Barack Obama 2.0 (Political Wire)
President-elect Obama’s political team “is quietly planning for a nationwide hiring binge that would marshal an army of full-time organizers to press the new president’s agenda and lay the foundation for his reelection,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Organizers and even Republicans say the scope of this permanent campaign structure is unprecedented for a president. People familiar with the plan say Obama’s team would use the network in part to pressure lawmakers — particularly wavering Democrats — to help him pass complex legislation on the economy, healthcare and energy.”

Obama makes pitch for ideas, e-mail addresses (AP, thanks to sm77 at The Confluence)
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s high-tech bandwagon is rolling on, combining information on inauguration events with a pitch for cash to pay for them. The president-elect’s aides told supporters Wednesday that they could learn by e-mail about community service projects around the country tied to his swearing-in Jan. 20; that they could receive updates by cell phone on traffic and events in the nation’s capital; that the best of their ideas on how to govern, submitted on his Web site, would get his attention. In the process, the Obama team collected more data about potential supporters and donors.

Obama-Biden Transition Team (via email)
Dear Carolyn, We wanted to tell you about a new feature on Change.gov which lets you bring your ideas directly to the President. It’s called the Citizen’s Briefing Book, and it’s an online forum where you can share your ideas, and rate or offer comments on the ideas of others. The best-rated ones will rise to the top, and after the Inauguration, we’ll print them out and gather them into a binder like the ones the President receives every day from experts and advisors. If you participate, your idea could be included in the Citizen’s Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama. Visit the Citizen’s Briefing Book now and share your ideas.
So I’m a sucker. I keep hoping like hell that somehow, some way, those entrusted with carrying out the people’s business will actually care what we the people think is our business and what we want carried out on our behalf. I once thought MoveOn was a vehicle to make that happen, and it turned out to be another top-down hoax. And if it’s OUR input that will guide policy, why does Obama thinks he needs to sell it to us? See below.—Caro

Obama heading to Ohio to promote stimulus (AP)
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama is going back on the road — even before he’s sworn into office.
This is exactly how Bush tried to sell his policies.—Caro

A scary analogy (by Paul Krugman)
Mark Thoma: “I think the stimulus package is like driving up an icy hill. If you don’t have enough momentum from the start and fail to provide enough “stimulus” to get the car over the crest of the hill, you can slide all the way back to the bottom, crashing into things along the way and ending up worse off than when you started…” I’d add that there may also be a political tipping point: if the stimulus package is too weak, conservatives will pile on after it fails to deliver, claiming that the whole concept has been discredited.
It’s what conservatives do best: Throw a wrench in Democrats’ plans and then blame Democrats for the failure of those plans. And Democrats just keep participating. One has to wonder if Democrats aren’t just as willing as the conservatives to have the plans derailed. Kabuki on the Potomac.—Caro

The Party of No Ideas (by Joe Conason)
Would it be rude to ask whether the Republicans have any new proposals to save the country from this worsening recession? The question arises not because anyone expects the minority party to burst forth with creative ideas, but because conservatives in Congress and the media seem so determined to thwart or stall the economic stimulus plans of President-elect Barack Obama… [T]heir real message is that the best thing to do for America is to do nothing at all, except to maintain or worsen the inequities of our tax system… [I]nertia is the right’s program, whether we listen to the Republican Congressional leaders, the Heritage analysts or the conservative pundits. They are determined to sabotage constructive action by the new administration. They cannot let go of their ideology, regardless of the pain that will be inflicted as the recession deepens.
But we’re supposed to be all lovey-dovey and bipartisan now, Joe. Didn’t you get the memo?—Caro

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com