Mitchell Measures the Drapes: 'I Think You're Going to See a Bipartisan Obama Administration'

You might know Barack Obama as the most liberal member of the Senate, a hyper-partisan who toed the Harry Reid line an amazing 97% of the time. But Andrea Mitchell sees in Obama a bipartisan president in the making. Appearing on Morning Joe today, Mitchell came close to speaking of an Obama presidency as a given, just managing to curb her enthusiasm. And wait till you see the people she cited as evidence of Obama's bipartisan proclivity.

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Mitchell suggested it was likely that, in his Meet the Press appearance this Sunday, Colin Powell will endorse Obama. She continued . . .

ANDREA MITCHELL: Obama has reached out to people in both parties from a number of generations. Just looking at him surrounded by Paul Volcker and Bob Rubin--Bob Rubin clearly originally in the Hillary Clinton camp, but whose son was very active in Obama's early candidacy. And the fact that he's reached to senior members of both parties in this financial crisis tells you a lot about the kind of foreign policy advice he'll also be seeking.

"He'll be seeking": presumably as president? Getting a mite ahead of ourselves, perhaps? Andrea allowed herself one sanguine thought before reeling herself and her fellow enthusiasts back in.

MITCHELL: I think you're going to see a bipartisan administration, if he is so lucky in 18 days or so be elected. And we shouldn't jump the gun there, just last night at the big Springsteen fund-raiser one of the things that Obama was saying to people was "don't screw it up, don't underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

Let's consider Andrea's evidence of Obama's bipartisan presidency-to-be. Obama is reportedly on friendly terms with Colin Powell, a man apparently poised to endorse him. Not exactly reaching out to an opponent. Bob Rubin? A member of the last Dem administration. As for Paul Volcker, yes he is an outstanding public servant who served in Dem and Republican administrations alike. But let's not forget that he was first appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve by . . . Jimmy Carter.