Obama and McCain: The Odd Couple

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/davidcorn/2009/03/talk-about-an-odd-couple.html

Obama and McCain: The Odd Couple

By David Corn | March 4, 2009 10:40 AM


Talk about an odd couple.

It was only days ago that an irate John McCain took to the Senate floor to chastise President Barack Obama for signaling he would sign the gargantuan spending bill now being considered by Congress that contains a boat-load of earmarks. "Some much for the promise of change," the defeated Republican presidential candidate declared, his voice dripping with anger and sarcasm--and perhaps a touch of bitterness.

On Wednesday morning, though, there was McCain standing elbow-to-elbow with Obama, as the president unveiled a presidential memorandum that will reform government contracting, particularly Pentagon contracting. (A White House fact sheet released in conjunction with Obama's remarks notes that a General Accounting Office study last year of 95 major military programs found costs overruns on 26 percent, totally $295 billion. You can bail out a lot of banks with that kind of dough.) And Obama was praising McCain's efforts to reform military procurement:

I'm so pleased to support the goals of the bipartisan effort on procurement reform that has been led by our own Carl Levin and John McCain in the Senate. They have done extraordinary work trying to push this issue to the forefront. We want to see if we can partner with Senator McCain and Senator Levin to get this done as soon as possible. And thanks to Secretary Gates, some of the reforms that they've talked about are already beginning to take shape. And I've asked him to work with Senators Levin and McCain on developing this legislation as it moves forward,

Obama has played the magnanimty card well. When last month he held the financial responsibility summit at the White House, Obama conducted something of a seminar, calling on the major players in the room and asking for their thoughts. The first person he selected was McCain. And the night before his inauguration, Obama held a bipartisan dinner for McCain. Now, even after McCain kicked Obama in the teeth over earmarks, Obama hailed his past rival as a champion of military procurement reform.

Of course, this is good politics for Obama. Whenever Obama can drape some McCain-ess over an initiative or policy, it will help Obama, as well as indicate that Obama is making good on his vow to encourage bipartisan action in Washington. But plenty of presidents in the past have not been able to resist the temptations of vindictiveness. Obama is indeed showing that he can rise above petty politics. Cynics will say that he's doing so only to serve his own ends. (And, no doubt, some conservatives will be upset with McCain for allowing himself to be used by Obama in any fashion.) But sometime doing what's right politically is the same as doing what's right, period. Obama has demonstrated he can be generous and savvy simultaneously. That's a pretty damn good combination for a politician--and a leader.

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He is SO cool when someone tries to get in his face

and remember people

he was/IS one heck of a lawyer

Bush didn't know shit about law, everything Bush operated from was from second hand knowledge -and that was the PNAC gang

I do not think President Barack Obama is gonna bow to anyone,

but he also knows he has to walk soft, but carry a big stick

He remembers JFK and MLK

choppers..1 they were ordered by shrub, 2 they are foreign made by the same Italian company that makes the presidential choppers for the Ayatollah(Iran), Syria and Turkey..I can not remember the other countries that are supplied who are also not our friends, 3 WHY there are 28 of them would not a fleet of say 4 or 5 be enough to provide decoys, 4 why are the corpse media continuing to label them Lockheed Martin when they are clearly relabed from the Italian manufacturer Finnemercia, 5 why are they costing 28billion$, 6 why is the order going thru now that the schematics are published on the internet as noted by that internet security company in Pa.