Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

KONDRACKE: How would Obama govern?

By Morton Kondracke, Roll Call

Published November 2, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.

Text size  

Barring a phenomenal last-weekend surge to John McCain, Barack Obama is our next president. The question is: Who is Barack Obama?

After 22 months of campaigning, after thousands of speeches, dozens of debates and reams of position papers, it’s still not clear if he is a pragmatic post-partisan unifier or a populist liberal ideologue.

Some conservatives think he’s further out than that — a dangerous radical who really is a pal of unrepentant former Weatherman Bill Ayers and a disciple of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — but the evidence for that from his campaign behavior is next to nonexistent.

But as Obama delivered his “closing argument” last week, beginning Monday in Canton, Ohio, it remained impossible to tell how far left Obama will tilt on economics or how energetically he will reach out to Republicans.

Obama’s appeal to independents (like me) has always been in lines like this one from Canton: “Understand, if we want to get through this [economic] crisis, we need to get beyond the old ideological debates and divides between left and right.

“We don’t need bigger government or smaller government. We need a better government — a more competent government, a government that upholds the values we hold in common as Americans.”

It’s pretty clear that, under Obama, the size of government will grow. It will regulate more. It will spend more on health care, energy, education and infrastructure. And it will tax more. The question is: How much? Is Europe his idea of the good economy?

We may get some partial answers immediately after the election, if Obama takes a leading role — as he should — in determining the size and shape of the Democratic Congress’ second stimulus package, now renamed the “recovery package.”

Will Obama tell Democratic leaders that he wants tax cuts to be part of the package, as well as government bailouts to states, expanded unemployment benefits and infrastructure programs? Tax cuts do stimulate investment and create jobs — and they also appeal to Republicans.

The chances are that congressional Democrats will fare even better in the elections than Obama does. If they gain, say 30 House seats and eight in the Senate and he beats McCain by, say, 53 percent to 46 percent, congressional leaders might think they have a mandate to govern bigger than his.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has shown little inclination to be restrained in her liberalism either by Republicans or conservative Blue Dog Democrats.

And, if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., can muster 60 votes to thwart GOP filibusters, it’s President Obama who’ll have to insist on inviting GOP input into governing decisions.

On energy, for instance, will Obama face the reality that America will be dependent for 20 years or more on fossil fuels and agree with Republicans on the need for offshore drilling — and also, ready-to-build nuclear plants — or yield to carbon-phobic environmentalists who dominate his party?

Trade unions have contributed generously to the coming Democratic victory, and they will expect to be repaid.

In Canton, Obama said “when it comes to jobs, the choice in this election is not between putting up a wall around America or allowing every job to disappear overseas.”

But the AFL-CIO has never seen a foreign trade agreement it could support. Will Obama really abandon allies like Colombia — whose experience it could use in combating the drug trade in Afghanistan — in order to satisfy the unions?

And, what about trial lawyers, the largest group contributing to Obama’s campaign? They will doubtless try to get Congress to expand their ability to file suits in state courts — against drug companies, for instance, even though their products have to pass muster at the Food and Drug Administration. Will Obama support that?

“When it comes to health care,” Obama said in Canton, “we don’t have to choose between a government-run health-care system and the unaffordable one we have now.” But will he listen to GOP arguments that a major way to control rising costs is to empower consumers to make health-care choices?

In Canton, Obama said, “I will put in place common-sense regulations ... so that Wall Street can never cause a crisis like this again.” It’s clear there needs to be regulation to make sure credit-rating agencies do their jobs honestly and opaque “derivatives” are made transparent.

But there is also a danger of over-regulation that stifles innovation — and will Obama agree, as Republicans have long argued, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also need to be regulated, which congressional Democrats oppose? He has never mentioned it.

On foreign policy, will Obama really depart Iraq “carefully”? If he doesn’t, that country’s collapse into new sectarian strife could be his first disaster.

It was impolitic for Obama’s running mate, Joseph Biden, to say it, but Obama’s “mettle” will be tested very soon — not only by foreign foes, but his domestic allies. Let’s hope he’s the man we hope he is.

Mort Kondracke is the executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955.

Comments

  • November 2, 2008

    6:03 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    eoj writes:

    Skin Deep
    USweekly Staff
    We liked Oprah. We liked Obama. When the two joined forces in 2007 we were excited. What new ideas and innovative solutions would these two produce? Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine they would produce the show we saw on the trail in South Carolina.

    Obama angrily rallied crowds with "they shot us with hoses" and "they set dogs on us". Oprah said having Barack Obama as President of the United States would be "living the dream". "Us against Them" and "We shall Overcome" were themes. It was uncomfortable and disturbing.

    Since then we've vetted Barack Obama. Now that we know him, we see where he's coming from, and that's enough for us. We don't need to know any more about Obama. His agenda is apparent in his record. He will change America. Before you vote get to know him. Vet Obama.
    http://www.usweekly.com/

  • November 2, 2008

    6:05 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    eoj writes:

    Bankrupt the coal industry and what will you get??

    SHOCK Audio Unearthed OBAMA TELLS SAN FRANCISCO HE WILL BANKRUPT THE COAL INDUSTRY
    Video 1:55 minutes

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdi4on...

  • November 2, 2008

    6:05 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    eoj writes:

    And to make it perfectly clear…
    A Marine's perspective
    Video 3:50 minutes

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAb5lM...

    Proud OR Ashamed…

    And what should have been the final nail…
    Obama & Live Birth Abortion
    Video 5:32 minutes

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYRpIf...

  • November 2, 2008

    7:08 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

    The GOP must regroup and be prepared to take the offensive in 2010. The GOP dropped the ball in 1994 when they won. They failed at governing and allowed the Dems to intimidate them.

    The GOP can undo the harm but it has to unite and stop playing appeasement politics with the Dems.

  • November 4, 2008

    6:23 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    greenleaf writes:

    eoj, You certainly do a lot of cutting and pasting my friend. I guess you believe in the one size fits all approach to blogging. One or two original posts patched to multiple sites often enough means we all stop reading what you have to say. Its the old "second verse same as the first" routine. After two years we are all tired of partisan pablum, rehashed over and over, ad nauseum. Give us something original please.

  • November 4, 2008

    6:34 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    greenleaf writes:

    Mike,

    I, too, think that the GOP needs to reinvent itself. They need to stop pandering to the religious right and to return more to the values of Reagan and William F. Buckley. The mean-spirited hard ball politics of Karl Rove needs to be abandoned as well, it was never pleasant to witness and now, at last, it is backfiring.

    I would prefer that we have a centrist third party, but failing in that, I would like to see both parties move closer to the center where the majority of Americans would benefit.

    Even if the Democrats win by the landslide that appears increasingly likely, there are lessons they should learn from this as well. If they move too far to the left, drunk with power from recent gains, they will ultimately suffer the same fate as the current batch of Republicans. For now, the Republicans are the party guilty of scandal and glaringly bad policy. Its time to throw the bums out and to start over.

  • November 4, 2008

    12:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    TimeLord writes:

    eoj shows the desperation and intellectual dishonesty of the right-wing. His copy and paste smears would be laughable if they weren't so pathetic. But squeal as he might, Obama will be his president.

  • November 10, 2008

    5:55 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    sac621 writes:

    To Be fare and balanced .........All the conservatives must now swing to the far right to keep it real.