Article on Obama: An Obama Realignment?

... We have been told that, owing to the decisive nature of Obama's victory amid the enhanced power of his party in both houses of Congress, a new political era has dawned. What happened was more than an election: it was, to quote the Democratic lawyer Lanny Davis in the Wall Street Journal, "the Obama realignment," only the sixth such moment in American history (the others being the elections of 1800, 1828, 1860, 1932, and 1980)... Obama's smooth, unruffled demeanor marks him as one of the coolest customers in the annals of American politics... If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. . . . It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. . . . It's the answer that - that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. . . . Change has come to America. In effect, then, Obama was casting himself, and is still casting himself, not as an agent of change but as the change itself - as its embodiment, its personification. In this sense, the Obama era has already succeeded. It is already complete. In the terms he himself has set, he can do nothing more important as President than what he has already done by being elected President.So far, from the point of view of his supporters, that certainly seems to be more than enough. Indeed, the spiritual change promised and embodied by Obama gave his race the quality all great campaigns offer to their supporters - the idea that the grueling volunteer work they will be doing and the vote they will have to stand in line for hours to cast are merely preludes to a positive, even joyous, result... BARACK OBAMA, it need hardly be said, comes to the presidency with no comparable agenda, or much of an agenda at all. True, he has had position papers galore, but in the course of his run he contradicted several of their core assumptions or promises. He proposed significant spending increases, but in light of the credit crisis has said they may have to be postponed. He has said something similar about his tax plan, which features certain cuts for the middle class and a substantial increase for Americans making over $250,000 a year. He supported gay marriage, then opposed it. He opposed welfare reform, then said he would not question Bill Clinton's decision to sign it into law. He has spent more than a year backing away from his statement that he would meet with America's enemies without preconditions.

John Podhoretz. Commentary. New York: Dec 2008. Vol. 126, Iss. 5; pg. 13, 5 pgs