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I know people are excited over Obama having won. Hell, I'm glad he won. I even went and voted for him.
Now, let's look at what we can really expect once he takes office. Looking at how he ran his campaign, he's very good at organizing and delegating to very smart people to Get Shit Done. This will serve him well when it comes to the daily grind of running the Executive Branch. He's also very good at motivating people to work towards helping him enact his vision, which complements the organizational skills and will be useful in the same way. He appears to be highly pragmatic: knowing when to give in and not make perfect the enemy of good enough. He's going to need that. A lot.
Congress is its own beast, with 600+ heads, each with their own goals, vision, and electorates to answer to. The Hydra wouldn't stand a chance. This is where it all sort of falls down. He's been a Senator for a few years now, but he hasn't actually spent much time in the Senate. He might sort of be aware of how legislation gets drafted and moved around various committees at an intellectual level, but he's not had the down and dirty day to day trench fight experience dealing with lobbyists, back room staffer relay, and committee politicking personally that it takes just to get a bill on a committee schedule, much less on the floor for a vote. He's got Biden by his side, who has been doing that for years, and he seems to be smart enough to know that he needs that experience and to listen to it. And he better, or Congress will make him their bitch. Most of them have been around a long time, and despite the last eight years, they know and trust each other far more than they do the guy in the White House regardless of party affiliation. These guys have been cranking out sausage for decades, and some newbie twerp, no matter how much he might be revered by the public, better play by their rules or they'll just watch him flounder and laugh from the other end of the Mall.
I expect he'll be a very good administrator who will restore faith in, and respect for, the office he's currently queued up for once he's there, but I expect his policy goals are going to be harder and take longer than he expects and will be watered down to some degree in the process of making them happen at the Congressional level.
Now, let's look at what we can really expect once he takes office. Looking at how he ran his campaign, he's very good at organizing and delegating to very smart people to Get Shit Done. This will serve him well when it comes to the daily grind of running the Executive Branch. He's also very good at motivating people to work towards helping him enact his vision, which complements the organizational skills and will be useful in the same way. He appears to be highly pragmatic: knowing when to give in and not make perfect the enemy of good enough. He's going to need that. A lot.
Congress is its own beast, with 600+ heads, each with their own goals, vision, and electorates to answer to. The Hydra wouldn't stand a chance. This is where it all sort of falls down. He's been a Senator for a few years now, but he hasn't actually spent much time in the Senate. He might sort of be aware of how legislation gets drafted and moved around various committees at an intellectual level, but he's not had the down and dirty day to day trench fight experience dealing with lobbyists, back room staffer relay, and committee politicking personally that it takes just to get a bill on a committee schedule, much less on the floor for a vote. He's got Biden by his side, who has been doing that for years, and he seems to be smart enough to know that he needs that experience and to listen to it. And he better, or Congress will make him their bitch. Most of them have been around a long time, and despite the last eight years, they know and trust each other far more than they do the guy in the White House regardless of party affiliation. These guys have been cranking out sausage for decades, and some newbie twerp, no matter how much he might be revered by the public, better play by their rules or they'll just watch him flounder and laugh from the other end of the Mall.
I expect he'll be a very good administrator who will restore faith in, and respect for, the office he's currently queued up for once he's there, but I expect his policy goals are going to be harder and take longer than he expects and will be watered down to some degree in the process of making them happen at the Congressional level.
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