I'll keep this short and sweet -- Super good: Hilda Solis; Super bad: Timothy Geithner.
Solis, appointed to head the Labor Department, is incredibly strong on the weighty issues she will oversee. For one, she is very supportive of the ever-important Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which one friend aptly described to me once as "another New Deal, for labor." The most telling story I've heard about her? After the EFCA failed in the House in 2007, she didn't just forget about it as so many pols are prone to do—she wrote about it, she's continued to campaign for it, and has not let it go quietly into the night in the way of so many other important failed pieces of legislation. And speaking of important failed legislation that's been on the back-burner for way too long, I think she could be an important force in dealing with labor issues related to comprehensive immigration reform. Namely, of course, addressing the issues of millions of undocumented workers in America that we need (badly), whose only crime is entering and/or remaining in this country illegally, and who would pay taxes if only they were given a fair path to legalization.
Geithner, appointed to the dangerously important post of Secretary of the Treasury, is cut from the same cloth as the men who sowed the seeds of the economic crisis. A protégé of Robert Rubin and Larry B(S)ummers, there is little indication that he will be any different than they have been in the past and even how they've acted more recently. (At this point, of course, I should point out how disappointing it is that Greedy Gumdrops Summers is Obama's head economic adviser.) Check, too, his social, professional, and other important connections to Wall Street. Further, the fact that Geithner can't even do his own taxes properly—or hire someone to do them properly—simply indicates carelessness and over-confidence.
Solis spells change; Geithner spells stagnancy.
That being said, happy Inauguration to all. I'll leave you with this post-script --
Super good: Aretha's hat (and pipes!), Michelle's ball dress.
Super bad: John Roberts' fumbling of the most famous oath on Earth; Rick Warren looking as fat and virulently anti-gay as usual.
And I'm not sure where Cheney's final White House appearance on a wheelchair, pushed by a sour-looking nurse falls. Probably under super appropriate.
-- Daniela Perdomo
I could say that the infamous "Mission Accomplished" press staging is the media tidbit that most aptly encapsulates the eight years of "passionate conservative" lunacy that's dominated American (and world) politics for the past eight years. After all, four of the defining traits of George W. Bush's presidency are front-and-center: Glorification of the military-industrial complex, a keen taste of self and mass delusion, an obfuscated presentation of the truth to the public, and an unabashed tendency to over-simplify foreign policy.
Alternatively, I could think back to my first impression of Bush, way back in 2000 when I was 15—which is that he looked like a way goofier version of my father. (Sorry, Dad, you are very good looking. And I love you.)
Instead, the truth of the matter is that the image that most immediately comes to mind when I think of our soon-to-be dearly departed W. is from a series of photographs taken last summer during the Summer Olympics in Beijing—
And then these, of course, also from Beijing—
The man waving his country's flag in those pictures? He is so, so happy. He is so damned proud to be an American and watch his fellow citizens kick ass at sports on the world stage. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The reason these images are so ingrained in my mind's eye is because this happy-go-lucky volleyball enthusiast is the President of the United States—the "Leader of the Free World." These pictures, at the time, screamed to me: "Let me out! I'm finished. Done! Can I go home now? Can I just not have to worry about being President anymore?"
And now, a week before he actually gets his wish? Well, the pictures say the same thing, but I admit that last summer when these pictures were published and re-published everywhere, I was already starting to breathe a sigh of relief: It's nearly over, it's nearly over. Of course, I should have known that Bush & Co. were not about to vacate 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue without a final coup de grâce emblematic of the prior seven and a half years, no matter how little time was left.
The havoc his administration has wreaked on the nation in the months since last summer—piled upon that unfurled in the years preceding, of course—are so gargantuan, so unwieldy, that, well... I'm struggling to figure out who might be the only person unhappy Bush is soon to be out of the White House, if even he's grasping to be let out the door.* And it makes me sad that our government doesn't allow for early retirement of an entire administration.
And so, when I think of George W. Bush, former president of the United States of America, I'll forever think of a sports fan who was promoted beyond not only his capability but also his interest. And I'll hope we've learned some sort of lesson.
*(Oh, right—Dick.)
-- Daniela Perdomo
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