According to a source familiar with discussions within the White House about filling the Health and Human Services slot, Kathleen Sebelius very much wants the position and Obama would very much like to have her — he feels she is the most qualified person for the job and an excellent administrator. However, there are concerns that there will be a backlash by the anti-abortion community if she is nominated, and that’s not a battle the White House wants to have right now.

Their concerns center around Sebelius’s struggle with Kansas District Attorney Phill Kline. When her name was first floated as a potential VP pick last May, Robert Novak ran a column (picked up by Chris Cillizza, among others) that accused her of “what pro-life advocates term ‘laundering’ abortion industry money for distribution to Kansas Democrats.” At the time, as Cillizza notes, Sebelius was “sitting in the top slot on the Fix’s Veepstakes Line.” The Novak article may have played a big part in moving her down the list.

Abortion rates went down 8 1/2% during Sebelius’s term as governor, but that is small beer next to the pro-life media circus surrounding former Kansas Attorney General Kline, who many will recall abused his position to subpoena 90 patient medical records from abortion clinics (which he claimed were necessary to fight “child-rape”). They were subsequently leaked to Bill O’Reilly in time for Kline’s appearance on the show. Kline had a vendetta against Dr. George Tiller, one of the few remaining doctors in Kansas would still perform abortions, and appointed a special prosecutor with ties to Operation Rescue to investigate him. The Sedgwick County District Attorney subsequently threw the charges out, but to pro-life zealots for who regard the story as their own Brangelina, this was the sign of a vast conspiracy and Kline became a hero.

Kline was challenged for the Attorney General spot in 2006 by Paul Morrison. Sebelius helped recruit Morrison from the GOP to run against Kline, and Morrison received financial support from Tiller’s PAC, which according to Novak and the forced birthers is sign of a — you guessed it, grand conspiracy. The fact that even the Kansas GOP wants little to do with Kline doesn’t really enter into the narrative — after his defeat by Morrison he went on to replace Morrison as district attorney in Johnson County, taking the Planned Parenthood patient records with him. But he was defeated by another Republican, Steve Howe, who got 60% of the vote in a primary in January 2008.

Late last year, Planned Parenthood was successful in their suit and the Kansas Supreme Court forced Kline to return the patient medical records to them. As Feministing noted, “It’s about time. After a four-year anti-choice crusade against women’s health clinics in Kansas, former Attorney General Phill Kline was slammed by the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday for his baseless attempts to criminalize Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.” Kline had claimed that as a result of the seized records a rapist was caught, but Sedgwick County District Attorney said this was pure fantasy. “Kline had absolutely nothing to do with our case — nothing, zero,” she said.

Kline is a cheap hustler and a publicity hound so it’s understandable that the forced birth crowd would revere him as a martyr. But it’s hard to believe that a man like this could keep a supremely qualified candidate like Kathleen Sebelius out of Health and Human Services.

Original video here.

I drive an American car. It’s a Chrysler. That’s not an endorsement. It’s more like a cry for pity. And now for a decades-old story, retold ad infinitum by tens of millions of Americans, a third of whom have had to desert their country to simply find a damn way to get to work in something that won’t break down: My Chrysler is four years old. I bought it because of its smooth and comfortable ride. Daimler-Benz owned the company then and had the good grace to place the Chrysler chassis on a Mercedes axle and, man, was that a sweet ride! When it would start.

(more…)

WARNING: many may find this video offensive as turkeys are slaughtered in the background as Gov. Palin natters-on about reigning in big government.

Honestly, SNL couldn’t have written a more satirical skit; and sincerely, Tina Fey couldn’t possibly have played a more satirical characture than the Governor has provided for us–so, this Thanksgiving I will give thanks this scene played out in Alaska and not in Washington.

I especially liked one of the YouTube comments posted for this video: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” — Albert Einstein

The Kansas City Election Board certified its final results Monday.

Barack Obama picked up 491 votes from provisionals and other adjustments in the city; John McCain picked up 123 votes (from unofficial returns released election night.)

That’s a net gain for Obama of 368 votes in Kansas City. Overall, the Missouri Secretary of State says Obama trails McCain by 4,716 votes as of 2:30 p.m. Monday. (UPDATE: The margin moved back to 4,780 at 3:15.)

Final certifications are due with the SoS Tuesday, although the state has until early December to certify its final totals. Incidentally, Kansas City reported 23,344 absentee ballots this year — more than double the absentees in 2004.

original video here.

Democratic Presidential Nominee, Barack Obama and his family on election night in Chicago, IL on Wednesday, November 5, 2008. (David Katz/Obama for America)

How does the most organized and energized campaign in Missouri’s history drop blue for just about every office but President? How does the most organized and energized campaign in Missouri suffer several seemingly unconnected failures on the ground Election Day?

I probably wouldn’t ponder these questions as sourly or with as much prejudice towards the GOP if the margin of loss in Missouri were not separated by a mere two tenths of one percent; yes, two tenths of one percent (or 5,859 votes).

Just two more votes per precinct for Obama and Missouri flips blue—two more votes and Missouri retains its coveted bellwether status!

This is why when I hear that none (zero) of the lawyers that volunteered to be legal observers in Independence showed up—I want to know the names of those volunteers. That is why when the semi-automated Get Out The Vote (GOTV) system designed to deliver incremental votes in each precinct for Obama fails in Missouri; yet functions in other states—I want to know exactly why it failed.

I also want to catalog all of the other voting irregularities in the state and investigate those too. If you know of one please email me at admin@smartwhitehouse.org.

It is way too soon to say stolen election (or anything of the kind); but, after witnessing the most despicable GOP campaign of my lifetime—and enduring (as the New York Times aptly calls it) an imperial Presidency—I’m also not ready to celebrate without asking some tough question of Missouri.

The Obama in-box (as has been said) is quite daunting. It’s a good time for pragmatic intelligence, bias for action, limits on ideological biases and well–a Web 2.0 approach to governing.

Which brings me to a question I’ve been pondering for months: how would the most technically advanced and connected campaign in our history transition from campaign mode to the mode of governing?

Barack Obama has just provided his first clue.

Crowdsourcing in government begins here: http://change.gov/

I compare Obama to Google; an open systems approach to dealing with problems of scale–with solutions of scale. At least that has been my hope; especially since the last eight years we have been in an “AOL government” (pummeled by discontinuous innovations and insular thinking, walled-gardens and proprietary ideological approaches).

It’s an exciting first step. It’s a daring experiment. It’s going to need one helluva community manager to keep the negative, unproductive conversations at bay!

Amidst the triumph of an Obama win, Senate seat gains and general all around euphoria; I make SMART White House’s one thousandth post with three troubling thoughts top-of-mind:

1) The GOP ran a despicable campaign: once again using fear, division, prejudices and the perpetuation of racial stereotypes to get out the conservative vote. While that had little effect upon the outcome of the presidential race, social issues fell casualty in many states as a result. Sad.

2) In spite of a monumental effort on the ground to Swing Missouri And Rescue The White House–the citizens of Missouri were beat by the citizens of Missourah by a mere two tenths of one percent. Make no mistake, many voters went to the polls thinking Obama was a Muslim, a terrorist and socialist that wouldn’t wear a flag pin or swear-in on a bible despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. Ironically, most of these people will benefit most from an Obama presidency. Once again, Sad.

3) I still live in a red state. Sad.

Electoral Map.