We’re Not About To Experience Bill Clinton’s Third Term

by John Hawkins | November 26, 2008 7:40 am

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds[1] is expressing a sentiment I’ve been hearing semi-regularly behind the scenes,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING: Leaving the Bush tax cuts alone. Putting Iraq-war supporters in as Vice President and Secretary of State. And now keeping Bush’s Defense Secretary on. I’m beginning to feel like I won this election!

Obama is not a centrist and he’s not filling his cabinet up with them either. Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and the overwhelming majority of staffers Obama is bringing on are hard core liberals. The Kos crowd may not always look at it like that, but the netroots think anyone who doesn’t want to prosecute Bush for war crimes or deliberately lose the war in Iraq is practically a Republican.

Furthermore, you also have to keep in mind that the political environment was very different for Clinton. When he came in initially, he veered to the left, but the political environment quickly turned poisonous for him and brought a Republican takeover of the House. Because of that, Clinton had two choices for most of his presidency: move to the middle and bring Republicans on board to get things like welfare reform, NAFTA, and DOMA done or have everything blocked by the Republicans.

Obama isn’t in that position. He has a large enough majority in the House to move through just about anything and in the Senate, he has 58 Democrats and they’re working hard to beat Chambliss and steal the Minnesota seat from Coleman. But, even without those seats, there will be a number of “most wanted” pieces of liberal legislation that can break a filibuster with the help of perennial GOP turncoats like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Arlen Specter.

Granted, Obama may not want to lose a war in Iraq that we’re clearly winning at this point or yank the tax cuts in the middle of a historical financial meltdown, but if anyone is expecting a repeat of the 2nd term of the Clinton Administration just because he’s bringing a lot of Clintonistas on board, I suspect he’s going to be sadly disappointed.

Endnotes:
  1. Glenn Reynolds: http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/28185/

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