Now that Sen. Barack Obama has become President-elect Barack Obama, and Congress has beefed up its Democrat majority, what can we expect?
We have elected the most liberal senator in Congress. Do we expect that he will govern that way too? He talks eloquently about uniting this country. It makes everyone feel good when he talks that way. Who could argue with rhetoric like that? Yet, I haven’t heard him elucidate exactly what it is about the American people that need uniting.
Now, as Obama moves through his transition to the White House, this effort to square the political circle becomes the defining challenge in the months ahead. Which Barack Obama will dominate as he begins to govern?
Too much of the ambitious liberal, and he rekindles partisan squabbles he was supposed to transcend.
Too much the cautious mediator who reaches across the aisle to compromise with Republicans, and he risks losing the energy and idealism that attracted millions to his candidacy.
The historical significance of America’s choice is inescapable. Has Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream been realized? And what impact will this have on the race industry for Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? An industry that ought to go bankrupt, with no federal bailout.
For a legislator that has no record of reaching across the aisle, President-elect Obama certainly has his work cut out for him.
related links: Which Barack Obama will govern? | Wizard of ID
