During the campaign last year, I wondered whether Barack Obama was "very liberal or just a moderate Democrat for change," to quote the title of this post. As we near the end of his first year in office, the answer to my question has become pretty clear: It doesn’t matter. When it comes to domestic policy, Barack Obama isn’t all that relevant. Policy has been made by Nancy Pelosi and the liberal committee chairs in the House and by Harry Reid and the sixtieth yes vote in the Senate.
Consider what has happened. On the first stimulus bill, President Obama did not present a proposal. He let Speaker Pelosi and the liberal committee chairs put a bill together – and then complained about the Republicans not cooperating with people who really didn’t want their input – unless it was to say "okay".
On cap and trade (called "Cap’n trade" by James Taranto of "Best of the Web Today"), Obama presented a general proposal, but the House committee chairs changed it totally so that it became more of a Christmas tree (as in "presents on the tree") for businesses and other people with connections than a policy to really cut back carbon emissions. The bill became so bad that some of its supporters were forced to argue, in effect, that it should be passed, so it would look like they were doing something, and it could be fixed later.
Which brings us to the mish mash of a health care bill that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve morning – without even a single Republican vote. (Not even a Republican from Maine would vote for it.) Once again, President Obama did not put forward any specific proposal or legislation. He just stated some broad general goals*, and then let Nancy Pelosi in the House and Harry Reid and the sixtieth Democrat in the Senate come up with the details; i.e., the stuff that really counts when it comes to your health care in the future. His position wasn’t much more than "If you pass it, I will sign it."
So after almost a year in office, I don’t know whether President Obama has real positions or whether he mostly cares about is getting laws passed so he can claim credit in the history books for accomplishing "big things". In any case, it is pretty clear that whether Barack Obama is "very liberal or just a moderate Democrat for change" isn’t relevant – because his positions haven’t really mattered.
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* Barack Obama’s political philosophy, at least in domestic affairs, reminds me of the reason I used to tell people I liked teaching kindergarteners for Sunday School. I said I liked it because the theology involved was not much more than: "God is great. God is good. Yea, God." From what we have seen so far, President Obama’s political philosophy seems to mostly be: "Government is great. Government is good. Yea, government."
Update (12/26/09 3:55 pm): Corrected a typo in the footnote.
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