Change

As the results pile up and the speeches accumulate, some things are becoming apparent. Almost parallel posts from BooMan and Maha on South Carolina and the Clintons' tactics, although focused on the smears against Obama, point up something that I hadn't quite crystallized in my own mind. There's a deeper substrate there, though. I've never believed Clinton when she's talking about change, and I was right: she's waging a campaign straight from the Republican playbook. Obama is not, but that doesn't mean he's right. His message is very inspiring, and will probably win him the election. I don't think it will make him a functional president: it's all very well and good to call for uniting the country and dispensing with the divisiveness of the Republican years, but I think John Edwards has called it right in one area: the next president is going to be dealing with people whose idea of compromise is that everyone does it their way. There's going to be obstruction and backstabbing from the Republicans in Congress, the business sector, and probably the bureaucrats in the executive, considering that there are now huge numbers of Bush's political hacks putting in time there for no other reason than to advance the right-wing agenda (they're certainly not doing anything that looks like governing).

Obama's tactics, by the way, are not above reproach. See this post by TerranceDC at BooMan Tribune on Obama's handling of the gay community. Of course, he's not so different from the rest of the Democrats, but then, that doesn't smack too much of change now, does it?

I'm starting to think that "Change" is the Democratic buzz-word for this campaign. Don't look for it to happen