If you want the 2008 Presidential election and what has followed summed up in one article click on the title for a link to a Wall Street Journal column by Fouad Ajami. Professor Ajami teaches at the School of Advanced International Studies, at Johns Hopkins University. He is also an adjunct fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. For copyright reasons I can't post the entire article but if you only read one thing about politics for the next year this is the article to read. A few quotes:
*****************
The man was elected amid economic distress. Faith in the country's institutions, perhaps in the free-enterprise system itself, had given way. Mr. Obama had ridden that distress. His politics of charisma was reminiscent of the Third World. A leader steps forth, better yet someone with no discernible trail, someone hard to pin down to a specific political program, and the crowd could read into him what it wished, what it needed.
****************
In contrast,(with Ronald Reagan) there is joylessness in Mr. Obama. He is a scold, the "Yes we can!" mantra is shallow, and at any rate, it is about the coming to power of a man, and a political class, invested in its own sense of smarts and wisdom, and its right to alter the social contract of the land. In this view, the country had lost its way and the new leader and the political class arrayed around him will bring it back to the right path.
Thus the moment of crisis would become an opportunity to push through a political economy of redistribution and a foreign policy of American penance. The independent voters were the first to break ranks. They hadn't underwritten this fundamental change in the American polity when they cast their votes for Mr. Obama.******************
Those protesters in those town-hall meetings have served notice that Mr. Obama's charismatic moment has passed. Once again, the belief in that American exception that set this nation apart from other lands is re-emerging. Health care is the tip of the iceberg. Beneath it is an unease with the way the verdict of the 2008 election was read by those who prevailed. It shall be seen whether the man swept into office in the moment of national panic will adjust to the nation's recovery of its self-confidence.
Again, read the entire column by clicking on the title for a link. Best thing I have read, in a long time, that explains whats going on in this country.
