I wish the country more luck than I wish Obama; look at the signs so far. Mandatory “volunteer” hours for high school and college students? Yes, that will be dialed back until they find a balance acceptable to the public, but it shows where his heart is at. As does the Rahm Emanuel pick, which has a certain logic, but happens to also be a person on the record in favor of compulsory national service.

A new stimulus package, but no tax cuts. He states he could possibly be pursauded to hold off on his tax plan until the economy picks up, assuming it does pick up, since its temporarily trading down on his win. But he’s also talking a new stimulus package immediately, which has to be simply a reimbursement or redistribution of taxpayer dollars on top of a budget deficit. Better to have a straight tax cut, or to keep the money and balance the budget, than combine the worst of both approaches.

Socialized health care and gun control are coming down the pike whether Obama pushes them or not. (I think more likely not.) With Dems in charge of both houses of Congress, he can let them be the bad guys and “yield to the will of the people’s representatives” without spending too much of his own political capital.

I think the Buckleys and Brooks who expect him to be a moderate or centrist are going to be deeply disappointed. What he is, really, is a gradualist leftist, an Alinksy-ite. Hopefully, that will be enough.

Still, as a resident citizen and not a foreign commenter, I’d have taken Palin-in-waiting over Obama-in-fact.

Obama won!

That’s right!!!!

Look who’s the loser now!

Try betting on a winner next time.