OBAMA THE CAUTIOUS….More Ezra, this time on the likely impact of a Barack Obama presidency:
If the fact of Obama’s candidacy has been remarkable, however, it’s hard to escape the signs that his presidency will be rather less transformative. Obama’s domestic policy proposals were the weakest of the three major Democrats. His legislative instincts, as he’s frequently admitted and as his career suggests, are fairly cautious. His staff is primarily comprised of competent representatives of the center-left. His campaign picked no major fights with Democratic Party orthodoxy.
This is what makes the eleventh-hour conservative meltdown over Obama (he’s a socialist, a street thug, a terrorist lover, a radical leftist, etc. etc.) so strange. It’s true that Obama is something of a Rorschach test, with all of us seemingly projecting on him what we’d like to see (or, in some cases, fear to see), but the reality of the man sure doesn’t seem to support anything very apocalyptic. Yes, he’s young, black, and charismatic, but let’s get real: the real reason most people are thrilled with him is that he’s not George Bush. After eight years of Republican misrule, the Democrats could have nominated Austin Powers and the world would have breathed a sigh of relief.
As for Obama himself, Ezra is responding to a Jack Shafer column that complains about reporters being completely smitten by “the notion that Obama’s candidacy is momentous, without parallel, and earth-shattering.” But the links he provides — presumably the best he could Google up — are pretty thin fare, mostly just a few pundits claiming that Obama might help restore respect for America abroad. In fact, what’s struck me most about pro-Obama campaign punditry both in the blogosphere and the MSM is how little of it has been motivated by an active defense of Obama. Andrew Sullivan aside, the vast bulk has been anti-McCain and anti-Bush. The blogosphere, the country, and the world are just tired of Republicans. Obama has run a good campaign, but if Hillary Clinton had won the nomination (or Al Gore or John Kerry or Socks the cat) they’d all be ahead by seven points too.
