Obama Dispatches Bipartisan Reps To G-20 Summit
The Obama camp announces that Obama has tapped a bipartisan pair -- former GOP Rep. Jim Leach and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright -- to meet with delegations at the upcoming G-20 summit.
"This weekend's summit is an important opportunity to hear from the leaders of many of the world's largest economies," said Obama Senior Foreign Policy Advisor Denis McDonough in an Obama camp release.
"There is one President at a time in the United States, so the President-elect has asked Secretary Albright and Congressman Leach, an experienced and bipartisan team, to be available meet with and listen to our friends and allies on his behalf."
The key here, again, is the enormous pressure that the financial crisis has placed on Obama to project a sense that he's swiftly acting, well before he puts his feet up on the Oval Office desk for the first time, while simultaneously avoiding the perception that he's presumptuously stepping on the toes of the current president. It wouldn't be quite right to be a complete non-presence at the G-20, given the meltdown; hence this solution.
It is odd, I still have a hard to believe that we now have a very intelligent president elect...
November 12, 2008 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let alone someone who even knows what a G-20 Summit is!
November 12, 2008 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
re: hard to believe . . .
This is all very much the reverse of deja vu. I also am still having a hard time believing that things are changing. --pja
November 12, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brains are Back!
November 12, 2008 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not buy into the "enormous pressure", Greg, since it makes absolutely NO SENSE. Obama doesn't have to "project" anything other than what he projected all through the campaign--calm intelligence.
The financial crisis belongs to BUSH and the GOP until January 20th and even beyond that date. This is their albatross and, yet again, Democrats have to solve it.
The solutions will begin on January 20th and not before then. TPM should be doing their part in calming things down and not adding to the pressure.
My two cents....
November 12, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point.
Where there's enormous pressure is to feed the daily news cycle. Spinmeisters shouting into the echo chamber. Talking heads nodding and tongues wagging in unison.
November 12, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Believe it or not, I still have bad dreams such as problems with the votes or that it did not happen...
I guess it will take a while to adjust:)
November 12, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh, Greg, I think a good way to project a sense that he's acting swiftly is to NOT put his feet up on the oval office desk.
November 12, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
My friends, I think it's time we make a league of democratic economies.
November 12, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Obama had invited himself to the meeting, it would have been wholly inappropriate. However, President Bush himself extended an invitation to the P-E. Hence, Obama would not have been a party crasher. Furthermore, Obama has consistently shown the ability to behave maturely and appropriately. If he went, I'm sure he would make every effort to be invisible and to remind leaders that he is not POTUS.
Attending the summit would give Obama the chance to hold low-key unofficial meetings with the European leaders directly, as opposed to hearing second hand reports from surrogates.
November 12, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The GOP owns this crisis at least for the next 2 years, 3 maybe.
November 12, 2008 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
This "there is only one president at a time" stuff is window dressing, and no one should believe that Albright and Leach are simply going to the G-20 to "hear" and "listen" to global leaders. They will be doing a lot of talking, though somewhat quietly and off-camara, and people will be listening to them.
There is an economic meteor barreling toward the world economy, and the world is looking to the largest economy in the world for leadership. Twenty top world leaders are coming to the United States to formulate a common global plan of action, and Obama is the man who is going to be leading the United States as that plan is implemented. Do you think these people are waiting to hear from George Bush?! What they urgently need to know is what kind of economic agenda they can expect from Obama, and Albright and Leach are presumably there to tell them.
Bush is a very, very weak lame duck. He is close to a global irrelevance, and power is now rapidly shifting to Obama, even if the president-elect is prohibited by the niceties of US tradition and protocol from recognizing that fact publicly.
The world does not have two and a half months to wait before getting to work on a global economic rescue agenda! And they can't get to work on one lame Bush agenda now, and switch gears to an Obama agenda later.
November 12, 2008 6:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't all this argue for Obama being there in person?
November 12, 2008 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I still regret that Obama won't be there himself. He could have done it discreetly, avoiding public comment, while taking advantage of the unique opportunity to build ties.
And Madeline Albright? She's been out in the sun too long already. I still haven't forgiven her for saying about the deaths of half a million Iraqi children under sanctions, "The price is worth it."
November 12, 2008 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm horrified that he's sending Leach of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act fame to the G-20. This is one of the key de-regulations that caused part of the financial melt-down. The Gramm-Leach Act repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, opening up competition among banks, securities companies and insurance companies.
What is Obama thinking????
November 12, 2008 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink