President Barack Obama
November 6th 2008 05:50
America has spoken. Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States of America. Once again, democracy has worked and we will have a peaceful transition of power. He was not my choice, but he will now be my president. As such, I will certainly give him the benefit of the doubt and I wish him well. Our nation faces a lot of challenges and we need to pull together to solve them.
Having said that, I hope that President-Elect Obama will be wise enough to govern from the middle. As I've noted before, Obama was the most liberal Senator in 2007. Likewise, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was also one of the most liberal Senators last year and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the more liberal members in the House. They will set the agenda for the country. They will be pressured to push through extremely liberal legislation. However, this is not a liberal country. Obama got a large margin of victory in terms of electoral college votes, but the popular vote showed a 53%-46% split. In other words, 46% of the country voted for McCain despite the fact that the GOP brand is in tatters. 46% of the country voted for McCain despite the record-low approval ratings of the sitting Republican president. Likewise, in exit polling, voters identified their ideology as follows:
Liberal - 22%
Moderate - 44%
Conservative - 34%
Despite the fact that the Republicans were soundly rejected, you can see that this is still a center-right country. The bulk of the nation's voters are moderate, but there are a lot more self-identified conservatives than liberals. While the temptation to force through far-left legislation will be great, Obama should keep reminding himself that the USA simply is not a far-left country. Furthermore, he should learn from the failings of Bill Clinton in 1992. Clinton tried to govern from the left upon taking office and the country responded by sweeping the GOP into power in the House and the Senate in the 1994 elections. If Obama wants to be an effective leader and if he wants to maintain lasting majorities for his party, he should be very mindful of the ideological leanings of the country. If he does so and governs accordingly, he can be a well-liked and successful president. If he chooses to push the country to the left, he will quickly see his party's advantages erode and he will have a miserable four (or eight) years in office.
Having said that, I hope that President-Elect Obama will be wise enough to govern from the middle. As I've noted before, Obama was the most liberal Senator in 2007. Likewise, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was also one of the most liberal Senators last year and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the more liberal members in the House. They will set the agenda for the country. They will be pressured to push through extremely liberal legislation. However, this is not a liberal country. Obama got a large margin of victory in terms of electoral college votes, but the popular vote showed a 53%-46% split. In other words, 46% of the country voted for McCain despite the fact that the GOP brand is in tatters. 46% of the country voted for McCain despite the record-low approval ratings of the sitting Republican president. Likewise, in exit polling, voters identified their ideology as follows:
Liberal - 22%
Moderate - 44%
Conservative - 34%
Despite the fact that the Republicans were soundly rejected, you can see that this is still a center-right country. The bulk of the nation's voters are moderate, but there are a lot more self-identified conservatives than liberals. While the temptation to force through far-left legislation will be great, Obama should keep reminding himself that the USA simply is not a far-left country. Furthermore, he should learn from the failings of Bill Clinton in 1992. Clinton tried to govern from the left upon taking office and the country responded by sweeping the GOP into power in the House and the Senate in the 1994 elections. If Obama wants to be an effective leader and if he wants to maintain lasting majorities for his party, he should be very mindful of the ideological leanings of the country. If he does so and governs accordingly, he can be a well-liked and successful president. If he chooses to push the country to the left, he will quickly see his party's advantages erode and he will have a miserable four (or eight) years in office.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Lester Caudill
Round Politics
Comment by PopulistConservative
Angry Electorate
We know he lied about a number of things during his campaign (in ads about McCain, in his refusal to take public financing, about his relationships). Maybe his campaign promises were lies, too, and he won't implement all the dangerous policies he said he would.
Comment by PopulistConservative
Angry Electorate