Curious how those of you who voted for Obama feel about this article?

I think the choices he has made so far have been beyond intelligent. He has an incredibly daunting task ahead of him, and the people he is choosing to surround himself with are intelligent, experienced, sophisticated people who will work to do the best they can for this country. I think the idea that these people aren’t “liberal” enough is ridiculous. He is picking from all sides: left and right, up and down, and in the middle. And that’s exactly what he should be doing. One person may not have all the answers, but if the best of all of the options out there can come together and work on this, maybe the country can begin the slow climb up from the bottom. No matter what he does over the next 40 or so days, someone out there will find something to complain about. Give the guy a chance. He isn’t even the president yet.

That’s an editorial.

@les: I am more then willing to give him a chance. I was just quite surprised to see the backlash of some of his picks. I am not surprised in the least about his pull back from promises regarding the war and tax breaks.

@squirbel: Doesn’t matter if it’s an editorial. I am asking your opinion of what is in the article. Are liberals really getting frustrated?

I’ve heard him say something to the effect that he is the new blood, the new way of thinking. He is surrounding himself with experienced people, which is very smart. I think he believes he can temper any tendency toward backward thinking.

As a moderate conservative I am pleased to see experienced people in his cabinet.

@susanne: I think part of the problem is that people are misunderstanding what he meant by “change”. I went to one of his rallies, and I listened to him speak more times than I can count, and the message of change that I got was to unite all the parties and beliefs of the country. His “change” was not “lets have an ultra-liberal administration for a change”. His change was “let’s all agree to work together.”

@Les: I certainly understand that and you are correct. Many of my liberal friends wanted wholesale change and they aren’t seeing it so now they are frustrated. I say give him a chance, but people are not happy.

I think it is a silly, short-sighted article. The progressives I know are continuing to be active, positive about his direction, and understanding that “new direction” does not necessarily mean “inexperienced.”

As for me, personally, I am so gloriously happy that Obama is the incoming president that I have to keep remembering this really happened, and we don’t have the limited McCain and his attractive side-kick trying to figure out how to deal with the financial, economic, etc. world wide melt-down.

I am very glad to see most Flutherites are still thinking positively!

Have you read his autobiography? I recommend it highly. I think he is about as well informed and realistic as a person in his position can be. And that is what I voted for.

As such he already knows, I am sure, that practically all the people who didn’t vote for him and most of the people who did are going to be mad at him for something before he even takes office. I didn’t vote for promises. I voted for a person who I believe can make considered, consistent, coherent, and intelligent decisions that are the best anyone can do for us at this time. I don’t mind if they’re not what I would do. I don’t think I’m qualified to be president.

I often think of a friend of mine who trains and leads teams of volunteers that go into disaster sites such as scenes of hurricane destruction to provide shelter tents, supplies, and direct hands-on aid. He knows the last thing they are going to encounter is gratitude. He tells his teams, “Don’t do relief work if you can’t take the abuse.”

I really agree with what Les is saying here. The problem is, people hear what they want to hear. Obama will definitely do a lot to make our economy work well for everyone, and will undoubtedly require more in taxation from the wealthy and more spending on services for those who are struggling. But the best way to do that is to AVOID coming out and saying something that would give conservatives who dislike him the ability to twist his words and make it sound like he was saying, “I’m gonna tax the rich people back to the stone age and give out all the money to people on welfare.” And as a liberal, I KNOW that’s not what liberals are after, BUT, I know that this is what many conservatives THINK we are after. So I think it makes sense to take an approach which says we’re going to try to get as many people on board as possible here, but I’m going to be the one who ultimately is responsible for the decisions. So I’ll set the agenda, and I’ll expect the people who work for me to carry it out, and I’m not going to hold it against you if you were part of a different administration that didn’t have the same priorities I do now. In this way, I think Obama can get the benefit of the experience of people who have been involved in these issues in the real world, but he can give them a fresh new perspective and a different set of directives to follow. That only makes sense.

But if you sat there during the campaign and thought that him saying he’d help the middle class and the poor meant that he was going to just throw caution to the wind and tell the Republicans to suck it the way Bush spent the last 8 years telling Democrats to suck it, then I contend that YOU WEREN’T LISTENING. You were hearing what you WANTED to hear, not what he WAS SAYING. Flash back to 2004, Obama said that in talking to people he gets a sense that people don’t expect government to solve all their problems for them, but that they do understand that we could be doing much better. In that, to me he recognized that it’s every bit as much of a lie the Democrats tell when they push for funding to give as a handout and expect it to just solve people’s problems for good, as it is when the conservatives say that the only people who ask for help from the government are lazy and they just need to take personal responsibility. There’s a little truth in all of it, and THAT is why I voted for Obama, because he’s the only person on the left OR the right who seems to understand that it’s not an all or nothing…the left is always right/wrong and the right is always wrong/right.

Obama also said during the campaign that his White House would not be staffed with yes men, that though ultimately the buck would stop with him and he would make the decisions, he wouldn’t just want everyone to agree with him, because it’s not as though good ideas only come from the left and bad ideas only come from the right…we should pay more attention to the ideas themselves than to who proposes them.

I find his appointments and his statements of the last 5 weeks to be very much in keeping with the Obama I saw in the campaign. And I’m very liberal, very much to the left of the Democratic party in general, but I think to just go radically left the way Bush went radically right will just result in the right being disenfranchised, the left becoming egotistical and bloated and we’ll end up with bad policy and a bitterly divided electorate…essentially the same as we have today, just a mirror image.

Personally, I think Obama can make this country far more liberal and progressive but the path for him to do so means he has to start in the middle and cast a wide net, and he needs to prove to those who are not ideologically on board with him (but who will give him a fair chance), to prove that perhaps liberalism isn’t as scary as they’ve been making it out to be all along. Indeed, the magic will be if he can swing the country to the left, but people who are conservative will still consider themselves to BE conservatives, even though by an objective measure they end up being FAR less conservative than they were a few years before.

I’m still quite comfortable with him. He’s still working on and vowing to work for a lot of my issues. I’ve liked a lot of his placements. Also: Rahm Emanuel. I think they were overlooking the Rahm Emanuel issue.

edited to add: Also in his acceptance speech, he mentioned homosexuals. So he’s already done more to further some of my pet issues than anyone else has. Plus I’m all about his tech views. He’s doing a fine job. Honestly, the job is gonna suck and most people aren’t going to like his decisions. He’s the president. It is his job to make unpopular, good decisions. Like a parent for a nation.

@empress: Wait. There’s a Rahm Emmanuel issue? I think Rahm is excellent. What’s the issue?

I agree with what everyone is saying here and I am very liberal. I feel Obama is generally surrounding himself with excellent people who may not all agree with him. He really will be the “decider.” I think all along in his campaign he was talking about building consensus and although some of his stated positions may be more centrist than I would like, I respect him and what he is trying to do.

I agree with Jeruba. “Dreams From My Father” was a great book and gives you a real sense of what Obama has experienced and how much he is able to synthesize and analyze about the world from it.

Although we are in terrible shape economically, I feel so much more hopeful about the future than I have in eight years. As a friend said, I feel like I was walking around with an ache in my heart for eight years and now it is gone.

I think this whole issue is largely dreamed up by journalists just like the one about women Democrats not voting for Obama or the “Bradley effect.”

I was rather astonished during the election process that so many seemed to think that Obama would have dramatically different policies – it’s been pretty well established that his ideals and philosophies are pretty moderate. It seemed to me a recipe for dissatisfaction for the left.

My hope is that he will bring “change” to our government in that he will find a way to create consensus, produce results, and reduce graft and inefficiency in Washington.

@Les: He’s effing awesome. That’s the issue. You can’t start off badly if he’s on your team. It’s like having Michael Phelps on your swim team and having the parents in the bleachers say, “I don’t know about the team this year…”

Okay, perhaps a slight exaggeration, but he’s freaking awesome.

As long as Obama does not club-to-death a harp-seal pup on the White House lawn, I’m pretty much OK with what ever he does.

He lost my support when he voted for FISA. I’m not expecting much.

He’s still got my full support.