I've been doing a lot of thinking in terms of the direction of this blog now that the election is over and I've reached some conclusions that I'd like to pass along.
The GDAB "beat" has always been presidential politics and the media, with occasional mentions of other issue areas (the wars, terrorism/fear, climate crisis, the economy, civil rights, civil liberties, pop culture). Naturally, this will all remain the same. The beat won't change other than the fact that the 2008 election is over. [More after the jump...]
In terms of covering the Obama administration, naturally I have a great fondness for our next president, and to hide or temper that would be ridiculous. This is an opinion blog, after all. Now, I don't intend to cheerlead or hero worship but I do intend to defend this president as long as he's on the right track. I also intend to cover the White House in a way that reflects my interest in presidential history and White House lore.Simultaneously, if President Obama does something I don't particularly dig, I intend to blog about it. Not holding him fairly accountable goes against much of what we've talked about for the last eight years. He's going to screw up, and we can't ignore it.Other times, the administration might do something that seems like a big mistake, but which might have strategic importance in a broader sense. I'll do my best to present my criticism from that perspective: what larger goal is the president trying to accomplish by doing this or that? What's the significance of this decision and what can be gained in the long run? Or did he simply screw the pooch on this one? If so, how?And then there are the enemies. I've been hearing some concern-troll warnings that when Barack Obama wins -- oh noes! Liberal bloggers won't have anything to talk about! To which I reply: are you insane? I don't need to remind you that there's still, you know, a rather large number of far-right members of the Republican Party who haven't been ejector-seated off the planet as far as I know. There's also far-right talk radio, FOX News Channel, our favorite Morning Joe program, and more than a few strategists, authors, columnists, reporters and surrogates who will continue to populate cable news. Nothing to talk about? Don't make me laugh. Ha. Ha.So, don't nobody move. More awesome on the way!And finally, I'd love to hear your suggestions and thoughts on moving forward. Comment below...ADDING... Almost forgot. One of the missions of this blog is to pass along some good counter-arguments which can be used at the dinner table or at work in order to, as Thom Hartmann calls it, "win the water-cooler wars."