Obama Spokesman: Obama Ready to Rule On Day One
The co-chair of Barack Obama’s Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, told MSNBC’s Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press” this last Sunday that the president-elect was working closely with George W. Bush in order to make the transition between the two administrations run as smooth as possible so that he, Obama, would be ready to “rule on day one.”
Although some conservative pundits have used Jarrett’s words in order to defend allegations uttered by some Republicans that Obama is a Marxist hell bent on becoming America’s first dictator, it seems to me that it was a reasonably innocent mistake by the Obama spokesman. We all sometimes use our words in a less careful manner than we would like to, as she clearly did this time.
Nonetheless, the words you use tell us something about who you are, and what you think. Jarrett does, seemingly, think in such terms. Not only about Obama, but about presidents in general.
Sadly for Jarrett, conservative commentators are right when they point out that a president does not “rule.” He governs. He is not a monarch. Monarchs rule, presidents govern.
In the United States, as in every other liberal democracy, the people are supposed to “rule.” Not elected officials.
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Liberals used the dictator argument for Bush, too.
It’s as ridiculous a charge now as it was then.