Can you hear the sound of the starry-eyed liberals whimpering? After months of mocking Hillary’s tears, now they are wiping away their own. Last Tuesday, Barack Obama announced his support for faith-based initiatives. This was not a huge surprise to those who knew Obama before he ran for president, as he has always talked about religion more than many Democrats (and without tripping over himself as he does so…not to name names...ohn-Jay Erry-Kay).The interesting point is that Bush was actually criticized by the supporters of faith-based programs for using it as a tool to get support from the Christian Right, but doing nothing with it. Obama argues that he can actually use them effectively and maintain separation of church and state. So the chattering classes debate: is this a good way address poverty and social issues, a possible way to win votes from evangelicals, or a simple pander (hint: #3).
The final question is: will this alienate his love-struck base, which is dying to see a counterrevolution against the last eight years? Conservatives often accuse liberals of being pansies and we’re about to see if they’re right. Can liberals realize that Obama will pander once in awhile and that he is only human? Will they have a Nader revolt? (Maybe they’ll forgive Nader after Roberts and Alito retire) Or will they pull out their box of Hillary Kleenex that they thought was such a clever political statement and cry themselves to sleep. Maybe they’ll sleep through the campaign season and wake up on Election Day. (Lucky bastards!)
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