How Would You Want Obama To Govern

TW: The Economist examines how Obama should govern. They reference a mediocre Noonan WSJ piece warning him of the obvious which is that Obama would not have a mandate to push the county to the far left (but then the only ones afraid of that are fear mongering right-wing nuts). We will only find out if he wins but everything I perceive in Obama is that he is ultimately a centrist. The interesting part is that we are at a historical inflection point given the financial crisis overlaid with the transition of power from the West to the South and East. Perhaps bolder action not necessarily easily categorized as "left or right" is in the offing. I agree with the Economist, I do not believe this election would represent a material shift left for the US electorate even if the Dems do particularly well but more on that later.

From Economist:"Ms Noonan and other Republicans might be aiming to prevent a Democratic tax-and-spend fest. But Barack Obama should be egging these conservative pundits on. Arguably the biggest challenge Mr Obama will face if he is elected will be a jubilantly powerful Democratic Congress, ready to do all the things they ever wanted to—from pumping money into urban areas to eliminating secret ballots in union elections. Things that a lot of Americans won’t like. Though it seems a tad unfair to expect Mr Obama to hew to the centre when George Bush ran right after squeaky-close elections, look how well that ended up, ultimately, for Mr Bush and the GOP. The centre is where Mr Obama should want to be.
The obvious counter-argument, of course, is that 2008 is an earth-shaking election, jumbling up the electoral map we have all become used to and reflecting an American public that is now more centre-left than centre-right. Perhaps. But a lot of that has to do with the coincidental implosion of the Republican Party and the financial crisis, rather than a drastic ideological shift from where the country was only four years ago."

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/10/the_postelection_season_begins.cfm

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122479936986464521.html