The Paradox Effect.

This perception versus reality thing is rearing it’s ugly head again in regards to the Presidency. Just about every conservative pundit and blogger out there (myself included) looked at Obama’s record in the Illinois legislature and U.S. Senate (what record there was) and assumed that he would immediately make good on his campaign promise to bring our troops home from Iraq immediately. He promised to be a different kind of politician, putting together an administration that did not represent Washington insiders, but outsiders, with new, fresh, progressive ideas. 

I don’t know that I’ve ever been more comforted to discover that Obama is the same old kind of mendacious, obfuscating, say-anything-to-get-elected-and-then-do-what-you-have-to-no-matter-what-you-promised brand of politician. In short, Obama lied. He gave every indication that he was going to tilt our defense and homeland security hard to the left. In fact, if we can judge future performance by his cabinet nominees, he’s going straight to the center, bypassing a main course of “dove” with a healthy serving of “hawk.”

Thank God.

Now Hillary Clinton is not my first choice for any public office. (Frankly, she’d be close to the end of my list.) However, she did have the guts to support the war, way back when Obama was doin’ the dove thing. As Secretary of State, I think she’s almost a slam dunk to be every bit as hawkish as Condoleeza Rice has been (which isn’t really saying a lot, but State has never been my favorite department of the Executive branch). 

The fact that Obama is keeping Defense Secretary William Gates on for a bit leads me to believe that there must have been one Hell of a Come to Gaia meeting on the occasion of his first, no-holes-barred National Security briefing. I am afraid that it’s no small coincidence that the Administration announced today that they are creating a new, 20,000-strong military force that will be stationed stateside, who’s mission is to act as first-responders in time of national emergency including the possibility of nuclear attack. Wow. I woulda loved to have been a fly on the wall when Obama was told what’s REALLY going on with the War on Terror. To his credit, he seems to have put pragmatism over ideology, and at warp speed. Good for him. Good for us. 

Don’t get me wrong…I’m not lining up with the RINOs to join the Obama love fest. I still think the guy is gonna take us right into the gaping maw of Socialism, just as fast as the economy will let him take us. However, I’m also a big believer in the axiom, “those that do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

Here’s the deal. JFK was a liberal. Nixon was a conservative. Which one threatened war? Kennedy. Which one withdrew our troops in what was by most accounts a surrender? Nixon. Which one lowered taxes? Kennedy. Which one raised taxes and imposed wage and price controls, worsening an economic downturn? Nixon. Which one waged a Cold War against the Russians and Cuban socialist regimes? Kennedy. Which one defrosted relations with both the U.S.S.R. and China? Nixon. See where I’m going here? It’s paradoxical, but when you elect a liberal, sometimes they end up doing some very conservative things, and vice-versa. Clinton passed welfare reform and a tax cut. (Not that he wanted to, but he had little choice.) Bush passed all sorts of entitlements (prescription drug care and No Child Left Behind spring to mind), neither of which jibe well with the conservative ideal of “the government that governs best, governs least.” We may well discover that Obama, though a card-carrying liberal, may have little choice but to enact plenty of policies that are…dare I say it…conservative in nature. (Ich bin ein conservative?)

Now not all Presidents fall prey to the Paradox effect. Reagan was largely immune. So was Carter. But both Clinton and Bush the Younger have had their Paradox moments. Time will tell if Obama has his. Here’s hoping he does. At any rate, we’re off to an interesting start.