November 5th 2008
Very Little Obama Drama
H
ad John McCain pulled off the win, he would have been bouncing all over the stage at the Phoenician with his big grin an his stiff-shouldered thumbs-up, happy in victory, ready to move forward.
That was not the Barack Obama we saw last night in Grant Park. While his speech was, as we’ve come to expect, beautifully written, his smiles were fleeting; his oratory subdued; his gestures tight and controlled.
It was the image of a man who suddenly realizes that his meteoric rise to the top is complete and now, for the first time, it won’t be about campaigning, but about getting real work done – work he’s never done before; work that’s going to be much harder than he ever imagined. Thus, this is the line that may well have been the truest in his entire acceptance speech:
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can’t solve every problem.
It stood in stark contrast to the “Yes we can!” theme of the speech and the can-do image the hasn’t-done-it candidate has projected over the nearly two years he’s been campaigning.
Obama enters office with an accomplished and cut-throat chief of staff, a 79-seat margin in the House and, as of this moment, a 56-41 margin in the Senate. He has every opportunity to drive energy costs up by banning drilling and taxing carbon. It’s in his power to change the tax code so both the do-nothings and the accomplishers get lazier. He can parlay his victory into a powerful force for radical, or at least liberal, social change.
It’s all in his power, and last night he appeared to be completely overwhelmed by it all.
He will gather strength as he pulls his staff together, and the subdued Obama is going to start prodding at limits, pushing America to the left. And as he does, we and the remaining conservatives in Washington are going to have to remember Michelle Malkin’s advice this morning after:
1) Oppose the Democrats’ next stimulus boondoggle.
2) Oppose Obama’s windfall profits tax proposal.
3) Oppose new bailouts for states deep in debt.
4) Oppose new foreclosure prevention measures that will simply provide perverse incentives for borrowers to walk away and delay a needed market correction.
5) No more federal loan guarantees for corporations (especially in light of this).
It’s not going to be a fun ride, but we’re tough and we’ve ridden through this particular wilderness before.
Saddle up, my friends.
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November 5th, 2008 at 9:16 am
America no longer has a whitehouse. It is now the blackest of blacks house. This lying, crack smoking closey homosexual will never be my president. God has truly damned America!
November 5th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I’m glad to see the Republicans deciding to act like Republicans once again. Too bad the calls for fiscal conservatism were all but abandoned under Bush. Maybe the GOP should remain the opposition party for a long time, since Republicans apparently are only principled when they are in that supporting role… Obama’s intentionally subdued speech despite obtaining a margin of victory not seen by either party in more than 2 decades was a welcomed change from the I-have-a-mandate, hubristic speech delivered by Bush four years ago. That was a welcome change. And McCain’s concession speech was pure class, in sharp contrast to the rude, rowdy crowd that gathered in the Biltmore courtyard to interrupt him repeatedly with boos for Obama and his overwhelming victory.