Wow - so this is what it feels like to be an Obamerican. Somehow it's not as bad as I thought it woud be. Of course, I'm still only an Obamerican-elect. We'll see what happens on January 1, 2009, unless, of course Armageddon strikes before then. Kidding, kidding...so far I've seen none of the signs of impending Armageddon!
I have to be honest. I sort of knew that Obama would win. Not because of the polls, but because there was no clear-cut Republican candidate this year. I supported McCain because he was not Obama, and not because he was my top choice. As I have said before, two-party politics is a series of pair-wise comparisons, and this year, for me it was Obama or not-Obama. What the Republicans have to do now is fall back and regroup, and try to remember what it is to be a Republican. It may be true that America is trending left, but I am not so willing to concede that point. I think that race played a part in last night's win (people are in love with the idea of descriptive representation - they have the idea that Candidate X can represent them better because he looks like they do - a point, by the way, which has been disproven by research. I beat this drum more often than any other: the office structures the behavior). I also have no doubt that Bush's historically low approval rating played a huge role in last night's win. Whether or not he is a true Republican, and I would vehemently argue that he is not, by definition, so, McCain wears the label of the party, and he paid for that dearly last night. Finally, yes, the sheeple-factor came into play last night as well. Last night was a popularity contest, and people wanted to go home with the winner. It stinks to be on the side of the loser. Ask me: I know.
So the Democratic party has a tremendous task ahead of it. For one thing, President-elect Obama (may as well get used to that title) has to decide who he is. Is he the most liberal member of the Senate who made dubious friendships and chose interesting religious mentors? Or is the President-elect the moderate that he campaigned as - a tax cutter and a Republican clone of sorts? Only time will tell. We know that we can't count on the mainstream media to tell us anything at all about Senator Obama, so we'll hope that lesser known sources keep apprised of his doings. Oh, and we'll see how long that middle-class tax cut stays on the agenda. How long was it before Bill Clinton shelved his? Two months after election?
Settle back and get used to life as an Obamerican...it's gonna be a long four years...
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Maybe it is wishful thinking but I think President-elect Obama will want to move to the left. Like you said, he campaigned that way and also, I'm sure he does not want his historic election to finish with one term. I must say the foreign affairs has me highly concerned, however. Although, there are rumors that Obama will appoint a Republican as his Secretary of Defense. I'm going to depend on minds like yours to keep him honest!
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