And tries today to talk tough on spending:
"President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that reforming massive government entitlement programs — such as Social Security and Medicare — would be "a central part" of his effort to control federal spending. Obama made the pledge but provided few details as he named Nancy Killefer as his administration's chief performance officer, creating a new White House position aimed at eliminating government waste and improving efficiency. Noting that the Congressional Budget Office had just estimated he would inherit a $1.2 trillion federal deficit for fiscal 2009, Obama promised to cut unnecessary spending."
To a degree, conservatives should be pleased with this, not irritated. It goes to show that Obama knows that there are conservative issues out there that do in fact resonate with the people, and cutting back spending is one of them. Of course Obama will seek to claim the issue for himself. What conservative must do, now, is to, as we said yesterday, watch him like a hawk on this issue and point out, with gusto, when he doesn't keep his promise.
Again, this reminds me a lot of the Carter Administration of the late 1970s. Carter too tried to talk tough on spending, tried to co-opt conservative issues. And he even tried to act to cut spending. But the Democratic Party is one of a lot of constituencies and a lot of interest groups, and back then they were glad to be back in power (as they are now), and they wanted some nice big chunks of federal spending to go their way. When they didn't get it, the Democrats fought amongst each other like cats and dogs. Could happen again...
