CQ Politics' Web Picks

New York Times: Stinging Talk About Obama? Never Mind Now

That whole anti-American, friend-to-the-terrorists thing about President-elect Barack Obama? Never mind. There is a great tradition of paint-peeling political hyperbole during presidential campaign years. And there is an equally great tradition of backing off from it all afterward, though with varying degrees of deftness.

Washington Post: Obama to Face Big Policy Decisions on Iran, N. Korea and Mideast

During the campaign, Obama issued a series of foreign policy pronouncements that often appeared designed not to box himself in. One prominent exception was a pledge to remove most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of his inauguration. But in many cases, Obama appears to have left himself wiggle room on many issues that will confront him.

Business Week: The Changes Business Wants from Obama

Many in business, though, still view the President-elect with a wary eye. Indeed, if a recent survey by Chief Executive magazine is any indication, Obama has his work cut out for him in wooing America's executives. In a survey of 751 CEOs published in October, the magazine found that 74% feared the consequences of an Obama Presidency.

Salon: Obama's Designated A--hole

By putting Rahm Emanuel in charge of his administration's day-to-day operations, Obama could be getting the best of both worlds: The new White House will still be a place filled with hope, change and all the other idealistic slogans and animating principles that helped him win the election. But lurking inside the West Wing, the new president will have a hatchet man ready to destroy anyone who gets in the way (and enjoy doing it).

Daily Beast: McCain Campaign Autopsy

Chief strategist Steve Schmidt talks about the moment--back in September--when he knew McCain was doomed. Plus, his surprising view on gay marriage, and more scoop on leaks.

Weekly Standard: The Unity Fantasy

Our infatuation with "unity" is a recurring delusion of American politics. Unity is a phantasm raising hopes for something that can't be delivered --or that, once delivered, would be so un-American it would scare us half to death. Yet unity was Obama's theme. The sales pitch was a proposition that seemed self-evident: The only way "to get things done" and "move this country forward" was to "bring us together," just as we believe Reagan did even though he didn't.

New Republic: Slow Learners

Among the intelligentsia, a handful of thinkers have started to argue that the failure of the Bush administration calls for a rethinking of conservatism. But the most powerful institutions of the right--Fox News, talk radio, National Review, The Weekly Standard, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and the major right-wing think tanks--remain firmly in the hands of conservatives who see the events of the last eight years as a vindication of their ideology.

NPR: Campaign Cyberattacks Prompt Swift Transition

Both the Obama and McCain campaign computer systems came under cyberattack earlier this year. The attacks were serious enough to prompt an FBI investigation.