The Audacity of Moderation

Closet Centrist
In Obama's Cabinet, the Audacity of Moderation
By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, December 3, 2008; Page A17

It is a lineup generous in its moderation, astonishing for its continuity, startling for its stability.
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It is tempting for conservatives to crow -- or liberals to lament -- that Barack Obama's victory has somehow produced John McCain's administration. But this partisan reaction trivializes some developments that, while early and tentative, are significant. First, these appointments add evidence to a debate about the political character of the president-elect himself. Conservatives have generally feared that Obama is a closet radical. He has uniformly voted with liberal interests and done nothing to justify a reputation for centrism. Until now. Obama's appointments reveal not just moderation but maturity -- magnanimity to past opponents, a concern for continuity in a time of war and economic crisis, a self-confidence that allows him to fill gaps in his own experience with outsize personalities, and a serious commitment to incarnate his rhetoric of unity.
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Whatever the caveats, Obama is doing something marvelously right: He is disappointing the ideologues. This is more than many of us hoped -- and it is causing some of us to raise our hopes in Obama again.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/02/AR2008120202720.html
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It is bad that Repubs like Gerson are now in the tank for Obama? I suspect many here think so. I think it's amazing. This is exactly what Obama has told us he was going to try to do. This is the beginning of a "unity" government -- not just for blue states or red states but for all the United States. This is how real change gets done.

"Obama can bring the entire country together to get behind a Democratic policy platform" as a reason to support Obama during the primary, I'm surprised by how many people are finding the widespread praise, from liberals and conservatives alike, offensive. Of course mainstream Republicans are going to praise Obama's cabinet. It's a good cabinet, and they spent the last few months claiming Obama was a wild-eyed insane Marxist ideologue. They have to praise his cabinet, because if they act like this is an ultra-left cabinet, they're going to lose all credibility with even their own supporters.

Their attacks on Obama sound even dumber than before.

... then he's doing ok.

As much as I'd love to kick the far right out of the country and proclaim the US as the socialist capitol of the world, it's just as much the right's country as it is mine.

And in order to get anything done, it's gonna take all of us to do it..... together.

We are seeing the blossoming of an amazing leader. I believe we will see incredible progress over the next four years and that Obama will truly be a transformational figure.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read the blogs complaining about Obama's appointments. Each and every one has been exceptional and impressive. I guess some people will never be happy but if anybody thought that Obama was going to govern from the left, they were completely misreading him.

Obama is going to govern from a place that nobody has gone in a very long time, if ever. I have been waiting many decades for this and had basically given up hope that I'd ever see a real agent of progress and change become our president.

We have much to celebrate.

After the Matriarch died before the run up to the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, the WP's Editorial Pages have leaned nothing short of fascist. Yet, I continue my subscription for the OTHER, more news worthy sections.

Watch Gerson, he's a smarmy little devil and will TURN just when you need him the most. :thumbsdown: