Words of wisdom are pouring from the pages of America's punditocracy, and many embrace a common theme: dare to be bold, Mr. President-elect.
From E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post:
The president-elect is hearing that his greatest mistake would be something called "overreach." Democrats in Congress, it's implied, are hungry to impose wacky left-wing schemes that Obama must resist. In fact, timidity is a far greater danger than overreaching, simply because it's quite easy to be cautious.
From Paul Krugman of the New York Times:
Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative country, and voters will punish Democrats if they move to the left. Others say that the financial and economic crisis leaves no room for action on, say, health care reform. Let's hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.
Fresh off a smashing victory at the polls, President-elect Barack Obama is getting advice from across the political spectrum urging a cautious, moderate start to the new administration. That would be a huge mistake.
It's almost as if they've been cribbing from each other. No matter. From the perspective of someone who's hoping to see Obama take "bold" action on climate change, this sort of talking is positively electrifying.
Already, we're hearing that that Obama is poised to reverse a number of Bush's executive orders, including the one that undermines the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases and another that makes it hard for California to improve automobile mileage standards. These are the low-hanging fruit, of course. Executive orders can be undone with the stroke of the proverbial pen. But Obama shouldn't waste any time trying to convince Congress to get aboard his plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050. The British have already paved the way, making such legislation just a tad less "bold" than it was only a month ago.
It will still face enormous obstacles in Washington, though. He'll probably need a "climate czar" to run that campaign. Conventional wisdom has it that Al Gore would turn down an offer to assume that post, but after reading his advice column over the weekend, in which he lays out the policy path to free the U.S. of fossil-fuel-generated electricity in 10 years, it's hard to see how he could refuse a request from the new president to serve his country once again.
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