by Frank James
Liberal supporters of President-elect Barack Obama's who thought he was one of them should ready themselves, for they are about to be Greeleyed.
Horace Greeley, for those who don't or remember know their history, was the stridently abolitionist editor of the New York Tribune who in August 1862 wrote an open letter to Abraham Lincoln to tell him that anti-slavery voters like himself, whose votes gave Lincoln the 1860 election, were deeply disappointed he hadn't acted more decisively to free the slaves.
To this Lincoln famously responded:
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I don't believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be error; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
It was the answer of a super pragmatist. He had one goal, keeping the "united" in United States, and would take whatever approach achieved it.
Lincoln is clearly Obama's presidential hero, the commander-in-chief he most aspires to emulate. He has told us more than once he's reading Lincoln now and draws comfort and inspiration from him.
Obama sees himself, like Lincoln, as fighting to save the union.
At first for Obama, it was the union of partisan red and blue states that broke roughly along lines Lincoln would have recognized. But it was also the union of white, black, and brown; of polarized Republicans and Democrats, of haves and have nots, that Obama has meant to save from the very start of his campaign.
Lately, it's become clear to him and us that the union as a functioning economy needs salvaging. Obama means to save that too.
So Obama, as Lincoln did with Greeley, is sending a message. He will be pragmatic. He will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
Sometimes it may not comport with the liberal orthodoxy of some of his most fervid supporters who believed what John McCain said about him - that he was the most liberal senator etc.
He's letting them know up front he will disappoint them, that he will have to Greeley them with practical, non-ideological answers to problems. That was part of the message he delivered in his "60 minutes" interview which aired last night.
Obama said:
"We've gotta come up with solutions that are true to our times and true to this moment. And that's gonna be our job. I think the basic principle that government has a role to play in kick starting an economy that has ground to a halt is sound.
I think our basic principle that this is a free market system and that that has worked for us, that it creates innovation and risk taking, I think that's a principle that we've gotta hold to as well. But what I don't wanna do is get bottled up in a lot of ideology and is this conservative or liberal. My interest is finding something that works.
And whether it's coming from FDR or it's coming from Ronald Reagan, if the idea is right for the times then we're gonna apply it. And things that don't work we're gonna get rid of.
You can't get more Lincoln then that. Whatever it takes to save the union, that's what he'll do.
He sent early signals during the primaries that this might be where he was headed. Before the Nevada caucuses in January, he said: "Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it."
He also said: "I think it's fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10 to 15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom."
Obama was attacked back then by Sen. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards who thought he had made a rookie mistake. But it's clear he was sending a message that he wasn't going to hew to his party's orthodoxy for the sake of purity.
So, liberals, be forewarned. Obama has let you know even before taking office that he isn't in lockstep with you, that he will be governing from the center and even right-of-center if that's what it takes to get the job done.
As any decent basketball player knows, and the president-elect is purported decent, you just can't use one hand all the time to dribble away from the defense. Often, you have use a crossover dribble to get away from defender by switching your dribble to your weak hand. Righties must go left, and lefties, like Obama, must use their right hand.
In basketball, politics and national crises, it's usually the pragmatist who wins.
Comments
I'm mesmerized!
Posted by: frankie | November 17, 2008 7:36 AM
The highest ideal is the saving of America. As our economy evolves in the natural selection of capitalism, we become more aware of business extinction - and fear that loss - America is tinkering with the natural selection process - and this is sometimes called socialism. .................
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/11/16/the-utility-of-socialism/
Posted by: Ohg Rea Tone | November 17, 2008 9:22 AM
Let's not get carried away, President-elect Obama is not the savour, I repeat, not the savour !! He may achieve the stature of a President Lincoln, but I will be happy , if he just considers some of President Lincoln's viewpoints towards our government and our citizenry. If he does that, I think America, our entire nation, will be in for four years of a truer sense of participatory democracy and, certainly, honest dialogue between we, the People, and our government !! That, alone was worth the price of admission. So, America, sit back and let President-elect Obama do the job that we elected him to do, reverse the last 8 years of the abominable leadership of the Bush administrations !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | November 17, 2008 9:44 AM
What a breath of fresh air this guy is bringing to a stagnant political system.
Posted by: Kenneth Janowski | November 17, 2008 10:28 AM
So once again- rhetoric and posturing are the tools Obama uses, in this case, to position himself as Lincolnesque...
I will believe it when I see it- so far, the only thing Obama has shown is his ability to morph himself into what most people want him to be, or what is the most convenient form as the time
He started his campaign - left of Hillary,and after vanquishing her- abruptly moved to the center- where the votes are in a general election...
When there is no political risk- he has only shown himself to be a hard left ideologue,,, we will see.
I believe the presidency and the civil war changed Lincoln from a relatively moderate, non ideologue into a focused, pragmatic leader that realized that the civil war was about saving the country. In addition, he ALSO MOVED to the view that ending slavery as an institution was worth the horrible cost of the war.
Will Obama show the same humility and leadership?
Posted by: heartburn | November 17, 2008 11:03 AM
So, liberals, be forewarned. Obama has let you know even before taking office that he isn't in lockstep with you, that he will be governing from the center and even right-of-center if that's what it takes to get the job done. ~ F.J.
----------------
A brilliant, dynamic, electrifying, Lincolnesque, Kennedyesque, Jeffersonian, transformative figure admired and loved by an entire World - President-Elect Barack Obama. But now Frank James is telling us that he is not in lock-step with his base, and the Kool-ade drinkers are saying that he may not even be the Saviour after all.
Then, who be-eth this man that cometh into the world of mere mortal peasants from out of the Land Of Lincoln via the Windy City? Django b confused. But one thing that we do know for sure - He's a Sox fan. Viva Sox! Viva Venezuela!, as Ozzie would say.
Posted by: Django - N Exile somewhere in/around the 30th Parallel | November 17, 2008 11:20 AM
What I would really like to hear about, from other participants of this blog, The Swamp, is their comments on an apology to the world for our torturing of prisoners. I think that a position like that, from President Obama, would be a great first step, in the healing of the torn relationships with the nations of our world. There is nothing like, righting a wrong and President-elect Obama could address this issue in the United Nations. Just my opinion. I'd like to hear others, if that is possible.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | November 17, 2008 11:34 AM
Unlike, the majority of members, in that vast wasteland, known as the Republican Party, President-elect Obama's supporters are more interested in saving America, not destroying it. As long as he doesn't follow his predecessor's lead, and violate and ignore our Constitution, which I know is as unlikely, as President Bush doing anything right !! Ideology is the last thing, I think, we expect from President-elect Obama, given the disaster President Bush presided over and left him to sort out !! No, you can take that to the bank !! Oh, I'm sorry, there aren't many left, after the Bush administration !!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | November 17, 2008 11:52 AM
What I would really like to hear about, from other participants of this blog, The Swamp, is their comments on an apology to the world for our torturing of prisoners. I think that a position like that, from President Obama, would be a great first step, in the healing of the torn relationships with the nations of our world. There is nothing like, righting a wrong and President-elect Obama could address this issue in the United Nations. Just my opinion. I'd like to hear others, if that is possible.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | November 17, 2008 11:34 AM
So much for pragmatism...
We owe no one an apology for keeping our country safe- interrogating terorists that are willing to die with agressive techniques, ( torture to you) apparently worked.
Ironically enough- He essentially did "apologize to the world" during his campaign rock concert visit to Germany...it was fluff, ideology and rhetoric... and it almost cost him the election.
Posted by: heartburn | November 17, 2008 12:01 PM
Obama is going to disappoint liberals, eh? Well, that wouldn't be that hard, considering he promised everything in the campaign. Someone's bound to be disappointed when their pet project isn't his top priority. But more so, I challenge anyone to point out where Obama has ever said that a particular conservative policy (even one from Reagan) has ever worked and should be tried now. If you can find me that reference, I'd be more inclined to believe someone who tells me that Obama will be "like Lincoln."
Posted by: JB | November 17, 2008 12:44 PM
* * * * *
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | November 17, 2008 11:34 AM
.
Don,
.
I think you have an overactive sense of guilt if you think we need to apologize to the whole world for torture. Apology and reparation must be made, if at all, to those who are harmed by some wrong. We didn't harm the whole world, in which case an apology to the whole world is unwarranted. If you want to apologize, apologize to those who were tortured. If you want, I'm sure there some here on the Swamp willing to chip in to buy you a ticket to Afghanistan so you can apologize to them in person.
Posted by: John W. | November 17, 2008 9:37 PM
I am not a fan of Obama by any stretch of the imagination. His approach to our problems prior to the election was very Ross Perotesque in substance...there was none. Americans as a whole like to be fed what they should think and have allowed the Democrats to demonize the Republicans by playing class politics. If you hate someone, you won't ever be objective towards them or their ideas. The hater is then allowed to say what they want about the hated and the followers of the hater will never question them.
With that being said, I hope this man does a fantastic job because unlike the Democrats who took control of both houses in January 2007, I do NOT want to see America held hostage for the sake of a Republican victory in 2012....I love this country and its citizens too much to see them suffer any longer. If Obama can get the job done, more power to him. However, it's difficult to for him to fail because the Dems in the House of Representatives, through blatant INACTION, made darn sure that this country was in as bad a shape as possible come November 4th.
What does make me nervous was his confidence during the campaign in being able to fix the economy...he "had a plan".
What happens two days after the election? There he is in the national media asking "does anyone know how we can fix the economy? Ideas? Anyone?". The Dems and the media, blind as they are ignorant, gave him a complete pass.
Posted by: Gary G | November 22, 2008 9:46 AM