Change.

A top economic advisor to Obama had a glum warning for the rest of us Thursday morning: Neither the job market nor the stock market will be turning around any time soon.

"This might be a long haul," said Robert Reich, who was President Bill Clinton's secretary of labor. "2009 is going to be a very hard year. Some economists say we won't be out of this for two years, others are saying it may be three, or four, maybe five years."

Now on Obama's transition team, Reich worries about what happens after the new president is sworn in Jan. 20.

"We all have to be very careful about the expectations that we are putting on this man, our president-elect," Reich said. "If we all assume it's going to be the first 100 days, we're going to be disappointed."

The man who was Obama's chief campaign strategist is moving to lower expectations, too.

"We are inheriting an array problems unlike any president has faced, maybe since Franklin Roosevelt in 1932," David Axelrod said. "It's not going to be easy, not going to be quick."

Sorry, I'm expecting the earth to be healed and the seas to fall almost immediately.

I was promised.

Hey, as long as Obama's first 100 days are as energetic and positive as the 2006 Democratic Congress' first 100 days, everyone should be pretty damn happy.

Posted by: Ace at 10:19 AM | Comments (42)
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Clintons everywhere, Gates still in the Pentagon and now this? This isn't the Change! the left thought it knew.

President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military's decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say.

Repealing the ban was an Obama campaign promise. However, Mr. Obama first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus and then present legislation to Congress, the advisers said.

From a conservative perspective there are a couple of way to look at this and Obama's other 'adjustments' . First, he's not a knee jerk left as we thought or he is as knee jerk left as we thought, he's just smarter and therefore potentially more dangerous than we thought. My guess is he's the latter.

In some ways a disorganized, reflexively lefty Obama would make more mistakes that conservatives and Republicans could take advantage of, like when Bill Clinton took on gays in the military so soon in his administration. The left maybe annoyed in the short term about Obama but we'll be the ones very unhappy in the long term.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:15 AM | Comments (35)
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Slow news day. Guess I have to post things from Fark.

Posted by: Ace at 10:11 AM | Comments (12)
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Long cold winter...

Snow has begun to fall in Scotland and north-east England as the country prepares for an Arctic blast of blizzard conditions and freezing temperatures....Parts of the UK could get up to three inches of snow in the next 24 hours as the wintery showers spread south from Scotland and the North, covering most of the country by the early hours of tomorrow.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:54 AM | Comments (32)
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A crisis in the hand is worth two in the bush.

You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

What kinds of things? He has a list.

"...problems be they in the Healthcare area, energy area, educational area, fiscal area, tax area, regulatory reform area..."

I'd hate to see them miss a shot at doing all these things they thought they could not do before.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 09:54 AM | Comments (25)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:10 AM | Comments (80)
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Do you like Dr. Pepper?

The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.

"We never thought this day would come," Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "But now that it's here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's on us."

Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28.

Consider this the overnight thread you always wanted.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:29 PM | Comments (51)
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The 14-page order is here (PDF). As Drew wrote earlier, we are in this wretched mess because five justices of the Supreme Court radically altered the meaning of the U.S. Constitution. I'd add that the serial missteps (bordering on bad faith) from the Bush Administration made it much easier for the courts to take over control of what should have always been a military program.

If you're into War on Terror jurisprudence, click over and read the whole thing. It's not long and gives an excellent overview of the issues involved in carrying out the War on Terror in the courts. For everyone else, here's the key ruling with respect to the five detainees to be released: more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:22 PM | Comments (43)
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So writes Confederate Yankee.

My best buddy works the gun case at a sports and outdoors retailer. He told me that what started as a trickle just after election day has become a flood. Plenty of ammo, but they can't keep guns in stock.

I'm still not sure what's fueling this frenzy. Did people buy guns like crazy right after Clinton was elected? Does the Supreme Court's recent firearm jurisprudence holding that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to firearms reassure anyone?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:17 PM | Comments (209)
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Friday morning update: I put this in the headlines but I thought I'd update this as well. Looks like he just fainted after a long day and standing under the heat of some stage lighting (trust me, that stuff gets really hot). Looks like a happy ending.

Perhaps some good news...

An FBI official said Mukasey got stuck on a word during his speech to the conservative legal group, repeated it several times and then "went down hard."

A senior law-enforcement said Mukasey appeared to be talking when he was taken away. That official also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the situation.

He was conscious during part of the ambulance ride to hospital, the official said.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President George W. Bush was informed about Mukasey's collapse.

"The president has him in his thoughts and will be kept apprised and hopes that he will be back up and at 'em again soon."

O'Connor said about hour after Mukasey collapsed that the last information he had was that the attorney general was alert and conscious and speaking.

Original post below the fold. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 07:07 PM | Comments (60)
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