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Originally Posted by NewToCA
Yes, my comment was based upon reading the article (I can "speed read" some types of articles). Obama is going to disappoint a lot of folks, but I suspect he will be more inclined to support the "coastal liberal" sentiments than you may think. I believe that one significant difference we may have in how we view Obama is that I suspect he really isn't much of a leader with strong philosophical bearings (say, in contrast to someone like Paul or Kucinich), rather I think he is a "consensus builder" who will generally be building a larger group around the ideas and concepts of Nancy Pelosi.
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I don't disagree with your assertion that he is a consensus builder as everything I have seen so far seems to also indicate this. Which is why I say that coastal liberals are likely to be more disappointed than moderate Republicans. In fact, he made a statement to that effect either in his acceptance speech or just before.
I see Obama as viewing himself as some kind of modern FDR or even to a lesser degree a Reaganesque figure (not literally) but in the sense of not wanting to be just President but being a President of a generation. In order to do this I suspect he will have to seriously reach across the aisle in order to build a broader based coalition in Congress, after all, where else are the hard left going to go? As you yourself pointed out, he is appearing to be a consensus kind of guy, and that would seem to indicate something broader than just Democrats.
I may be completely wrong, but I suspect here in the next four months we will get an idea of where he plans on heading. I just think the surprise will be on the left more than the middle.