President Barack Hussein Obama

(Cross posted from my weblog)

What to say about Obama’s not-terribly-surprising election?

My very good friend has an interesting post on his weblog reacting to the Obama victory. Even if one doesn’t agree with everything/most of what he says, the emotion of his annotation is palpable. Well worth reading.

I’m still just getting my head around the fact that this happened.  I haven’t fully digested it yet.  It’s such a historic event, such a significant marker in American, in world history that it can’t be overstated.  America has elected its first African American President.  Don’t even need to put that in italics.

I could never truly understand just how incredible, how symbolic, and how healing Obama’s election must be to the black community; nonetheless, its significance is certainly not lost upon me and I find myself smiling at the idea of his election. He’s not only non-white, he’s bi-racial. And his name! I love that his name isn’t Smith or Frank or Bauer. His name is Barack! His name is Barack Hussein! His name is Barack Hussein Obama! I love it. That, to me, is the most amazing thing. He didn’t prove to me that a black man could be president – I always believed it to be so – but that to get there, a man doesn’t have to change his entirety to conform to old ‘presidential’ stereotypes of stodgy gray-haired men with Western European names. Obama’s name alone opens up the presidency to people of innumerable backgrounds, or rather shows that it might have always been the case. An overwhelming precedent has been shown to have no clothes; I wonder how many DiCarlos or Al-Amans or Ishibashis or Mikashvilis will enter politics after today.

And, of course, it’s so nice to have a president who is so articulate, visibly intelligent, and cool. He has savvy political instincts and his campaign was superlative in its coherence, leadership, and execution. That cannot be disputed. The man simply evokes calm and trust in most of the electorate in ways no president since Reagan has. 

But, alas, I did not vote for him. If I am pleased about the historical significance of his election, it’s only as a consolation prize. While I certainly hope that his administration will do the right thing – and I sincerely do, as I have no intrinsic loyalty to the Republican Party – I am not comforted by his campaign, which espoused policies that have never done an iota of good in all of human history. His campaign advocated such ‘change’ that have traditionally been the wish list items of union bosses and anti-competition big business monopolists. The stuff that has never improved an economy (ever) and will only vest further power in an already bloated Federal bureaucracy, and all on the backs of some of the most economically productive people in this country while paying off the rest (40% of whom don’t even pay a cent in taxes) to go along with the plundering. Sorry, but that isn’t change I can believe in.

But then again, I’m encouraged by the last 48 hours. For all of Rohm Emmanuel’s reputation for ferocity and partisanship, he also seems to be a genuine Clintonian moderate in many ways and a firm supporter of Israel. That matters. The talk of Paul Volcker being picked as Treasury Secretary is also encouraging – the man is an intellectual giant and would lend great confidence to worldwide markets. Kerry for Secretary of State would be, um, a mistake; in their jubiliation, have the Democrats forgotten 2004? Richardson would be better.

I’m also encouraged by the fact that Obama and his people seem to be cooling off on a lot of many of his tax and spend proposals in light of an ailing, recession-bound economy. It also doesn’t help that the investor class, all of a sudden, has gotten very bearish on the idea of an Obama presidency. 

What does bother me is Obama’s plans to sign off on the Freedom of Choice Act, which will mandate to allow abortions to be paid for with Federal dollars, among other things, including rolling back parental notification and partial-birth abortion laws. This, I’m afraid, I cannot support. I’m entirely a federalist about this stuff; if we really want to roll back abortion rates in this country, this is not the way to go about doing it. Unfortunately, the real agenda for much of the pro-choice movement had nothing to do with reducing the tragedy of abortion.

Either way, now is the time to give our soon-to-be new President the benefit of the doubt. Everyone says a lot of things during the campaign season that can’t always be taken at face value, so it’s worth finding out what kind of presidency Mr. Obama plans on having. Will he govern as a left-centrist, like Clinton or JFK? Or will he be a well-intentioned, disastrous Jimmy Carter? I guess that remains to be seen, but for now I’m hoping he can actually live up to the post-partisan branding that his campaign ran on so successfully in the primaries and truly bring this country together. 

Although the signs aren’t encouraging, I hope that Obama can wield his tremendous influence to bring people together and truly mend the simplistic and inane divisiveness of Democrats-as-Commies versus Republicans-as-Nazis (No, Obama’s detractors aren’t necessarily racist, and no, this is probably not the end of democracy as we know it). As a Democrat will soon be in the highest office with a Democratic majority in Congress and legions of adoring fans at their call, the burden will ultimately lie with them, although Republicans and dissatisfied independents (like myself) would do well to make the right overtures. Does this mean bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship? No, no and no, but it does mean civility and cooperation for the public good. 

In short: Congratulations, Mr. Obama. Don’t screw us over.

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