Barak Obama’s Inaugural Address
I liked the speech. I liked that he brought in so many fundamental American values and images. I like that he kept his goals, for the most part, above the level of entrenched partisan solutions. It was a good start.
The biggest obstacle to Obama’s “post-partisan” vision will be the hard left. Reaching out to Republicans will be easy because half of them are liberals already, and the other half will respond to reason. The hard left, however, will be difficult to bring into a bipartisan coalition. Convincing them of the value of American institutions such as the market, or the value of individual responsibility, entrepreneurship and investment, or the end of victimization and racial thinking, will be sea-change challenges that the hard left will fight tooth and nail.