Obama Looks To The Right

The Weekly Standard: Is Barack Obama A Secret Centrist?

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by
Fred Barnes.

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Barack Obama wants to give the economy a jolt. So far, though, the biggest jolt we've seen is the one the economy has given to Obama. That jolt, in the form of a plummeting stock market, upset Obama's desire for a leisurely transition. It made him virtually America's acting president.

Obama is fond of saying-he said it again last week-that the country has only one president at a time, and until January 20 it's George W. Bush. True enough, but financial markets don't look at Washington that way. They focus on the future, and that means Obama. Financial markets demanded at least some comforting hints about Obama's plans for reversing the economic downturn.

Reluctantly, Obama has begun to provide them. But it took a 900-point dip in the stock market, plus persistent pleas, for Obama to act. After two days of market collapse, his aides spread the word that Obama's choice for secretary of the Treasury would be Timothy Geithner, the head of the Federal Reserve in New York.

Last week, Obama made his choice of Geithner official. And he named former Treasury secretary Larry Summers his top economic counselor at the White House and chose a monetarist, Christina Romer of the University of California at Berkeley, as the head of the Council of Economic Advisers. The stock market rallied. This was change financial markets could believe in.

There's a larger point here. It's not that Obama, despite his unswervingly liberal record in the Senate, turns out to be a pragmatist. The point is he's pragmatic (so far) in one direction-rightward. Who knew?

His national security choices also underscore this point. Hillary Clinton benefits from not being John Kerry, who desperately wants to be secretary of state. And Obama owes Kerry for having lifted him from obscurity and made him keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic convention. But knowing Kerry, Obama looked elsewhere and fastened on Clinton as his secretary of state.

Clinton, for all her shortcomings, doesn't hail from the surrender-at-all-costs wing of the Democratic party. Nor does retired Marine general Jim Jones, who's slated to be Obama's national security adviser. Jones, an Iraq war skeptic, is a strong supporter of offshore drilling and other steps to increase domestic production of oil and gas.

Then there's Bob Gates, Bush's defense secretary. Obama wants to keep him at the Pentagon for another year. Liberals and the media like Gates because he replaced the man they loved to hate, Donald Rumsfeld. But Gates is no dove and no ally of the antiwar left.

So the scoreboard looks like this: Three of the four cabinet posts that matter most are going to those with views acceptable to the center-right of the Democratic party. That's Geithner, Clinton, and Gates. The fourth, attorney general, will provoke a confirmation fight if Obama chooses his buddy Eric Holder, famous as President Clinton's deputy attorney general for facilitating the pardon of Marc Rich.

Three out of four isn't bad. Conservatives aren't jumping for joy. But imagine how the left wing of the Democratic party-the dominant wing, after all-feels. Let down would be an understatement.

Organized labor must be crazed over the selection of Summers. As a believer in the indispensability of global trade, Summers is bound to advise Obama to reject labor's call for limitations on trade, especially during a world financial breakdown. In fact, I suspect he's already urged Obama to go along with "card check," labor's latest scheme for unionizing workers, but not the protectionist agenda. Tinkering with trade would unsettle financial markets.

And how about the environmental lobby, which totally embraced Obama? Jones will be hard for environmentalists to stomach. And the foreign policy left? The left views Jones, Clinton, and Gates as enemies.

The losers in the Obama administration, as of now, are Joe Biden and Susan Rice, favorites of the left. Biden's role in foreign policy is likely to be minimal with Clinton at the State Department. She'll squash him if he sticks his head up. Rice, an assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration and an Obama campaign adviser, may wind up as United Nations ambassador, a highly visible but inconsequential post. She'll have little influence.

The Washington cliché about appointments is that personnel is policy. It's an exaggeration but essentially true. If Obama wants to pursue economic and national security policies that would thrill MoveOn.org, William Ayers, and the Democratic left, he has a funny way of showing it. The only reasonable conclusion is he's spurning the left.

Obama has dozens of lesser posts to fill, and no doubt he'll use some of those jobs to assuage the left. Labor can probably have whomever it wants as secretary of labor. For all Obama's talk about education reform, chances are he'll bow to the teachers' lobby in choosing an education secretary. If former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle becomes health and human services secretary, that will please the single-payer crowd and the champions of more government-managed health care.

But financial markets are Obama's overriding concern as president-elect. In their eyes, he's acting president. In his postelection press conference on November 7, Obama said his aides would be monitoring markets and the economy. The transition, in other words, would be relaxed and unhurried.

Last week, Obama's tone had changed. He was alarmed. He held press conferences three days in a row. He said he'd be getting full daily briefings on what's happening on Wall Street and Main Street. "We don't intend to stumble into the next administration," he said.

In trying to give financial markets a sense of comfort and continuity about his priorities, Obama might have provided one further note of assurance: that he won't raise taxes in 2009 or 2010. He stopped short of that.

But he offered a signal. Interviewed on 60 Minutes, Obama said, "We shouldn't worry about the deficit next year or even the year after." Later he told reporters his advisers would recommend whether to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the well-to-do and on capital gains and dividends, or merely allow the cuts to be "not renewed" and thus expire at the end of 2010. With the door opened to leaving the cuts in place, shutting it would be hazardous. Keeping the cuts would enrage the left, but financial markets would appreciate the jolt.

[downtowner97]

All Obama had to do to get elected was appear to be the opposite of Bush. Now that he has been elected, it''s no surprise that being the president of the welfare class isn''t much fun. Of course he''s moving to the center. That was the plan all along.

[ken1dall]

They say when one is briefed on the REAL world situation, your hair stands on end. No place for a democrat!!!!

[macusweil]

Hello! Folks at The Weekly Standard time to wake up and smell the coffee. Hate to break it to all you right wing hard liners out that want to maintain the Karl Rove us and them mentality forever. (and why not it work so well for so long.)

Obama and most Americans are middle of the road folks. We are tired of hearing how some think others are more American and no one fell for the "Obama''s pal''n with terrorist line." It''s over now, enough! It''s time to fix all the mess this nation is facing.

[imnho]

Obama was always a centralist iddle of the road person. Thats what he proposed during his campain and thats how he is acting. He will anger anyone who is to far to one end of the politcal specturm.

I just hope he can get us out of the mess that George Bush has created in the last eight years. George is ritch enought to walk aways from his self created diaster. A ajority of the citzens are not.

[inketolstoy]

For all you liberals freaking out with Obama right not, relax. Clinton isn''t really what most conservatives consider right wing. Maybe he isn''t living up to the hope hype, but Obama is trying to staff a ship with tired old veterans just like every president before him. He will do his best, and despite all his rhetoric, in the end it will be a lot like it is now. You want true change, vote for a third party.

[inketolstoy]

"OMG, tell me you are kidding! Please, no one could state something so idiotic with a straight face. The "maverick", more of the McSame as McBush, an absolute disaster of epic proportions. And the cluelss, dumb and ignorant soccer mom bimbo, an extemist right wing Christian fascist. For change, huh?"

Posted by noloyalisti

If I didn''t no better, I would have thought you were being sarcastic nololaisti. Plenty of cliche, no meat.

[noloyalisti]

John McCain and Sarah Palin are the only ones that would of brought good change to America!:)

Posted by andrewm101

OMG, tell me you are kidding! Please, no one could state something so idiotic with a straight face. The "maverick", more of the McSame as McBush, an absolute disaster of epic proportions. And the cluelss, dumb and ignorant soccer mom bimbo, an extemist right wing Christian fascist. For change, huh?

[boy_2008]

If Obama thinks that this new group of people are going to help are economy, he better think again. John McCain and Sarah Palin are the only ones that would of brought good change to America!:)

[noloyalisti]

When right wing fascist corporations run the military and the rest of the government, Obama has to appease them, otherwise he ends up in a pine box.

[usclimey]

Posted by Cherubimii

I would have agreed about John Edwards until about four months ago when his affair with the photographer showed up. He''d be awfully hard to get approved by congress now.

[observantx]

(Sigh)

It appears Barnes is still on crack.

I wonder what Kristol and Kagen are on these days.

[old300d]

President Bush told him about what is really going on and Obama understands he is in deep ! ! !

Obama is reaching out to people that will help him.

Obama is not dumb. He is very smart and I think he wants to do a good job.

[pdchapin]

Another case of the right reading their own junk and then being surprised when it isn''t true. Read Obama''s "Audacity of Hope". It''s a moderate manifesto. Nothing he''s done so far is the least bit surprising to people who actually listen to him rather than project their own left or right biases onto him.

[cherubimii]

Someone on the Left, who is known nationally known, needs to be added to the Obama cabinet who can counterbalance those who lend to the Right.
I nominate Senator John Edwards for the position of Labor Secretary.America already knows who John Edwards is, and he was the only candidate who dared speak against the moneyed interests who have taken over our government and the U.S. treasury, your tax money, which is being sent as "bail out" money directly into the pockets of the already super rich. So far, Obama has chosen, mostly, Wall Street promoters to in his cabinet. John Edwards would be a refreshing change. Is not change what Obama is supposed to be about? John Edwards is for the workers and unions, i.e. Main Street, not Wall Streeters.
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJlKE_BLAUM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItdN2BYwA-8
He also walked and comforted people whose homes were being foreclosed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i_GWrYkcCI

John Edwards is, also, the only candidate for President that actually went down to New Orleans on several occasions and worked along side those striving to try to bring back the areas that remain so devasted from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
Watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DaofQCkbA8

[asamiller]

Obama was a centrist from the get go. He supported cell phone tapping without a warrant, his positions on the environment are not consequentially different from the Bush administration (more hybrid cars) and his foreign policy is the same virtually as JOhn McCain''s. On the financial front he supported the huge transfer of wealth directly from Main Street to Wall Street in the bailout scam. The major difference with the far right is on social issues, abortion rights and so forth and he understands the need to stimulate the economy from below through investment in infrastructure. The DANGER of Obama is his left facade masks his rather conservative intentions so much so that Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh are now singing his praises.

[spinproof]

Obama Looks To The Right
The Weekly Standard: Is Barack Obama A Secret Centrist?

Obama looks more like a secret alchemist!

[kansas1946]

"Pragmatist" "bipartisanship" "middle of the road" "compromise"...

the selling words/tools of tyrants...gradual socialism by degrees...legal...and blatant.

Conditioned American Skinnerbox mazecrawling rats("voters") hit the bar and theyWE got yet another slice of cheeseMORE GOVERNMENT REGIMENTATION AND CONTROLS...with NEW actors to put on the masks..

The end of Orwell''''s Animal Farm with the pigs replacing the humans....sadly a good analogy...




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Posted by ChrisBieber at 09:07 PM : Dec 01, 2008
+ report abuse
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Please. If you want to talk about a tyrant, then talk about the last eight years. No one is buying your "sky is falling" rhetoric.

[chrisbieber]

"Pragmatist" "bipartisanship" "middle of the road" "compromise"...

the selling words/tools of tyrants...gradual socialism by degrees...legal...and blatant.

Conditioned American Skinnerbox mazecrawling rats("voters") hit the bar and theyWE got yet another slice of cheeseMORE GOVERNMENT REGIMENTATION AND CONTROLS...with NEW actors to put on the masks..

The end of Orwell''s Animal Farm with the pigs replacing the humans....sadly a good analogy...

[kansas1946]

There''s a larger point here. It''s not that Obama, despite his unswervingly liberal record in the Senate, turns out to be a pragmatist. The point is he''s pragmatic (so far) in one direction-rightward. Who knew?
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Most of the people that voted for him. In spite of all of the gloom and doom about socialism from the far-right whackos, if you ever listened to the man talk, you knew he was not a leftist. He is indeed pragmatic.

[incog-nito]

The correct term is "pragmatist", not "centrist". Obama has always said he''d work with both parties to do what it takes to get the economy back on track.