win. Whether Barack Obama had the same fight in him I just didn't know. After a couple months of ably deflecting attacks, I thought he did but after this past week, I'm less confident.

As David Gergen said on This Week today:

The challenger has got to put the Bush administration more on trial that he has. He's got to drive home the points that this hasn't worked and that John McCain is an extension of that. He hasn't connected it in a really firm way.

Now, that's not to say Obama won't but I think we can safely say that he has a level of discomfort with hitting back against McCain in a really tough way that has accrued to John McCain's benefit this past week. So what is to be done about it?

Again from Gergen:

When the Republican attack machine cranks up, just as Clinton predicted, [Obama's] actually pretty vulnerable...What this tells me is that Obama needs some help out there to fight this campaign. I know he's dismissed Hillary Clinton as a running mate, I think he needs to reopen that question and re-examine that because he needs a fighter by his side to take this on. There are some things that he just can't say very well that she could say or someone who is a fighter could say. I think this week just underscored very much he needs a strong running mate, he doesn't need a colorless running mate.

I couldn't agree more. Now does this lead one necessarily to Hillary Clinton? Not really. All signs still do point to 'No,' perhaps now especially since the perception would likely be that he's picked her because he needs her, which is not terribly flattering to Barack. Also, Hillary Clinton can still be that fighter by his side on the campaign trail on his behalf without being on the ticket. But it does recommend someone like Joe Biden, Wesley Clark and Chris Dodd who've proven themselves to be able fighters against the right, and is yet another mark against Kathleen Sebelius (State of the Union response, anyone?) and Tim Kaine for whom Joe Lieberman is apparently )or was) the paragon of independence. It's also a strike against Evan Bayh, because I think we can all agree that he's the very definition of colorless.

So a little more unsolicited advice for Barack Obama: whomever you pick, make sure he or she is a fighter.

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Paraphrasing David Gergen--my pick for the most credible and truly objective pundit anywhere--on CNN tonight, 'Jeremiah Wright has chosen the absolute worst time (over the next few days) to decide to come out in his own defense.'

Here's the transcript from CNN tonight, with regard to what will be the first in a series of major press events in which Wright finally speaks up. Clips from a Bill Moyers' interview with Wright to be aired on PBS on Friday were shown at the top of the news hour this evening on CNN.

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Hi Gang, here's that film I've been working on for years now. Thanks again to Jerome and the community for your continuing support!

Howard Dean Movie Sneak Previews In VERMONT!

Montpelier's Savoy on Jan. 26 and Burlington's Roxy on Jan. 27 @ 11 a.m.

Monday, January 14, 2008 CONTACT: HEATH EIDEN 802-253-4422 heatheiden@aol.com

    (Stowe, Vermont)  Three years after Howard Dean's revolutionary presidential campaign ended where it started in Burlington, Vermont, two sneak previews of a movie about the movement will be shown in Montpelier and Burlington on January 26 and 27 at 11 a.m. for a small donation ($10 or "whatever you think it's worth at the end").
    The 90-minute feature film, "Dean And Me: Roadshow Of An American Primary," follows Howard Dean in his run for President through the 2006 mid-term elections.

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