All Will Be Made Clear
We have an anti-glare coating on many of our windows. It works very well at cutting the glare from the sun and has the added benefit of providing privacy, as people looking in are effectively looking into a mirror. However this is only during the daytime. At night the mirror effect is reversed. As a result, at breakfast we often start looking into mirror, but as the sunrises the mirror effect fades and the landscape behind our house becomes clear.
Obama is like our anti-glare coating. As a candidate, he was effectively a mirror. His campaign speeches were full of phrases like ‘hope’ and ‘change’ with little actual specifics. With virtually no record or accomplishments, Obama has been the quintessential empty suit, into which people poured their hopes and dreams. When he said, “change you can believe in” the emphasis was in reality on the word ‘you.’ Supporters believed the change he would bring would be the change they wanted. While they look to Obama, they saw themselves.
This continues even today, as it still remains a topic of great discussion on the nightly new programs exactly what Obama will do, as supporters and critics alike attempt to read the tea leaves of his various actions and statements looking for clues.
But the sun is now rising on the Obama presidency. As campaign rhetoric now changes to policy statements, the mirror effect will likewise begin to fade; who Obama is and what he will actually do will, for better or for worse, now be come clear. As this happens, a few will undoubtedly find that Obama is just what they thought he was all along. But no doubt the majority will find what the radical left has already discovered, that the change he brings is not exactly what they expected. How could it be otherwise? As a candidate he could be all things to all people. As a President, he must actually make decisions, and take actions. He can no longer vote present.
Critics, on the other hand will no longer be fighting the phantom of expectations and hope. While Obama has so far not turned out to be quite as bad as some feared, choosing, for example, a cabinet virtually indistinguishable for one Hillary Clinton might have chosen, he is still on the left. The tea leaves all point to a bigger, more powerful federal government, with the corresponding loss of liberty that this must entail. As these policies and programs are proposed and enacted, their pros and cons can be assessed.
We face difficult economic times, but despite the media hype, this is not the worst economy since the Great Depression. When Reagan took office the economic situation was far worse than it is now. Reagan saw government as the problem and sought to reduce government’s stranglehold on the economy.
I would hope that Obama would take the same approach, that his solutions will be based in a decentralized, market based programs that encourage choice and liberty. Historically such solutions have been demonstrated to be the most effective.
However, the tea leaves seem to indicate that Obama sees government as the solution, not the problem, and as such he will look to more centralized, command and control based solutions. Historically, such approaches have not only been ineffective, but have often only further exacerbated the very problems they seek to solve. In addition such approaches, by their very nature, come at the expense of liberty.
Another issue here will be the Congress. Based on the various tea leaves, it appears now that the Congress controlled by Reid and Pelosi is to the left of Obama, and certainly farther to left than the vast majority of Americans. They will also have a major say in what laws are actually passed, and thus how the public will ultimately view Obama’s presidency. Obama’s claims to unity seeking bipartisan support has already been dealt a blow by Pelosi’s new rules for the House that effectively lock Republicans out of the process.
So the sun is rising on the Obama presidency. As the literary detective Hercule Poirot often said ‘all will be made clear.’ and clarity is a good thing.
