Delighted, I'm sure

Sorry for the delay, friends. Life has been, you know, busy. But, I've come crawling out of the woodwork to comment lightly on a news story I read this afternoon.

Here's the link. The gist is that uber liberals are dismayed and a little disappointed at President-elect Barack Obama's choices so far.

He's appointed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who voted FOR the war in Iraq, as secretary of state and President George W. Bush's second defense secretary Robert Gates (a far better choice than Dubya's first, Donald Rumsfeld, IMHO) as his own secretary of defense. The liberals are mad that Obama seems to be stiffing them on those dear positions. A Dubya era conservative will continue on in his current role overseeing the department of defense, and Obama seems to be hedging his position on the draw down in Iraq. He has even backed away from his promise to immediately repeal the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 per year -- he now says he may just let those tax cuts expire as planned in 2010. On Iraq, he says he's trying to make sure U.S. interests are not threatened by any resurgence of violence.

Um, two things:

1) When a new candidate is elected, the transition to power begins almost immediately. Obama received his first in-depth national security briefing the Friday after the election. I don't particularly like the idea that those in power know a whole lot more than we do and therefore should be trusted to make informed decisions. Seems to smack of the military industrial complex. But, dear liberal friends, maybe Obama now knows a helluva lot more than he knew before Nov. 7. I'm not making excuses for Dubya, but it seems really easy to criticize our leaders and their choices when one (ahem, yes, I'm looking at you blogosphere) doesn't have a friggen' clue what national security issues we face. Obama's recent actions (and subsequent liberal dismay) have me wondering what he has learned so far.

2) I absolutely loved the left's reaction to the passage of proposition eight in California. When their guy won the race for the White House, their response was, "The people have spoken. Let's all get to work. If you don't like it, get over it." When their liberal agenda failed on the ballot in California, the response was "Why do you hate gay people, California?" I don't particularly like proposition eight, but a vote is a vote is a vote. As those liberals say, "the people have spoken." My mother-in-law, a staunch conservative if there ever was one, fervently prays for our leaders, whether or not they fall in line with the GOP. Her question was, "OK, guys, you might not like the results of the California vote, but if your mantra on Obama was that "the people have spoken," why can't you accept the results in California and move on?" She'll be praying for Obama the same way she prays for Dubya and has moved the heck on from the election. With a more centrist executive branch, as Obama seems to lean toward, more stuff might actually get done. Oh, my hell! Perish the thought that in Washington, there might actually be some movement.

Anyway, I'll step back into obscurity now. Time for some hot chocolate.