Obama's premeditated capitulations

After 9/11, George W. Bush put the country on a permanent war footing and created a new role for himself--The Decider. In so doing, he revitalized his presidency and greatly expanded and solidified his political base. His core supporters now saw little difference between Osama bin Laden and Harry Reid. They were both enemies of Bush and needed to be defeated by any means necessary. In this domestic war, confrontation was unavoidable and to be welcomed. His base demanded it, and Bush was happy to oblige. It was the source of his power.

In the wreckage of the Bush presidency, Barack Obama has chosen a different means of obtaining power. He would end the political wars and declare himself The Uniter. In this role, confrontation is his enemy and must be avoided. (This does not apply in Obama's current struggle with Hillary Clinton, because she is seen as a Divider. She and her supporters just don't get it. Once they are disposed of, Obama can begin bringing us together.)

President Obama will be under tremendous pressure from his base to fulfill his role as a uniter. They trust him to worry about the details and are unlikely to push him in any particular direction. On policy, Obama's path of least resistance will be to the right. Confrontation will sap his power. (The mainstream media will provide an additional check on Obama's liberal impulses. For them, Republican rule is the natural order of things. Democrats must be bipartisan.)

Premeditated capitulation will likely be the legislative strategy of Obama's administration. This helps account for his disturbing language on health care and Social Security.

I posted this analysis on another blog back in February. Now that Obama has secured the nomination, he's going out of his way to make me look smart. Take it away, Joe Klein:

When I asked him specifically if he would want to retain Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, Obama said, "I'm not going to let you pin me down ... but I'd certainly be interested in the sort of people who served in the first Bush Administration." Gates was George H.W. Bush's CIA director — and he has been a superb Secretary of Defense, as good in that post as his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, was awful.

Change we can believe in, indeed--back to the glory days of Gulf War I. And I love this: "I don't want to have people who just agree with me," he said. "I want people who are continually pushing me out of my comfort zone." Your comfort zone seems pretty big already, Barack. It might take Brian Urlacher to push you out of it.

Obama doesn't have to concern himself with the American Left. As Ross Perot used to say, "It's good dog food if the dogs will eat it," and liberal Democrats will gladly chow down whatever the first African-American President in history slops into their dish. Nobody wants to be the next Geraldine Ferraro. But Obama does have to worry about the media. They love bipartisanship.

If Bob Gates won't report for duty, how about getting Dick Cheney to re-enlist? He wasn't so bad in 1990.