I'm not above an "Itoldyaso" when I feel I called the shot sufficiently right. In the face of withering fire from my conservative friends during the campaign, I predicted that Obama would, after running for office from the left, actually govern the country from the center-right.
According to The Politico Network, Mr. Obama has, to date, disappointed and dismayed the far left by surrounding himself with a center-right Cabinet. The national director of the Progressive Democrats of America seems so distressed he sounds like he thinks Obama is pitching a shutout: “He has confirmed what our suspicions were by surrounding himself with a centrist to right cabinet. But we do hope that before it's all over we can get at least one authentic progressive appointment.”
Among Obama's recent actions that are heartening (to me, at least):
1. Instead of immediately rolling back tax cuts for people making over $250,000 per year, he now says he will simply let them expire on schedule in 2010.
2. Instead of ending the war on is first day in office, he has stated he will begin to “design a plan for a responsible drawdown.”
3. He as changed his mind about taxing the "windfall" profits of large oil companies (which ought to hearten everyone whose retirement savings are partly invested therein).
Juan Cole, who runs a prominent anti-war blog called Informed Comment, echoed the view I expressed in an earlier post in this blog when he said of Obama, "But overall, my estimation is that he has chosen competence over ideology, and I'm willing to cut him some slack.”
During the campaign, I constantly warned my friends on the right to believe no campaign promise by any candidate. I also said that politicians run on the extremes in the primaries then move toward the center during the campaign. If elected, they govern by orbiting the center where most of the country's citizens actually live, politically speaking.
Of course, the performance of this new government remains to be seen, but I'm genuinely hopeful. So, my conservative friends, all hope is not lost. Yet.
Remember, Itoldyaso.
Posts
1 comment:
I don't necessarily agree, though I realize your older, wiser arguments can run circles around mine. ;) My thought is that now that he's in the Office of the President Elect (whatever the heck that's supposed to mean) and receiving daily briefings in preparation for the real job, he's learning that all his ideology can't stand up to reality or that perhaps some of his suggestions for change weren't the best idea for America. Sure, every candidate backpedals. But he offered some pretty memorably strong language during his campaign and is now rescinding on some of those promises for change. When all is said and done, it looks like politics as usual.
Post a Comment