Have Faith

I promised not to speak about the election after it was over. So, to be clear, this is not about the election, but about what legitimately follows.

Today begins the preliminary creation of Obama’s presidency. He has already picked someone to manage his transition team. We will begin to hear the names of nominees for various cabinet posts. We may even begin to see some of the first salvo of bills revealed in draft format.

For those who fear that the end is upon us, have faith. Remember that in the first 2 years of Clinton’s presidency when he had both house and Senate on his side, he still failed on healthcare. It wasn’t just because of those nasty Republicans. The Democratic base is quite broad, spreading from somewhat conservative to extremely liberal. Take a chunk of the moderate to conservative Democrats out of Obama’s column when the ideas get too far left and it doesn’t happen.

Even if they had managed to get their 60 in the Senate, there was no slam dunk on Obama legislation. It didn’t work for Bush in his best years. It didn’t even take the threat of a Democratic filibuster to keep some of his grandest ideas from working.

Remember. Presidents mostly administer what the legislative branch gives them. Since neither party is a homogenous, lock-step unity, you can be assured that while the tendency will be more liberal for the next 4-8 years, it will not be a watershed. It will be more mainstream.

Winston Churchill is attributed with saying something like “Raising taxes to grow the economy is like standing in a bucket and trying to pick up the bucket.”