Really, I think Obama and Congress had better develop a plan for quick action for the economy and implement it ASAP. Otherwise, his approval will erode just as Bush’s did. After an election, people aren’t going to care as much about vision but more about results. Unfortunately, we still seem to be in the plan-of-the-day model for the economy when we need both long and short term fixes. There’s going to have to be sacrifices to Obama’s election promises (as there would have been with McCain’s). And, too, there will have to be sacrifices on the part of the American people as well.

Certainly, if you pay no critical attention to the content of the complaints. It’s misleading, I think, to draw an equivalence between complaints about partisanship during the Bush era from the left and now from the right (man, I really do not like using the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ like that).

And anyway, that’s not even really the point. The point is that the same commentators who held up executive privelege as this inviolable principle now abandon it when their inclinations tell them to do so, which is fairly indefensible and contemptible hypocrisy.

…but you’re right, I think moderation and bipartisanship will become increasingly important, and he has the chance of making that work and abrogating Bush’s legacy of all-partisan, all-the-time.

What may have to happen is that the GOP runs a Rush-approved ‘traditional conservative’ in 2012 and when Obama hands him his lunch, then maybe they will listen to the moderates in the party and work together. It’s not fair to slam moderate conservatism because McCain lost. He actually did incredibly well considering what he was up against.

David Brooks has a great article on this subject today.

The only difference between Obama’s ‘mandate’ and Bush’s is that I think the voices in the Center were louder this year and will continue to be with each successive election if Presidents continue to move back to the wings after they get in office.