The debate rages in our house -- whether Obama will govern as the hard-left Socialist that we know he is, or whether he will temper his ideology with the lessons from the Clinton experience. It's the same debate that we have seen on the television screen repeatedly, although all the talking heads say, "Pish-tosh! Of course, he is smart enough to lead from the center..!" Every time someone on the television says this, we start all over again around here. The only "of-course" is that the surrogates are supposed to reassure the unwashed masses that everything is just fine and is going to continue to be just fine, so go on back to your guns and your Bibles and don't worry about a thing, leave the details to us. Hey, look, isn't that American Idol coming on TV? If Obama were planning to out-left Jimmy Carter, if his radical friends from his neighborhood were putting in their forwarding addresses to camp out in the halls of the White House, the talking heads would still be saying exactly the same thing. For that matter, weren't we told that William Ayers wasn't some scary hard-left Weatherman? Weren't we told he was just some nice man from the neighborhood? Which neighborhood? Certainly not Mr. Rogers neighborhood! Aren't these the same people who are now telling us that there's nothing to worry about? I didn't buy that story then, and I don't believe them now.

 

But I have found something to look forward to in the upcoming months. I, for one, am totally fatigued with the Bush-bashing. The media never gave him an even break. They were certain that he "stole" the election from AlGore right from the beginning, and the fact that he won the second election by a comfortable margin never registered on their hate-talk-machines. Everywhere I looked online, there was someone adding a comment about how awful George Bush is. Never mind that he has protected their sorry butts whether they appreciate it or not. Never mind that he has tried to govern with a "new tone" and bipartisanship. Never mind that he is a good and decent man who has done his best to serve his country. No, it's been an incessant drum beat of how terrible George Bush is and has been. And although Congress's approval numbers are even lower, the resulting effect has been a real pounding on the President's approval ratings.

 

The bright spot begins with -- OK, they have to stop pounding on Bush now. He is rapidly becoming yesterday's news and in just a few more weeks he can head back to Texas and there will be no point in Cindy Sheehan and her crazy friends camping along the road in front of his property (not that there was ever much point in it before). Just the absence of that same mind-numbing mantra will be a welcome change.

 

Replacing him on the center stage will be our Messiah, Barack Obama. The New York Times has already begun telling him what he needs to be doing, even before he assumes office. (Stop laughing! They are serious.) MoveOn.Org has too. So here is the dilemma for Obama and the bright spot for everyone in my house: If Obama acknowledges that he is beholding to these left-wing crazies, then he has to govern from the far left and he will get spanked by the voters, just like the Clinton co-presidency did, in the midterm elections. If he doesn't, if he is actually going to do this moderate, centrist government that his surrogates are suggesting, the media who have been so in-the-tank for Obama are going to feel betrayed and they are going to pound on him with a vengance that will make the Bush-bashing look like a peaceful spring picnic.

 

Also in the coming attractions, there is the predictable moment when Barack Obama comes out and says, "Gosh, this stuff is hard!" (like Jimmy Carter, smartest man in the world, going to balance the Federal budget campaign promise). Everyone who is waiting for the government to give them a free cell phone and pay their mortgage is a prime candidate for a new awakening of conservative principles. American politics swing like a pendulum. I believe that the American voter never realized who they were voting for. If Obama governs from the center, the left wing crazies will descend like harpies on him. If he listens to the left wing harpies, the American voter will see what they have elected and I think they will have some reaction to this.

 

Either way, we can expect to hear all the vitriol against George Bush fade away into the mists, just a vague memory of a past era.