The Obama presidency

April 16, 2008

Commenter “free0352″ on honestpartisan’s blog discusses what we can expect from an Obama presidency. With a few minor exceptions, I think the commenter is a bit overly optimistic.

It’s clear free0352 thinks he/she is making a scary, damning argument but with a few exceptions this sounds pretty good to me. Free0342’s prognostications:

1. He wants to raise taxes.
2. He wants expansive gun control and many outright bans.
3. He wants draconian emissions standards that are counter productive, and he defninetly wants the federal government to enfoce them.
4. He wants to socialize medicine.
5. He wants to pull out of Iraq, within one year of his ellection, contrary to the advice of every currently serving general officer in the DOD.
6. He is for gay marriage.
7. He will repeal don’t ask don’t tell and allow gays openly into the military.
8. He will fully bail out the housing crisis with tax payer dollars.
9. He will repeal NAFTA and NAFTA-like trade agreements.
10. He will cut military spending by about 6-8%
11. He will apoint Supreme Court Judges who are non constructionist, who legislate from the bench.
12. His forign policy will envolve him flying arround the world meeting with low life dictators begging them not to keep killing us. He will also spend a lot of time apologizing for America being a great country.
13. He will treat the war on terror as a domestic law enforcement issue.
14. He will leave Social Security at status quo.

[ free0352's comment on Bittergate ]

I don’t see how anyone who’s fiscally responsible can avoid raising taxes on some group of people after the last eight years; hopefully it will be on the people who’ve had their taxes cut most dramatically. Likewise, I don’t think anyone responsible can avoid bailing out the housing industry. I like the idea of leaving Social Security as it is much better than the options presented by the other side.

Draconian emission standards are a good idea, although I don’t think anyone really wants standards that are counter-productive. The characterization of Obama’s foreign policy is probably off the mark, but we could use more talk and less bombs. Overall, I think free0352 isn’t really giving us an honest assessment of Obama’s position here.

I wish Obama was as dedicated to civil rights as free0352 seems to think he is, but I’m not that optimistic. If Obama appoints judges who legislate from the bench I don’t see how that’s any different from what Bush has done (”activist judge” means “judge that disagrees with me” and “legislating from the bench” means “making a decision I don’t like.”)

With a few corrections in accuracy and terminology, though, that sounds like a platform I could stand on.

Posted in Politics