I agree that hasty decisions are bad, but I don't quite see where it says in that article that this was a hastily made decision. Seems he took months to decide and finally settled on her. What would make it less hasty, exactly? If he had had a strong leaning towards picking her for a month and then finally did? Or if the decision in no way reacted to recent developments in the campaign? I don't think that either is true of Obama's choice of Biden. What was any less hasty about that? For months he was leaning towards others and then decided, pretty late, largely because of the situation in Georgia, that he needed someone with tons of foreign-policy experience. The difference, of course, is that Biden's qualified and Palin may not be (I think it's debatable, it's not as if she'd be our first small state Governor-turned-President were McCain to pass away), but I don't see that the one choice was any hastier than the other. Finally, may I say as a pretty regular reader of this blog that I really admire your writing on the law, and wish that you would post more on subjects that you've written about professionally - say, Home Building and Loan v. Blaisdell, the future of the Voting Rights Act - then doing this amateur punditry stuff. I know you'll say that it's all really about the Constitution, but often the Constitution seems like an excuse for you to bash Republicans , e.g., "McCain's not a maverick because he doesn't want to amend the Constitution," "what a mess our Constitution has gotten us into, leaving Bush in charge of our Georgia policy (which, by the way, I think is really wrongheaded)," etc.
 

Yeah, Quail again, him and the gentlemen who calls his wife "cunt" in the public and likes to entertain his voters with "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran". There is this quality of old age recklessness (don't give the damn anymore) about him that is troubling. Sort of like that of Putin or Sarkozy but much aged if you know what I mean.

Omaba, excellent presentation but who he really is nobody knows, as much of a carte blanche as they come.

Biden presents equally well and is very much likable but no repository of foreign policy experience there in any sense. Just likes to bloviate about it a lot. Also no administrative experience, zero honestly in comparison with Cheney for example.

(whatever dark imperial/totalitarian instincts animate poor old Dick, there is no denying he was one of the most intelligent, skillful and effective high level government operators in the recent memory.)

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For Obama ticket to succeed the crucial issue will be whether they will be able to assemble a competent cabinet from the get-go, that is without going through those deeply damaging Bush exercises of the Ashcroft-Gonzales-Mukasey or Rumsfled-Gates, etc. type.

Chances are small, for Obama doesn't have the intellectual heft of the AEI behind him, no neo-cons to tell him where the country should go, where next to send our carrier groups, whom to invade, etc. He appears a total outsider even from the Democratic party establishment (whatever that is these days) as attested by his meager net worth (~$800K vs $10M at least for any Bush cabinet member). Connected he is clearly not.

Thus I'm afraid we'll see a lot of Alberto Gonzales, Karen Hughes, or Micheal Brown (of "doing a heck of a job" fame) or even Palin types first.

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This country needs somebody rational, somebody competent, somebody with both feet firmly planted on the ground, somebody collected, somebody like German chancellor Merkel for example.

Well one can always hope.
 

It is true that decisiveness is rewarded with promotion in the military and victory on the battlefield. As the SAS motto states: "Who Acts Wins." However, I am having a hard time envisioning the senator with the most extensive history negotiating bipartisan compromises in the molasses slow "world's greatest deliberative body" being unable to make contemplative decisions.

There is a time for both decisiveness and contemplative decision making as President and McCain has demonstrated the ability to do both.

I have no idea whether Obama has both of these capacities given his lack of track record.
 

How come the Democratic Party does not seem to have something akin to the American Enterprise Institute or the Project for the New American Century where all the imperial neocons congregate?

That is something as influential, as determined or vocal as them.

The need for something is clearly here, the country is at major crossroads, the old militaristic/imperial policies won't work in this century regardless what people like Cheney think. The old economic order is collapsing in front of our eyes.

The sooner the country will start to think about what to do in face of such fundamental changes, the sooner we will abandon that old "benevolent master of all universe (but carrying a big stick just in case)" frame of mind, the sooner we will stop running this country on purely darwinistic principles, the better off we will all be.

Changes will not come easy, the natural tendency is to assume that if we persist the old good times will somehow be here again.Cheney tried that as hard as he could for eight long years with zero results. Or worse. It appears he's just managed to aggravate the situation.

The changes look irrevocable, the tides too strong. If we persist in clinging to our past illusions of "world power" grandeur, in the way the society is organized, if we continue to do nothing the country will become an old man out, a sad international spectacle, jeered by everybody. Listen to the foreigners, that unpleasant tone of voice is there already, very much so.

Nothing as grandiose (and as wrong) as what neocons cooked up in their plans for "the New American Century" is needed. But some new plan for "the New American Century" will have to be formulated. Rational, cool-headed, taking into account the reality of things out there.

Who's formulating it?

Nobody!

So here is a call to politicians, thinkers, academia, business leaders, etc, start talking, start thinking, it's your country and it needs your help.

Help your future president guide it better.
 

One notes that McCain apparently had never met Gov. Palin until a day before announcing her as his choice. Perhaps he looked into her heart and saw someone trustworthy, and that was that.
 

No, they met at the Governors' Conference.
 

As Lisa's bro might say, "Loose lisps [sic] sink ships."

Hey, speaking of hasty decisions, Lisa's bro may be more qualified than Palin. And he's got a paper trail.
 

Google OODA loop.
 

Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
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