The Grownups

We keep hearing that the grownups are back in charge, but not everybody is convinced. The Daily Beast, for example, gets its panties in a bunch at the "The Hillary Groping Incident And Other Signs We're Back in 1950." Apparently the pictures showing Obama's 27-year-old chief speechwriter Jon Favreau groping a cardboard cutout of Secretary of State designate Hillary Clinton struck a nerve:

Check out what President-elect Obama's pick for director of speechwriting at the White House does in his free time.

This is the guy who puts words in Obama's mouth, right?

As discussed on The New Agenda blog:

These antics ought to be summarily condemned by president-elect Obama. He ought to fire Jon Favreau. If he does not fire Favreau, he risks fostering the perception that he condones Favreau's disrespect toward Sen. Clinton. He also risks encouraging this sort of behavior in other young men toward women who are not merely cardboard cutouts.

Drinking and sexual assault are a pernicious and persistent problem on college campuses.

It is a national catastrophe that 32% of our college women are victims of domestic violence.

Is the type of "change" we are meant to believe in? Looks like more of the "boys club" "(only 27% of Cabinet picks to date are women-less than President Clinton and President W. Bush)" that seems to be developing at the White House under President-elect Obama.

Actually, the Obama campaign did have kind of a "boys club" feel to it. Back in the Democratic primary, there were a number of statements from Obama that raised eyebrows. Obama said of Clinton, "You challenge the status quo and suddenly the claws come out." Obama talked about how Clinton was "periodically" feeling down. The ever sensitive Jake Tapper was spurred to ask whether Obama was "using sexist language" in his attacks on Clinton. Perhaps Obama was a bad influence on the younger, more impressionable Favreau.

Still, since this episode has become a bit of a "distraction," maybe it would be prudent of Obama to remove Favreau. As Ryan Lizza quotes Obama in a recent issue of the New Yorker, our president-elect doesn't really need the help anyway:

"I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director."