I’m as struck as Mark McKinnon by the sudden, if tempered, swooning of the center-right for Obama. even Fred Barnes has had an epiphany of sorts. They are responding to his obviously sensible and accomplished picks for the economy and foreign affairs as if they have realized for the first time who "that one" actually is. He is not now and never has been a leftist ideologue. That was a paranoid fantasy that helped kill the GOP this year. He is a pragmatic, sane, reasoned centrist liberal. He doesn’t want to surrender to terror or abolish capitalism – he wants to hone our fight against the Islamists to better effect and to save capitalism from itself. And the core meaning of his candidacy – an end to the polarizing culture war battles of the post-Vietnam era – is not just hype. It’s real:
It appears the political classes have briefly sobered up and decided to act responsibly, selflessly and — dare we say it — in the best interest of the country. The times are simply so serious, so dangerous, so calamitous that we can’t afford politics as usual. And for once, politicians seem to get it. We all wish President-elect Obama success. Because there’s a good chance that if he fails, we all go down together. Way down.
And let’s give credit where it’s due. The spirit of good will is being significantly leveraged by Obama, who has had made a series of very smart, practical, pragmatic and non-ideological picks for his cabinet.
Eight years ago, George W. Bush said he wanted to change the tone in Washington. Well, a recount crippled that idea before it got out of the crib. It simply wasn’t the right time for the message or the messenger.
And Bush was never that serious about it. Obama is.
The Dish 