January 28, 2009

Conservatives cheering for Obama?

By: AF Editors

Yes, Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes. Not exactly two guys known for being friendly to Democratic presidents. In his final column for the NY Times, Kristol wrote:

We don’t really know how Barack Obama will govern. What we have so far, mainly, is an Inaugural Address, and it suggests that he may have learned more from Reagan than he has sometimes let on. Obama’s speech was unabashedly pro-American and implicitly conservative.

Obama appealed to the authority of “our forebears,” “our founding documents,” even — political correctness alert! — “our founding fathers.” He emphasized that “we will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense.” He spoke almost not at all about rights (he had one mention of “the rights of man,” paired with “the rule of law” in the context of a discussion of the Constitution). He called for “a new era of responsibility.”

I think it’s equally plausible to say that those are standard tropes of any inaugural address. Talking about “responsibility” is moderately conservative, but Bill Clinton did it in both of his inaugurals. My inclination is to say that Obama selected a few conservative-sounding notes to include in his address because he wants to brand himself as bipartisan without any commitments to bipartisan policy positions.

In “The Republican’s Best Weapon”, Barnes writes:

Obama is for bipartisanship. Pelosi, Reid, and their cohort are heavyhanded partisans with no interest in accommodating Republicans. Obama favors transparency. They don’t. Obama says he wants “to spend wisely” and promises that “programs will end” if they don’t work. That’s hardly the philosophy of congressional Democrats.

Obama’s words may be bromides or boilerplate that bear little relationship to his true sentiments or real plans. But so what? Republicans in the House and Senate are a badly outnumbered minority. They have few political weapons at their disposal. Citing Obama’s words makes political sense. It’s at least worth a try. Republicans have nothing to lose.

It might even get Republicans some attention. For the mainstream media, Obama is the only story in Washington. Most reporters are indifferent to the excesses of one-party, Democratic rule on Capitol Hill. But the argument that Democrats are out of sync with Obama, if repeated often enough, might get some traction.

That is solid tactical advice. If Obama wants to brand himself as bipartisan, Republicans shouldn’t hesitate to reinforce that story line — if Obama is willing to impose actual bipartisan policies on the Democrats on Capitol Hill.