2008-01-18:

How Obama lost my trust on Social Security
This issue was been framed by many as Obama calling Social Security in "crisis." It was Atrios who blew the whistle on Obama on this point, and his argument, developed over several posts, was more subtle. His point was that Obama had put Social Security "in play" -- after the "angry left" with a great deal of toil, had succeeded in getting our craven Democratic leadership to take it out of play -- and that when Social Security is in play, it's in play by Beltway (Village) rules -- and everyone in the Beltway who is "serious" believes that privatization is on the table. So, Atrios sums up, Obama undid a lot of hard work by a lot of good people. And for why?

So far as I can tell, there was no reason whatever for Obama to put Social Security in play, except to score some meaningless points against Hillary in Iowa. I've seen the YouTube, and it's breathtaking in its "audacity": One sentence he's saying Hillary doesn't have a plan to deal with the "problem," and in the very next sentence he's saying he doesn't want to make it a political football. Dude, you just MADE my dignity in old age a political football, and all to pick up a tenth of a point in Iowa.

(See here, for a classic OFB reaction.)

New York Times, 2009-01-08:

For those of you who insist on believing that Joe Lieberman is still something other than a Senatorial colleague of Barack Obama, that he continues to be some kind of mentor to Senator Obama, welcome news that Obama isn't afraid to call Lieberman on his Joementum.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the self-described "Independent Democrat" who caucuses with the Democratic party in the Senate even though he has endorsed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, got some tough talk from Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, yesterday about his advocacy for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate and the general tone of the campaign, Democratic sources tell ABC News.

Returning to the Senate after his securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama and Lieberman greeted each on the Senate floor in the Well as they were voting on the budget resolution.

They shook hands. But Obama didn’t let go, leading Lieberman - cordially - by the hand across the room into a corner on the Democratic side, where Democratic sources tell ABC News he delivered some tough words for the junior senator from Connecticut, who had just minutes before hammered Obama's speech before the pro-Israel group AIPAC in a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign.