today show

The big news today is President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

I’ll be the first to admin that I don’t really know that much about Kagan. Eliot Spitzer, a long time friend of Kagan’s, was out today giving her big praises. To me, that endorsement is enough to say she is a good choice. Here’s his interview from The Today Show:

There’s also a lot of talk about Kagan’s relationship to Goldman-Sachs, but given Spitzer’s tough stance against Wall Street, I don’t think Kagan would show any prejudice in favor of the financial giant.

But the biggest reason I think Kagan might be a good nominee is from the push back she is getting from some on the left, namely people like Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald, like Hamsher, would be upset with any pick Obama makes. Instead of focusing on the positives, they will nitpick to find any negatives and attempt to expand on those. But for me, I trust someone like Spitzer a lot more than I trust some bloggers with their own agenda.

I’m going with Andrew Sullivan on this one:

Her latest interview on the Today show again reveals a total obtuseness. Yes, as was obvious from the original clip, it was clear she was referring to what happened after the incident occurred and the system does seem to have worked from then on. But before that? This was a massive failure by DHS, and you will notice she takes not a smidgen of personal responsibility for it.

Does she not realize how sick we are of government officials responding to obvious mistakes, errors and failures by bragging about what they did get right?

She is responsible for homeland security and scores of human beings nearly died because of her failure and survived solely because of luck and courage and the incompetence of the religious extremist.

This attitude was what enraged people about the Bush administration. If Obama wants to show he is not like that, he needs to fire Napolitano now, and explain why there are no excuses in his administration for failing to perform a core government function like ensuring that airline security is as fool-proof as possible. The rest of us have had to go through hell for years in airports only to see this happen.

If she won't resign, fire her.

Yesterday Napolitano said the system worked. Today she says it ‘failed’. This is the exact same lack of responsibility we saw during Katrina and our nation can not use another Brown leading a department that can directly affect rather people live or die. This was her first big test and she failed miserably, in a position where failure is synonymous with death. She either needs to resign or Obama needs to shit can her. Anything else is unacceptable.

Barack and Michelle Obama said this today:

Democrat Barack Obama and his wife said Thursday the public is tired of hearing about incendiary remarks by their former pastor, as they sought to put the controversy that has rocked his presidential campaign to rest.

"We hear time and time again voters are tired of this," Michelle Obama said in an interview the couple gave to NBC's "Today" show.'

Again we are stuck suffering through some media created outrage. MSNBC has been particularly disgusting with this story. It has been the topic of conversation for the last several days. They want people to think it is the main issue facing Americans, and that we worry about nothing else. Forget Iraq, the economy, terrorism, health care, jobs, etc. - we want to hear about Wright! This just shows how out of touch they are with the American public.

So how much is America concerned about Wright? Markos digs that up for us:

How much bigger? 43 percent of respondents are concerned about the 71-year-old John McCain's close ties to George Bush.

36 percent have concerns about Clinton's political opportunism, and 27 percent are concerned about Bill Clinton being back in the White House.

34 percent have problems with Obama's "bitter" remarks and 32 percent give a damn about Jeremiah Wright.

The two biggest "outrages" the media has created, Wright and "bittergate", are the least of voters concerns. In that poll, it looks like John McCain has the most to worry about. I wonder if MSNBC will bring this up? I doubt it since it's just a poll - a poll ran by NBC!

John Edwards:

Two years after his hopes for a Democratic takeover of the White House were narrowly dashed, former vice presidential nominee John Edwards said Thursday that he is making another run at the presidency.

Edwards - who is calling for cuts in poverty, global warming and troops in Iraq - scheduled his kickoff in New Orleans, still devastated from last year's Hurricane Katrina. He chose the site to highlight his signature concern of the economic disparity that divides America.

"I'm here to announce I'm a candidate for president of the United States," Edwards sold NBC's "Today Show" Thursday, one of three back-to-back interviews by the candidate on morning news shows. "I've reached my own conclusion this is the best way to serve my country."

I have been waiting for this news, and couldn't be happier (unless of course Gore decides to run). What would make this perfect is if Obama decided he would run with Edwards (think of an Edwards/Obama ticket). That could very well be possible, considering the number of activities they have been doing together latley. It would also ease the fears of people saying "Obama doesn't have enough experience" and keep the Obama support with Edwards. That ticket would pretty much secure a Democratic White House in 2009.