Some Advice for the Perturbed Lefties

Jeff Jacoby gives a list of some of the disappointments experienced by the liberals with Barack Obama and his various appointments and positions, and has some advice for them:

A few reflections:

1. It's never advisable to fall in love with a politician; sooner or later, you're bound to feel betrayed. While Obama's true believers may be feeling jilted, can they really claim he gave them no warning? After all, once he nailed down the Democratic nomination in June, Obama began backing away from one liberal stance after another: on banning handguns, on NAFTA, on Iran, on warrantless wiretapping, on public financing of the presidential campaign, on the death penalty for child rape - even, eventually, on the desirability of swiftly withdrawing US troops from Iraq. He was not the candidate of left-wing ideological purity: Could he have put it any more clearly?

2. Actually, he did put it more clearly. He ran explicitly against believing "that we're doomed to fight the same tired partisan battles over and over again" and in favor of changing America into "a country that no longer sees itself as a collection of Red States and Blue States." However one-sided his voting record in Illinois and the US Senate, he pledged something different if he were elected president. For now, at least, he's making good on his pledge.

3. Still, Obama is hardly in danger of turning into anything resembling a right-winger. With his trillion-dollar "stimulus" proposal, he is inviting comparisons to FDR. And with committed liberals like Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services secretary, Carol Browner as energy czar, and Eric Holder as attorney general, the Obama administration is never going to be accused of harboring Republican tendencies.

4. Most Americans are not explicitly ideological, and most, so far, think very highly of Obama. According to Gallup, 67 percent of the public is confident of his ability to be a good president; 71 percent view him favorably. OK, so Barney Frank and The Nation are complaining about him. There are worse fates.

Obama is just getting started with the disappointments for the left. However, I'm sure he'll have just as many disappointments for the right before he's been in office very long.