From Politico:
“We just hoped the political diversity [in President-Elect Obama's cabinet] would have been stronger,” said Tim Carpenter, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America. “We see a lot of recycled Clinton folks and he gets a strong ‘D’ on the policy side. We hope he will hustle them to be more progressive.”
So is a strong "D" something better than an ordinary or weak D, like a D+ (a grade that often quite perplexed me in the message that it sent), so that Mr. Carpenter is trying to soften the blow of the D? Is it something that the speaker strongly feels is a D? Is it something that is strongly negative compared to a normal D, so it's a D-? I'm pretty sure it's not a strong "D" in the sense of Sen. Barack Obama (strong D-IL). Inquiring minds want to know.
But that's just the way I read it, I don't know anything you don't.
That isn't utterly comical. A person can get a D by (for example) getting one A and three Fs on four exams, a rather mixed record, or by getting four Ds on four exams, a rather pure record.
Of course to the moonbats on the right, anyone to the left of what they imagine Ronald Reagan was (as opposed to how he actually governed as President) is a Republican in Name Only and open to the same kind of scorn.
Frankly, as someone who did not vote for Obama, I have been pleasantly surprised in his cabinet picks.
As for the substance of the post, I believe "a strong D" means barely passing--not so bad as a D- but not quite up to D+. But I could be wrong.
Whew, my left flank is secure.
And Freepers never call McCain or Ron Paul a "RINO."
More seriously, the appointments may have a centrist flavor, but that is mainly a reflection of the shortgae of leftist who are both qualified for and willing to fill cabinet positions.
My experience has been that actually working in the government knocks off some of one's ideological edge. If this is true, it is not surprising that actual appointments of qulaified people frequently annoy the ideologues.
I voted for Obama (barely) and am mostly pleased with his appointments, particularly since, unlike in the Clinton years, there will be very few meetings where a former USMC Corporal has the most military experience of any participant.
You may have uncharacteristically read too fast. He pretty much said that in his second paragraph.
I read the whole passage as a complaint that Obama picked a cabinet that would appeal (in large part) to people who looked at the election and wondered if it would be possible to take an average of Obama and McCain. People like me. I'm pleasantly surprised.
Now let's see what they do.
You say, "a D+ (a grade that often quite perplexed me in the message that it sent)."
So, just how many D+s did you get in your academic career?
15, 14, 13 a+, a, a-
12, 11, 10 b+, b, b-
09, 08, 07 c+, c, c-
06, 05, 04 d+, d, d-
03, 02, 01 f+, f, f-
0 incomplete.
But I can accept the "many D's" use, too.
A strong D is a gentleman's C shorn of the unjust benefit of privelege.
For some reason, D. H. Lawrence comes to mind...
Thank you for correcting Sarcastro--and thanks to Sarcastro for acknowledging reading too fast before posting.
The civility of the VC shines through--Orin will be proud.
"Yeah, you mentioned that."
In gradschool, I new a teaching assistant who broke his jaw 2 days before the semester began. We thought this would disqualify him from being a TA. Nope. The view was even with his jaw wired shut, he still spoke English better than many of the other TAs!
If you have a comment about spelling, typos, or format errors, please e-mail the poster directly rather than posting a comment.
Comment Policy: We reserve the right to edit or delete comments, and in extreme cases to ban commenters, at our discretion. Comments must be relevant and civil (and, especially, free of name-calling). We think of comment threads like dinner parties at our homes. If you make the party unpleasant for us or for others, we'd rather you went elsewhere. We're happy to see a wide range of viewpoints, but we want all of them to be expressed as politely as possible.
We realize that such a comment policy can never be evenly enforced, because we can't possibly monitor every comment equally well. Hundreds of comments are posted every day here, and we don't read them all. Those we read, we read with different degrees of attention, and in different moods. We try to be fair, but we make no promises.
And remember, it's a big Internet. If you think we were mistaken in removing your post (or, in extreme cases, in removing you) -- or if you prefer a more free-for-all approach -- there are surely plenty of ways you can still get your views out.