Obama Campaign vs Obama Reality

Hey, we have all seen the approach of sell the sizzle then provide the steak. Not sure why people expect Barrack to be any different. Here is a more astute observer than I comparing the campaign with the actual reality and BHO has not even been inaugurated yet. Campaigning is one thing. The cold reality and having to deal with it is another. So far , I am not sure if this is change nor am I sure I can believe in it.

Ed

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/479/2/

Surreal

Imagine: in March 2008 candidate Barack Obama announces:

(1) I promise to offer my rival Hillary Clinton the Secretary of State job, due to her superior knowledge of foreign affairs;

(2) Bob Gates has done a fine job with Afghanistan and Iraq and the war on terror (and missile defense and Guantanamo?) and he must stay on;

(3) We need a four-star general (who was George Bush’s Mideast envoy) like James Jones as National Security Advisor;

(4) John Edwards came out early for me, but I can’t appoint someone erratic like that to anything, and the best I can do for an equally early supporter like Bill Richardson is Commerce;

(5) I need more Clinton pros and that’s why I’m picking John Podesta, Rahmn Emanuel, Eric Holder and any others I can get to run the transition—and run the executive government;

(6) Oh, and I think the terrible FISA accords, Guantanamo, and the Iraq War are complex questions that surely require more than flippant campaign dismissals;

(7) Those Machiavellian oil companies that jacked up oil prices and deserve windfall taxes on their obscene profits, are incompetents who can’t control the market and will be lucky to turn a profit as prices will plummet—and so no need now for windfall taxes.

As I gauge the conservative reaction to all this, it seems to fall info four categories:

(1) This is outrageous hypocrisy! Obama ran a bait-and-switch campaign and deliberately misled the public and unfairly demonized his opponents with full knowledge he would flip as soon as he was elected and had responsibility for governance not campaign rhetoric;

(2) This is great! Gates and Jones are superb. Hillary is a heck of a lot better than a Biden or Richardson or Kerry at state. Petraeus and Crocker will still direct Iraq, and we will still be protected by the Patriot Act, wiretaps of terrorists, and keeping the enemy over there in Afghanistan and Iraq;

(3) This is tricky! Obama is just appointing bumper-sticker centrists, but the real governance is done beneath the radar-screen, so watch him usher in a host of stealthy leftists to wage the revolution;

(4) This is pathetic! Obama is a deer-in-the-headlights who hasn’t a clue what to do. He has no cadre of trusted, long time confidants, and hasn’t even taken office and yet has already switched positions ad infinitum, and looks as lined and tired as George Bush did after eight years of actual governance.

Myself? I haven’t got a clue to what is going on, and just hope (sincerely!) that he governs well and, in Ajaxian fashion, helps our friends and confounds our enemies.