Let's move on: what is President Obama going to be like?

[MikeWaters]

Is he going to be more centrist than he was as a Senator? Or is he going to feel like he has a mandate to enact a lot of really liberal policies?

Of course the GOP is going to try and make him the most unpopular president in modern history. But how does the GOP reinvent itself? Will they once more shed their congressional leadership, or are they just going to keep doing the same ol' same ol'?

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Is he going to be more centrist than he was as a Senator? Or is he going to feel like he has a mandate to enact a lot of really liberal policies?

Of course the GOP is going to try and make him the most unpopular president in modern history. But how does the GOP reinvent itself? Will they once more shed their congressional leadership, or are they just going to keep doing the same ol' same ol'?

They all move to the middle once they're in office. His presidency won't look much different than McCain's.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by jay santos

They all move to the middle once they're in office. His presidency won't look much different than McCain's.

What a lame answer.

The first place to notice stark differences will be judges. Obama will put more liberal men on the bench.
Another place to notice it is in foreign policy. Look for victory as a goal to be discarded, and troop draw-down to become the primary military objective.
One more off the top of my head is in spending, particularly health care. Get reading for HillaryCare 2.

McCain would not do any of those.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Cali Coug

Troop draw down already is our objective. Ask Maliki and Bush.

No, it's not. The defining objective of the mission is and will always be victory, defined in this case as a stable Iraqi gov't and stable Iraqi security.

Troop draw down has always been secondary to that goal. Not so under an Obama administration.

[Ma'ake]

Originally Posted by Tex

The first place to notice stark differences will be judges. Obama will put more liberal men on the bench. Another place to notice it is in foreign policy. Look for victory as a goal to be discarded, and troop draw-down to become the primary military objective. One more off the top of my head is in spending, particularly health care. Get reading for HillaryCare 2.

McCain would not do any of those.

Agree on judges, foreign policy will be "saner", Iraq will wind down, but we won't see any mistakes like that, certainly not on that scale. Health care spending will go up, but HillaryCare 2 won't happen, no way, no how. Even if there are attractive aspects of a single payer system, that won't be enacted any time soon - too many big players in DC that oppose that.

Overshadowing all of this, of course, will be economic matters.

When Larry Summers is defending the market system to an international audience, it's an indication that the whole economic model is under assault.

"Don't seek to reject the market system. Don't learn the lesson that some planned-economy model produces better results," implored Summers, who was a member of Bill Clinton's cabinet and former World Bank economist.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...is-Summers.php

Obama certainly won't sack capitalism, but anyone who thinks our system doesn't need reform, regulation and some well-thought-out intervention is delusional. (And no, Barney Frank didn't cause this global ripple.)

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Cali Coug

So why did we agree to a withdrawal timetable with Iraq? Did we already declare victory?

We've had several victories, but there is no timetable the way Kerry in '04, Obama in '06-08, and Democrats generally mean it.

[Indy Coug]

We must have declared victory since the Obama campaign barely mentions Iraq anymore.

[RC Vikings]

My kids are going to college for free, my families health problems will be taken care of, this country will run off of wind and solar, their will be no more rich and no more poor, we will all be as one. I can't wait for socialism.

The more McCain says dumb ass stuff like he would have the feds buy up all the bad mortgages the more people are going to think what's the difference.

[Mormon Red Death]

Originally Posted by Ma'ake

Obama certainly won't sack capitalism, but anyone who thinks our system doesn't need reform, regulation and some well-thought-out intervention is delusional. (And no, Barney Frank didn't cause this global ripple.)

"Well thought out intervention" is what got us into this mess in the first place...

[SeattleUte]

Obama and his friends will take no prisoners. It is going to be like 1980, but the other way around. The judges will all be certified atheists who believe the First Amendment was intended to cover peep shows.

The federal register will quadruple in size. They'll try to nationalize all the health carriers and hospitals. We will see a golden age of protectionism, unions, and isolation.

For better or worse this is the end of America as a super power. World, you're on your own. I hope Western Europe is there to pick up the mantle of leadership in intenational affairs we will have abandoned.

Who is to blame? George Bush and the social conservatives who supported him. (Yes, the Mormons are among the guilty parties; what a great year to offer up Prop. 80, dipshits; karma.) For my part, I'm totally fed up with their knuckleheaded relgious banter and jingoism, so I can only imagine how less conservative voters feel. More than ever I feel the conviction that George W. Bush was our worst president ever. He destroyed the conservative movement--it will likely not recover in 28 years--and quite possibly this country. In his retirement he should be as reviled and despised as Barry Bonds. Bush is evil, and worse, very stupid.