Thursday, December 25, 2008

Is Obama a Centrist?

Or is he just playing one on TV?
CAN YOU HEAR the grumbling over in what Howard Dean used to call "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party?" The tolerance-and-diversity crowd is upset with Barack Obama; it seems the president-elect has been bringing people into his circle who don't agree with them on every single issue.
....
As if all that weren't enough to give a fervent liberal agita, Obama has asked the Rev. Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor of Saddleback Church, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. From many on the left, where Warren's staunch opposition to same-sex marriage is reason enough to loathe him, responses have ranged from dismay to fury. Barney Frank labeled the pastor's views "very offensive" and pronounced himself "very disappointed" that Obama would invite him. The blog Liberal Rapture was more pungent: "Obama throws another middle finger to liberals." ...

Still, Obama is hardly in danger of turning into anything resembling a right-winger. With his trillion-dollar "stimulus" proposal, he is inviting comparisons to FDR. And with committed liberals like Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services secretary, Carol Browner as energy czar, and Eric Holder as attorney general, the Obama administration is never going to be accused of harboring Republican tendencies.
During the campaign, I saw Obama compared with the dog chasing a car -- "What'll he do if he ever catches one?" Well, he caught one, and now he's having to figure out what to do with it.
What some are calling psychopathy, I think is better described as malignant narcissism. The Clintons, for example, are on the side of the Clintons -- period. So is Obama. But even a his age, I'm willing to wait and see if his is the narcissism of youth and whether he might be willing or able to grow out of it. (Being on the Left means never having to grow up.)
Maybe he'll be forced to grow into the office, and into being a mature human being. We can let him, and give him credit if he does so. Or we can treat him the way the strident Left treated GWB for eight years.

No comments: