How will Obama govern, and how should we respond?

One of the things I least like about Obama is how his lack of credentials causes us to create visions of how he will govern based on every small detail of what little he has said or done.

Does he have the philosophy of Bill Ayres or Bill Clinton? With Obama you could argue convincingly either way.

With Obama forming a cabinet of Clinton retreads, it is fairly stunning to see virtually every major figure on the right doing a complete 180 and assuming that he will govern from the center. That's not to say that he won't, but rather that these appointments could have different purposes.

To a certain extent, it makes sense for an empty-suit politician like Obama to fall back on Clintonites who at least know what they are doing rather than risk a dysfunctional government.

Also, as this recent Time story points out, "It's precisely because Obama intends to pursue a genuinely progressive foreign policy that he's surrounding himself with people who can guard his right flank at home."

In other words, his appointments may be a means of easing Republican opposition to his policies. This is especially important with regards to foreign affairs because, as the article goes on to state, Democrats still face an embarassing deficit on the question of which party would do better with national security.

Remember, Obama's success had a lot to do with his redefining terms. If he can turn welfare into tax cuts, why can't he turn nationalized healthcare into "public works" to restart the economy, or something ridiculous like that?

Obama also isn't suicidal, as he has shown with not raising taxes until 2011. It says a great deal about him and his party these days when even he knows that the Democrat party line on taxes is BS.

Right now I don't think that Obama will follow his 16 month timetable for Iraq because a) he routinely breaks his promises anyway, b) he could probably safely withdraw troops in 36 months anyway, which would coincide nicely with his re-election timetable, c) he probably doesn't want to be blamed for losing the war provided that the political costs are minimal, and d) none of his advisors would recommend it.

On the other hand some of his stated policies, such as bailing out Detroit and going on a half trillion dollar spending spree are outrageous.

However, if Obama does genuinely govern from the center, it raising some disturbing questions. How does this fit into our plan of coming back in 2010 or 2012? Will we have to move to the left to avoid the wilderness that British Tories have experienced since 1997?

Perhaps the best way to handle Obama will be on a case by case basis. If  he does something "centrist" Republicans should go out of their way to praise him instead of accusing him of hypocrisy. If he does something that looks ripped out of a Paul Krugman column we should fight tooth and nail against it and also offer conservative alternatives.