For some reason or other I seem to be seeing all sorts of posts about disappointments with the results of Tuesday’s election. It goes without saying that lots of Republican bloggers are very disappointed. I’m seeing all sorts of doom and gloom from those quarters. However, they’re not the only ones who may be in for disappointments.
Col. Pat Lang predicts that the following groups (in order) will be disappointed with an Obama Administration:
- The far Left. (Binh {corrected}, etc.)
- Many Black Americans
- Arabs and Muslims
- Characters like Chris Matthews.
Aziz Poonawalla seconds Col. Lang’s first group:
However something that the far left will need to understand is that the mandate is for Obama, not them. The liberal leftist netroots are self-described as “progressive†– which is unabashedly NOT “center-leftâ€. The netroots played a major role in Obama’s victory but in another sense, they were also irrelevant, since Obama created his online base virtually from scratch (the netroots are, however, much more directly responsible for the Congressional downballot successes). So, expectations of a “progressive†agenda are probably going to be met with disappointment, as Obama’s instincts are soldily centrist.
I’ve already predicted that the Blue Dog Democrats will rise significantly in prominence and I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see a return of something like the triangulation that Bill Clinton employed with the Democratic Congressional leadership, the Blue Dog Democrats, and the Republicans played off against one another.
Chris Bowers at OpenLeft already sees a reason for disappointment in the appointment of Rahm Emmanuel as White House Chief of Staff:
Now even with all of this said, Rahm himself isn’t the problem. It is more worrying that Obama was looking for someone like Rahm as his Chief of Staff. If we can expect an Obama administration to display the same characteristics I described above, this could be a frustrating–but still of course improved–four years.
Would I be reading too much into Chris’s post to conclude that he believes that President Elect Obama has already begun the 2012 campaign?
Update
Pat at Stubborn Facts is disappointed with the unhinged and fratricidal reaction from some Republican bloggers to the election results:
…I feel compelled to oppose the short-sighted fools who can’t find it in themselves to put aside the campaign and extend some sort of token statements of good will to the man who will soon be our President. Extending the olive branch is not a sign of weakness, it is not capitulation. I will continue to fight President-Elect Obama on probably every front, and I will spare no rhetorical flourishes in condemning policies which he proposes that I find to be truly horrifying, wrong, bad, and even evil. But I’ll be attacking the policies, not the man… and if only these commenters would lend their weight to the effort, that opposition would be easier, and have a greater chance of success.
Dave, after running the numbers, I have to disagree with you here. If you take out all of the Democrats in Congress who caucus with the Blue Dogs or come from more traditionally conservative districts, Pelosi and Reid can both eke out majorities. Given that, I don’t know if they’ll be as influential as you predict.
It’s interesting to read about these “disappointments.”
First off, I find it hard to believe that anyone is really so naive as to think that any President can effectively lead from either fringe of the electorate. This is a very centrist country. And our center is further to the right than almost any other western democracy. I say that as an individual who leans quite far to the left on many issues.
I’m not under any illusions that my views are those of the majority. As such, Ihave no expectations that President Obama will lead this country just as I would wish. no one gets just what they want out of an election. What I hope for is moderate progress on issues I consider critical and a generally thoughtful and non-ideological approach to the greater challenges facing the US and the world.
I expect an intelligent and effective administration under President Obama, nothing more. He will be a roaring success just by addressing the most urgent problems facing us, let alone curing our health care ills or some of the problems of our educational system.
People of all political stripes need to continue to agitate for their positions on specific issues. That’s what it takes to get things done, to effect real change over time. The job isn’t done with the election, people. If you care about an issue continue to advocate for it, with the new President as well as the congress.
Of course it depends on your frame of reference. If one means relative to politics in this country, political opinion in this country is by definition centrist. If you mean relative to views in OECD countries, we’re quite right wing.
I’m a center centrist. Painfully centrist by practically any measure you’d care to name. By German or French standards I’m center-right, maybe right wing.
Ideologically, both of our major political parties would fit handiy into the British Conservative Party with lots of ideological space left over.