File this one under “Deluded Expectations.” During MSNBC’s coverage of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, daytime anchor Alex Witt seemed frustrated that the election of Barack Obama 23 days earlier — and the accompanying “global outpouring of affection, respect, hope” — had not caused an end to terrorist violence.

Talking with correspondent John Yang, who was covering the Obama side of the story, Witt conceded that while “you certainly can’t expect things to change on a dime overnight….There had been such a global outpouring of affection, respect, hope, with the new administration coming in, that precisely these kinds of attacks, it was thought — at least hoped — would be dampered down. But in this case it looks like Barack Obama is getting a preview of things to come.”

It almost seems like a parody of liberals’ blind worship of Obama to actually expect that The One’s election would mean terrorists hanging up their bomb belts, peace around the world, lions lying down with lambs, and so forth. For his part, Yang delicately pointed out the more valid concern that “the enemies of the United States, those who don’t care for the United States no matter who’s leading it, would try and test the United States” during the transition from Bush to Obama.

Here’s the full exchange, that took place at about 2:55pm EST on Thursday, after Yang reported on how Obama was being fully briefed by the Bush administration on the terrorist attacks:

ALEX WITT: You know, John, and it’s interesting because there are many who had such an optimstic and hopeful opinion of things, and you certainly can’t expect things to change [snaps fingers] on a dime overnight, but there are many who suggested that with the outgoing Bush administration and the incoming Obama administration there would be something of a lull in terrorism attacks. There had been such a global outpouring of affection, respect, hope, with the new administration coming in, that precisely these kinds of attacks, it was thought — at least hoped — would be dampered down. But in this case it looks like Barack Obama is getting a preview of things to come.

JOHN YANG: He’s — it’s a rude awakening, a very, sort of, sober reminder of what he’s going to be facing in just a few weeks. And there is some concern also, there had been some concern, that during this period, during this, the transition period, between Election Day and Inauguration Day, that the enemies of the United States, those who don’t care for the United States no matter who’s leading it, would try and test the United States, would try to take advantage of this period, and I think that may be one thing that we’re seeing right now.

WITT: Okay, John Yang there in Chicago, following President-elect Barack Obama’s Thanksgiving Day dinner having been interrupted by all of this news from Mumbai. John, thank you very much.

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Gee, wondered liberal radio host Ed Schultz, how come conservative talkers got invited to the White House during the Bush presidency but not us lefties?

Here’s how Schultz put it in his inimitable way on Wednesday, initially describing how President-elect Obama has yet to call on a Fox News reporter during his transition press conferences (click here for audio) —

I should just tickle the memory a little bit of progressives out there and liberals across America that the Bush administration was a very selective White House. Ah, you know, they have soirees in the Oval Office with the right-wing talkers of America. In fact, many of you who don’t get this, it’s an industry magazine known as Talkers magazine, Michael Harrison is the publisher, does a real favor to the industry and a service to the industry by doing this monthly magazine, but there was a front-cover picture of Bush in there with all the right-wing talkers. You know who they are — Hannity, Ingraham, Boortz, Medved, Gallagher, Levin, I think he was all there, I don’t know. And the progressive talkers, you know, we lefties with microphones, we were never invited to the White House. Never got a chance to even urinate on the yard. You know? None of that.

With Obama destined for the White House, Mr. Schultz, looks like you’ll finally get your chance. Try not dribble on your pants before heading into the Oval Office.

Given the Obama team’s much-touted skills at logistics, surely they’ll line up sufficient punchbowls and Porta-Potties to handle all liberal talk host contingencies. Then again, by eschewing punchbowls they’ll need only half as many Porta-Potties, which attendees such as Schultz won’t use anyway.

Schultz’s Thanksgiving Eve utterance was the latest in a series of odd pronouncements from the top-ranked liberal radio host, including his comparison of Big Three CEOs seeking a federal bailout to a prostitute haggling with a john and post-election conspiracy-mongering about falling oil prices.

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Completely missing from media reports of the Mumbai attacks are India’s strict gun control laws, which virtually disarmed the people at the point of attack, turning them almost inevitably - and almost immediately - into victims.  (Hat Tip: Instapundit)

Should you - God forbid - find yourself in such a situation, you must act as though your life is already forfeit, since the jihadis will treat your life that way.  Difficult though it is, acting to thwart or complicate the attack is the best way to save your life and those of others.

Apparently, it hasn’t occurred to the media that the best way of making sure that doesn’t happen is to make the targets helpless.

Cross-Posted from View From a Height

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To mark World AIDS Day, Saddelback Pastor Rick Warren is hosting a Civil Forum on Global Health at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Warren will present President Bush with the first “International Medal of PEACE” from the Global PEACE Coalition in recognition of his unprecedented contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The “International Medal of PEACE” is given for outstanding contribution toward alleviating the five global giants recognized by the Coalition, including pandemic diseases, extreme poverty, illiteracy, self-centered leadership and spiritual emptiness. The Bush administration reports that its AIDS initiative helped treat two million people living with HIV/AIDS.

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Later today, President-elect Barack Obama will name some members of his national security team. The appointments will reportedly mark “a sweeping shift of priorities and resources” by greatly expanding a “corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states.”

In naming Susan Rice his ambassador to the United Nations today, President-elect Obama will pick “a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.” Obama will also restore the U.N. ambassadorship to a Cabinet-level position, as it was under President Clinton.

On the 20th anniversary of World Aids Day, governments across the globe are pledging “to step up the fight against HIV” and combat the stigma associated with the disease. Obama will deliver taped remarks to the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health.

NPR reporter Ivan Watson and three members of NPR’s Iraqi staff “narrowly escaped an apparent assassination attempt in Baghdad on Sunday after a hidden ‘sticky’ bomb exploded underneath their parked, armored BMW.”

“When the Iraqi government ratified an agreement last week setting new terms for a continued American presence in Iraq, private contractors working for the Pentagon faced the inevitability that they would be stripped of their immunity from Iraqi law.” Some experts said that contractors would be forced to rely much more on Iraqi employees, rather than on Americans. More »

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Remember how most of the mainstream media used to deride Ronald Reagan to the extent of constantly declaring the "end of the Reagan era?’ Well, now the MSM is starting to find "strange new respect" for Reagan but primarily as a way to boost Barack Obama. Newsweek columnist, Eleanor Clift, now favorably compares Obama to Ronald Reagan. Gone is the previous antagonism to The Gipper which has been replaced by admiration for his wisdom (emphasis mine): 

Enough with the Lincoln analogies; Reagan is the president that Barack Obama is most closely modeling himself after. Ronald Reagan inherited stagflation, a defeat abroad and a nation at its nadir in morale. Through the sheer force of his personality as much as his policies, four years later, it was "Morning in America," the theme of his 1984 re-election campaign when he won 49 states. Obama isn’t president yet, but his determined calm and orderly transition pace appear to be soothing the financial markets, producing the first sustained gain in stocks since the mid-September meltdown.

Gee, Eleanor, perhaps you might at least want to wait until Obama is actually in the Oval Office before comparing him to Reagan. Anyway, it is good to see some liberals finally recognizing the leadership abilities of a conservative president that they previously derided as being out of touch:

On Jan. 20, Obama will take the oath of office, join a private luncheon in Statuary Hall, then meet with congressional leaders and, if all goes according to plan, sign into law a massive stimulus plan before he proceeds up Pennsylvania Avenue to the viewing stand outside the White House for the Inaugural Parade. Reagan initiated the tradition of the Inaugural Day meeting with the legislative barons, a gesture that signals respect and sets a tone for the 100-day dash when a president can be most productive.

An interesting corollary to this Clift’s new-found admiration for Reagan is the derision of the two most recent Democrat presidents:

This will be the first time since 1960 that two senators have gone directly from Capitol Hill to the White House. The people they’re bringing with them, together with the relationships they have, constitute an unparalleled early warning system. Unlike Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, who quickly ran afoul of their Democratic majorities, Obama will be better wired on Capitol Hill than anybody in either party since Lyndon Johnson. Rahm Emanuel has a boatload of IOUs he can call in as chief of staff along with a high sensitivity to what it takes to preserve and build an enduring majority. Phil Schilero, tapped as Obama’s liaison to Capitol Hill, has deep roots in Congress both as a top aide to former Senate leader Tom Daschle and as ace House investigator Henry Waxman’s longtime sidekick. With Waxman displacing old bull John Dingell as chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, the prospects for meaningful action on a host of legislation, notably climate change, improve dramatically. Dingell is known as "Tailpipe John" for his fierce defense of Michigan’s auto industry against government regulation.

…Carter’s first 100 days turned contentious when key committee chairmen rebelled at his proposal to cancel several water projects he regarded as wasteful. The hometown loyalists Carter surrounded himself with had no idea of what a sacred cow they had taken on, and Carter was forced to back down.

It would have been nice if Clift and her fellow liberals had been honest in assessing Ronald Reagan while he was actually president. Instead they seem to have to wait 20 years to deliver some honesty on the 40th president and primarily as a way to boost a Democrat president-elect who hasn’t even assumed office yet.

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AFP	Obama set to formally name Clinton secretary of state AFP - 32 minutes ago CHICAGO (AFP) — Facing a string of grave foreign policy crises, Barack Obama was set Monday to name his one-time rival Hillary Clinton as secretary of state …

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Democratic officials say President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his secretary of state on Monday.

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Javno.hr

Choice of Clinton carries risks for Obama Reuters - 23 minutes ago … Lincoln's idea of creating a "team of rivals" in his Cabinet, may be gambling by choosing his ex-adversary Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. … President-elect Obama reaches out to former rivals San Luis Obispo Tribune all 10 news articles

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CNN is warning Americans that already making Barack Obama into one of America’s greatest “heroes” may not be a good idea. Despite the fact that Barack Obama has yet to take office, despite that he has yet to really do anything to earn that status, CNN is saying that “already, he’s being compared to the most remarkable leaders.”

It might make one amazed that now, after cheerleading for him for the last four years, CNN suddenly finds that calling Obama a hero is not necessarily the best idea. “The Americans who are comparing him to those remarkable predecessors,” CNN warns, “are putting a lot of faith in a man they barely know.”

And why do we “barely know” Barack Obama, CNN? Is it perhaps because the American media never took the time to vet this man? Is it because all we’ve gotten is hero worship from the media?

Still, CNN is quite right that putting Obama on a pedestal before he has even done anything is quite dangerous. In contravention to all of America’s past notables that became national heroes after they actually achieved something above and beyond, the media has bestowed this status upon Barack Obama ahead of any such achievement. Unfortunately, this sort of sycophantic deification undeserved risks a crash-and-burn greater than that of any other public figure in history and also courts an increase in racial tension that might seem to have been tampered by his election. As Obama fails to live up to the glorified hype the fall back retort to detractors will be to claim that they are racists. This will not help the US at all.

I seriously hope that Obama is at least an adequate chief executive for these United States. If he is not, this country could be in a serious mess both socially as well as politically.

But, I am afraid that what we are seeing with this CNN report is an early example of the media attempting to claim that it “warned” us all that things might not be so wonderful in Obamalot, a sort of plausible deniability of their complicity of hiding his past so he could win election. Even as the media is a chief reason that Obama became president in the first place, some outlets have begun to act as if they are now interested in “truth” and the “news.”

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