The End of the Beginning

The presidential debates can now assume their place in the annals of bad history. Barack Obama did what he needed to do last night, while John McCain came up short. We’re going to get a Democrat in the White House next year, thanks largely to the greed and incompetence of the Wall Street/Washington Nexus.


For Obama, the market meltdown has been both a blessing and a curse. The good news is that he’s likely to win the election by a comfortable margin, and the inevitable wingnut tales of "voter fraud" should pose no threat to his legitimacy. The bad news is that the magnitude and complexity of our economic troubles will make it difficult for him to control his own party's agenda.


It’s like this: The Republicans are about to get fired by the voters, and dire national straits have forced Obama to campaign on a laundry list of legislative proposals rather than on a spirited defense of his own dubious qualifications or on his pretty vision of a post-partisan America. That’s not how he and Axelrod planned things. "Change We Can Believe In" wasn’t merely a slogan. It was Obama's chief selling point and the source of much of his potential political power. Now it seems utterly trivial. He’s already deep in the weeds of policy, and there aren’t any good choices.


Obama’s presidential role model Ronald Reagan had it easy by comparison. He–like Bill Clinton--could point to a long track record of success as a governor. When he arrived in the White House, he was able to give the same speech every day–on cutting taxes and shrinking government–and then make things happen. Reagan could lead and others could follow.


Obama’s presidency will begin, in effect, with a grim post-election lame-duck session of Congress, starring Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, with Barack himself waiting in the wings to join them in January for Act Two. A troika for our times. . .


Ouch! It may behoove the president-elect to do some extended vacationing in Hawaii this November. Right, Axl?

(Cue gratuitous awesome video)