so...

[eumaas]

Who here will eat crow if Obama is elected and turns out awful? Raise your hand.

[matedog]

Who here will eat crow if Obama is elected and turns out awful? Raise your hand.

That's a pretty serious fear I have. Not that he is the ideal candidate, but I see him as far better than most mainstream politicians that if he fails, that might mean my ideology is ill suited for this country.

[Dr. Medulla]

Who here will eat crow if Obama is elected and turns out awful? Raise your hand.

Kind of a weird question to ask. What is defined as awful? And how can one be sure that Obama's election caused it? If the economic collapse spreads throughout the world and leads to, say, food riots, and exasperated by environmental collapse, that's pretty awful, but would it be fair to place that at Obama's feet (at least completely)? It's going to come down to a scenario where Obama makes a specific decision that leads to an awful situation that would otherwise have not occurred (either he makes a different decision or McCain was elected). Really, you're asking how many here are total kool-aid drinkers who expect a new golden age. And I suspect that there aren't any of that sort around here.

[BostonBeaneater]

In don't think he will be awful but he's certainly inheriting and awful situation. Between the war, the economy, and the expectation of the left, I thin Obama is as set up for a fall as any president before him since Carter. It will be interesting to see what happens but barring some new and popular figure emerging out of the GOP he should cruise in 2012 as well.

[Rat Patrol]

The parallel everyone uses for Obama is Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who is also young and African-American and elected with messiah-like enthusiasm and electrifying presence only to be very underwhelming in practive. More just frustratingly uneven than outright disaster...his first 6 months were a bona fide train wreck that saw him crack under the pressure; now he kind of vacillates inconsistently and with spotty execution between vision and impotence, and in general hasn't changed the culture of state gov't at all from 12 years of meh Republican govs. Patrick and Obama shared a lot of campaign staff, and Obama clearly cribbed off Patrick's devastatingly effective ground game--right down to the "Yes We Can" signature slogan--because Patrick won a landslide after entering the campaign a virtual unknown probably 3 candidates back of the Dem. pack. So it's everyone's fear that Obama is going to turn out like that. That concern (which was admittedly more local-interest during the primary--which Clinton won here--than a national story because Patrick is very little-known outside of Mass) pretty much disappeared when some veteran straight-shooter who advised both campaigns (forget his name, but he was a guy with enough gravitas to basically mean what he said) was asked in a long magazine piece whether Obama would meet the same fate.

His response: "No. Because Obama isn't an idiot. He's 10 times smarter than Deval Patrick, and it shows." I think implication being that Patrick skated on momentum in his election because he caught fire so fast and red hot and because the presumed front-runner he trounced in the primary and Romney's Lt. Gov. who he destroyed in the general election ran campaigns so inept, caustically negative, and gaffe-prone they make McCain/Palin look infallible. So basically there was no time or opportunity to seriously expose him. Whereas Obama had the kitchen sink thrown at him during the primary bloodsport with Clinton and ran a relatively-speaking smooth and error-few campaign (he only tripped up a little at the very end of the primaries--later than people thought they'd see the armor get pierced--and with quick course correction by the convention). And he's basically been toying with the spectacularly imploding Republican machine since McCain's convention bounce ended. So having seen both campaigns in action--and really getting into the Patrick campaign because of the statewide hatred for anything Romney-related (which is why Patrick now disappoints so many)--I think that guy's statement has some truth to it. Definitely the most effective campaign since Bill Clinton, and the best at making adjustments to perceived weaknesses in recent memory (and, man, is that a welcome sight after the ineptness of Kerry and Gore). Granted, it's not the same as governing and I don't think with the crises he's facing he'll ever live up to it...no one has since FDR. But the making adjustments part...candidates usually are too inflexibly cast in cement by their handlers to turn on a dime. Even the ones who won usually had gaping holes of weaknesses left exposed the whole campaign which they only avoided by having the opponent shoot themselves in the foot more. The fact that it's been pretty difficult to get off clean shots on him because of good defense shows a bit defter crisis handling than his predecessor candidates. Really...Wright, Ayers, ACORN, Islamo-fascist: those are the lasting criticisms that have dogged him. Nutcase talking points...not even inexperience or the fact that he, um, is dangerously thin on articulated policy.

I'm prepared to be underwhelmed and prepared yet again to be betrayed by a Dem. who governs too far to the center-right, but I'll be surprised if he's a Deval Patrick-level letdown. I think he's passed the adjustments test in the campaign that's the best available predictor for deer-in-headlights-itis post-inauguration. Yet another beneficiary of the bar being set below sea level by his predecessors.

[Dr. Medulla]

In don't think he will be awful but he's certainly inheriting and awful situation. Between the war, the economy, and the expectation of the left, I thin Obama is as set up for a fall as any president before him since Carter.

I think it's the last point—the expectation of the left—that will be his greatest headache. Rightly or wrongly (mostly the former), the public regards the economy and the war as Republican disasters. Just as FDR presided over the majority of the Depression, it was never attributed to him. Likewise, I suspect that Obama will get a pass on the war and the economy even if it gets worse. Unless Obama does prove to be another FDR or LBJ—pursuing a grand sweep—then the more idealistic on the left will be disappointed and some will regard it as a huge betrayal. My hunch is that while he certainly leans New Deal, he isn't a grand plan kind of a guy. For all the talk about him being Marxist, he strikes me as exceedingly pragmatic, more interested in finding consensus than bulling his way through. The evidence, I think, will come with the number of Republicans he appoints to cabinet. I'd be stunned, for example, if Hagel isn't in Defense. Competency, not ideology, will be the most vital attribute. Of course, JFK prized that, too, which allowed David Halberstam to write The Best and the Brightest …

[BostonBeaneater]

If you check out Obama's history with the Harvard Law Review you'll see that is was the minorities and left leaning people who had the biggest problem with him. He made sure to include people of the right and conservatives much to the dismay of liberal law students and professors.

As for the Deval Patrick comparison, I see the campaigning similarities but that's where it ends. Being the governor in Massachusetts is arguably a less powerful position than being Speaker of the Massachusetts House or Senate President.

[Dr. Medulla]

If you check out Obama's history with the Harvard Law Review you'll see that is was the minorities and left leaning people who had the biggest problem with him. He made sure to include people of the right and conservatives much to the dismay of liberal law students and professors.

I've heard that. Somehow he still had time to ally himself with Muslim terrorists and radical Marxists to plot the destruction of America.

[Wolter]

If you check out Obama's history with the Harvard Law Review you'll see that is was the minorities and left leaning people who had the biggest problem with him. He made sure to include people of the right and conservatives much to the dismay of liberal law students and professors.

I've heard that. Somehow he still had time to ally himself with Muslim terrorists and radical Marxists to plot the destruction of America.

Well, like EVERY Democrat that ever runs for president, he is the SINGLE MOST LIBERAL SENATOR EVER.

[Dr. Medulla]

If you check out Obama's history with the Harvard Law Review you'll see that is was the minorities and left leaning people who had the biggest problem with him. He made sure to include people of the right and conservatives much to the dismay of liberal law students and professors.

I've heard that. Somehow he still had time to ally himself with Muslim terrorists and radical Marxists to plot the destruction of America.

Well, like EVERY Democrat that ever runs for president, he is the SINGLE MOST LIBERAL SENATOR EVER.

He's even more liberal than Bernie Sanders, an actual self-identifying socialist! Funny how Hillary was the most liberal till that uppity mulatto roared past her in the primaries.

[Wolter]

If you check out Obama's history with the Harvard Law Review you'll see that is was the minorities and left leaning people who had the biggest problem with him. He made sure to include people of the right and conservatives much to the dismay of liberal law students and professors.

I've heard that. Somehow he still had time to ally himself with Muslim terrorists and radical Marxists to plot the destruction of America.

Well, like EVERY Democrat that ever runs for president, he is the SINGLE MOST LIBERAL SENATOR EVER.

He's even more liberal than Bernie Sanders, an actual self-identifying socialist! Funny how Hillary was the most liberal till that uppity mulatto roared past her in the primaries.

He's more liberal than Kerry, even. And that guy was the mostest liberalist liberal ever!

[101Walterton]

Who here will eat crow if Obama is elected and turns out awful? Raise your hand.

He aint got much to beat

[Wolter]

Who here will eat crow if Obama is elected and turns out awful? Raise your hand.

He aint got much to beat

Yeah...honestly, I can't possibly see how he could be ANY worse than a lateral move.

[101Walterton]

Who here will eat crow if Obama is elected and turns out awful? Raise your hand.

He aint got much to beat

Yeah...honestly, I can't possibly see how he could be ANY worse than a lateral move.

Just the effect of having a black American President will go some way to repair the damage caused by the Bush regime so I dont see how he can go wrong no matter what he does.

[Schnix]

Even if nothing improves (policy-wise), at least I can tolerate watching more than 5 seconds of his speeches.