Over the course of the day I’m going to collect a list of good things about an Obama Administration, compiled from the posts of those who support John McCain in the election, those, like me, who were reluctant Obama supporters, and Obama supporters who aren’t gulls.
From my perspective by far the best thing about an Obama Administration with solid majorities in both houses of Congress is that Democrats will need to take ownership of our foreign policy. That gives us at least a chance of having a bipartisan foreign policy for the first time in decades. This is make or break time for the Democrats on foreign policy and the military. If they take the horse by the reins and are successful, it will strengthen our hand in the world enormously. If they fail or, Hamlet-like, are unable to decide one way or another it will be a generation before a Democrat sits in the Oval Office again.
The Constitution is pretty clear about the responsibilities of the office of President: the military, the federal bureaucracy, and foreign policy. The powers and responsibilities of the presidency in things like health care, education, and economic policy are actually pretty much limited to enforcing the law. The real responsibility in those areas belongs to the Congress, however reluctant its members are to shoulder it.
So far the most amusing thing I’ve read about what would be good about an Obama Administration comes from Steven Den Beste:
…no one will be spinning grand conspiracy theories about this administration’s Vice President being an evil, conniving genius who is the true power behind the throne.
Dave Price points to an end on raids on medical cannabis clubs, tax cuts, and the very fact of an African American president.
I’ll post more as I run across them.
Update
Let us resolve to hold him [ed. President Elect Obama] to that promise of listening — because we will almost certainly have points of disagreement along the way.
But the fact that this may be a president who reaches out to opposing views, who considers criticisms and questions, is such a refreshing change from the current WH resident that I needed to pause for a moment and savor the potential of having a grown-up in the White House for a change.
Whatever changes we see, it will be up to all of us — every single one of us — to push them forward.
Time will tell. I hope that she’s right on this.
The “post-racial” era has begun. Let’s see how it proceeds. But the “we can’t get there from here because of racism” meme is dead and I’m going to be very intolerant of any attempts to resurrect it.
There are too many who have built their careers on the fact and fiction of racism for it to be abandoned soon but the claims certainly will look increasingly surreal.
If you believe that there will be another repulbican president of the U.S., then you must of been visiting the cannabis clubs. do you really think that a single African-American who voted for Obama this year would vote against him in four years.
As someone from Chicago, you should be able to recognize the one party politics that is coming to the U.S.
On the subject of racism. . . come on, racism will always exist. The issue is not, is there racism or does it affect anyone. The issue that’s been tossed about is that of the “racist nation” and that meme is definitely dead!!! Long may it rest in peace.
A successful Obama presidency will go a long way towards addressing the remaining soft racism of many. Hard core racists, white and black supremacists and their ilk will be around regardless of the reality before their eyes. They’ll just join their Nazi brethren in obscurity and irrelevancy.
@Superdestroyer . . . a joke, right? African-Americans make up a small percentage of voters. Even in this election it was “only” 13% and that’s concentrated in certain areas. If that’s deadpan humor it just died.
Emgersh,
Do voted for Obama this time who will not vote for him in four years. Hispanics? Asians? Professional Whites? Single white women? Does anyonoe really believe that short of being caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl that Obama will be reelected?
“Hispanics? Asians? Professional Whites? Single white women? ”
SD: If in 4 yrs, the economy is still in the tank (not outside the realm of possibility), there is another serious terrorist attack (dirty bomb?), the war in Afghanistan is continuing the way it is now, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and a new cold war with Russia starts…
I can definitely see enuf of all of the above voting for a credible Republican candidate… Of course, that all depends upon the GOP finding a credible candidate.
On best things about an Obama administration:
No David Addington.
Tom
Do you really think people who are willing to relect Kwame Kilpatrick and Marion Barry would really care about U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan or a new cold war.
There is no issue short of a huge personal scandal involving homosexuality that will be enough to keep Obama from being reelected. Obama will still be able to blame the Republicans in four years for all of his problems and the MSM will go along with it. See how O’Malley still blames the Republicans for all of his problems in Maryland even though the state is dominated by Democrats.
SD:
Are you saying that “Hispanics? Asians? Professional Whites? Single white women” are the people who re-elected Kwame Kilpatrick and Marion Barry?
Are you saying that Kwame Kilpatrick and Marion Barry had to deal with the issues of a depressed world economy, the threat of another serious terrorist attack, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the possibility of a nuclear armed Iran and North Korea, a new cold war with Russia, China trade relations, etc, etc?
That is not apples and oranges, it’s lawnmowers and nuclear powered submarines.