The Real Obama
A Centrist? No. A Transformer

By Charles Krauthammer
Washington Post
Friday, December 12, 2008; Page A27

As Obama revealingly said just last week, "This painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people." Transformation is his mission. Crisis provides the opportunity. The election provides him the power.

The job of Obama's economic and security appointees is to keep credit flowing and the world at bay so that Obama can address his real ambition: to effect a domestic transformation as grand and ambitious as Franklin Roosevelt's.

Barack Obama has garnered praise from center to right -- and has highly irritated the left -- with the centrism of his major appointments. Because Obama's own beliefs remain largely opaque, his appointments have led to the conclusion that he intends to govern from the center.

Obama the centrist? I'm not so sure. Take the foreign policy team: Hillary Clinton, James Jones and Bush holdover Robert Gates. As centrist as you can get. But the choice was far less ideological than practical. Obama has no intention of being a foreign policy president. Unlike, say, Nixon or Reagan, he does not have aspirations abroad. He simply wants quiet on his eastern and western fronts so that he can proceed with what he really cares about -- his domestic agenda.

Similarly his senior economic team, the brilliant trio of Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and Paul Volcker: centrist, experienced and mainstream. But their principal task is to stabilize the financial system, a highly pragmatic task in which Obama has no particular ideological stake.

A functioning financial system is a necessary condition for a successful Obama presidency. As in foreign policy, Obama wants experts and veterans to manage and pacify universes in which he has little experience and less personal commitment. Their job is to keep credit flowing and the world at bay so that Obama can address his real ambition: to effect a domestic transformation as grand and ambitious as Franklin Roosevelt's.

Following is a list compiled by Investor's Business Daily of all the promises Obama made during his campaign.  Let's follow it and see how well he does.

Taxes

• Give a tax break to 95% of Americans.

• Restore Clinton-era tax rates on top income earners.

• "If you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime. Not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes. Nothing."

• Dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes.

• Give American businesses a $3,000 tax credit for every job they create in the U.S.

• Eliminate capital gains taxes for small business and startup companies.

It will surely not be long before Liberals forget how hateful they were towards President Bush.  So we will put this article here to remind them.  This documents the vicious liberal hatred expressed towards George W. Bush for most of his presidency.  This article is typical of liberal sentiments expressed towards George W. Bush during most of his presidency. 

Goodbye and Good Riddance
Paul Waldman | November 11, 2008 |
The American Prospect
    
After eight years of President Bush, we almost don't know how to function without him -- almost. But before we move on, we should pause to remember just what we're leaving behind.
   
Just over two years into George W. Bush’s presidency, The American Prospect featured Bush on its cover under the headline, "The Most Dangerous President Ever." At the time, some probably thought it a bit over the top. But nearly six years later, it's worth taking a moment to reflect on the multifaceted burden that will soon be lifted from our collective shoulders.

Since last week, I have stopped short and shaken my head in amazement every time I have heard the words "President-elect Obama." But it is equally extraordinary to consider that in just a few weeks, George W. Bush will no longer be our president. Let me repeat that: In just a few weeks, George W. Bush will no longer be our president. So though our long national ordeal isn't quite over, it's never too early to say goodbye.

President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rep. Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff drew fire Thursday from Republicans, and a few Democrats, who noted that a candidate elected on a call for change had turned to a veteran partisan pugilist for his first appointment. Rep. Rahm Emanuel's selection as chief of staff for Barack Obama drew criticism by Republicans and some Democrats.

The Obama transition team also announced Thursday, in a joint statement with the White House, that Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, will meet President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush on Monday afternoon at the White House.

"No matter how we cast our ballots, this election gives us all reason to be proud of our democracy and our country," Mr. Bush said to White House employees.

Mr. Obama also talked by phone with leaders of nine countries, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

But the first major task of the emerging administration was settling on a staff chief. Mr. Emanuel hinted at the difficult decision in his acceptance statement. In taking the job, the Illinois Democrat has left behind a career in Congress that began just six years ago but included engineering the Democratic takeover of the House in 2006 and rapidly ascending the ranks of leadership.

"I'm leaving a job I love to join your White House for one simple reason -- like the record amount of voters who cast their ballot over the last month, I want to do everything I can to help deliver the change America needs," he said. Mr. Emanuel, an Obama friend from Chicago's insular political world, brings to the post a hard-charging, sometimes profane voice that contrasts sharply with Mr. Obama's unflappable demeanor. He spent much of the Clinton administration inside the White House political office, shaping message and policy with a keen eye on its electoral impact. His legislative attention was focused on tax and health-care issues. But he angered some Latino organizations by steering the House away from a fight over an immigration-law overhaul.