I think that Obama has unfortunately set himself up for failure regardless of what he does. Running on a vague platform plank like hope does tend to breed some real-world resentment when hope fails to turn into something real. I've heard a lot of people from campaign trail interviews that expect Obama to be the second coming of Jesus, and that's going to be hard to live up to.

Of all the wrongheaded & unsupportable assertions in this desperate post, the worst has to be the notion that Americans don't want change. Significantly, Carlson doesn't even try to support his claim with evidence. Here's a tip for the author on how to interpret national polls: if 81% of responders believe the country is on the wrong track, then it's reasonable to say that a mandate for real, not "incremental," change is in play.

As for Carlson's citation of Bush's 91-25% approval freefall between 9/11 and the present, he glibly warns, "reversal can come remarkably fast." Talk about omitting a few details! If Carlson is counseling the president-elect that, to avoid a 66% drop in approval ratings, he should not repeat such disastrous decisions as Iraq, WMD, torture, Katrina, Myers, Libby, Schiavo, privatization of Social Security, etc., then Carlson wins the Stupidly Stating the Obvious Award for 2008.

I know it's hard to find conservative bloggers who can piece together a remotely convincing argument, but c'mon, The Daily Beast can do better than this...

I think you got it wrong on this one, Tucker. To take one line out of an interview for a staffer to indicate a person's personality is wrong. Ever go through a tough job interview? A question like, "I'm better at your job than you are, tell me why I should hire you?", seems pretty standard. A little more meat is needed to indicate the President elect will succumb to his own hype.

I love the cynicism of the Republican Party and their talking heads. After eight years of watching Bush do NOTHING except hand out welfare to CORPORATIONS and BIG BUSINESS, while our country floundered economically and morally, change is what most Americans want more than anything, and the more the better. I believe you underestimate the majority of Americans and their exhaustion in living with a President who inspires nothing and rules the country by FUD=Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Bush killed so much in this country's spirit in the last eight years with his policies and inaction to real people in America who were struggling. The upper 5% may have had a good ride, but in other places of our society it wasn't that much fun. Obama gives us hope again that we can be better than we have been.

From Grant Park to his first press conference, Obama has been almost somber in discussing the task that lies before us. There were no high-fives. There was no brashness, nor arrogance, or even the slightest hint of the dictatorial, as Tucker so absurdly ascribes to him. I have not seen or heard anything other than a deep understanding of the enormity and implications of the disasters the Republicans have left for him to clean up. Me thinks Tucker engages in wishful thinking. The only "proof" Tucker offers up to support this charge of arrogance is some third-hand account of a job interview. Oh please. And American's don't want change? I think about 60 million of us might just disagree with Tucker on that.

Tucker: Methinks you need to explore US history more. In times of prosperity, Americans don't like change; in times of distress Americans tend to embrace wholesale and radical change. For example, Jefferson & co. in selling the idea of breaking away from England was indeed proposing a wholesale radical change and enough colonists embraced that idea to make it a reality. Andrew Jackson with his populist revolution also instituted a wholesale change to the way economic policy was handled to that point. Teddy Roosevelt and the muckrakers believed in limiting the power of robber barons.FDR created programs to get Americans back to work and unfreeze the economic logjam of this country in unprecedented fashion. The Reagan revolution proposed borrowing the country's way to prosperity in radical fashion while deregulating and offshoring whole swaths of of industries.

In short the very basis for your thesis is rather flawed. The only thing that will bring on a revival of the GOP is a return to defending the Constitution from those who would condone torture, the suppression of habeus corpus, illegal search and siezure, and wanting to change the whole notion of law enforcement into assuming guilt and having to prove innocence. The GOP have done a piss poor job in that regard as well as spending like drunken sailors on pork and ineffectual security for 6 years while giving their corporate buddies free rides.

In order for the GOP to revive themselves, they are going to have to defend the Constitution, defend all treaties we are signatories to, be wary of foreign intrigues, enforce existing immigration laws, believe in "US first" when it comes to creating jobs here for citizens versus free trade abroad, keep the government out of everyone's bedrooms, and spend no more than you take in. If the GOP does not adopt this type of stance, they will never be able to gain decisive political victories again. They squandered their free pass and now they are living with the hangover from having been drunk with power for 6 years. Enough!

Plentiful, good-paying jobs, health care, an end to stupid, politically motivated wars and corporate responsibility are not incremental changes. The American people were tired of neocon theories, of bad ideas pursued with incompetence. Until the Republicans can divorce themselves from dimwitted neocon philosophies and the lack of thinking exhibited by Palin, they are doomed. Of course, the American people occasionally make no sense, as when rejecting Gore even though the previous administration had produced prosperity and security.

What happened to my previous comment, Beast?

I see what he's talking about. But honestly, this isn't still just up to Obama. People need to take that energy from the campagne and push it towards eachother now. There all sorts of ways to help. I believe you can get someone to install solar panels pretty cheap now days. Sounds lame but if every single person got one it makes one heck of a difference. The baby boomers are falling from grace (Sorry, part of life) and it's time for new people, new ideas, and new policies. Scorched earth, secret corperate controls, and war are things my generation are appauled by for the most part.

So, the strategy for a Republican resurgence is to wait for the Democrats to screw up? No doubt this "screw up" will be accompanied by a pack of rabid repubs unleashing their usual divisive vitriol. How predictable.

Has it occurred to the Right that perhaps the American public wants mature, thoughtful leadership? Wow -- talk about out of touch.

"Obama staked his campaign on universal health care. The problem is, we can no longer afford it." - actually, he is smart enough to know that he can phase it in. So, improve SCHIP 1st, start small improvements, each time reminding the public what the goal is. He did this on election eve: he warned the public that it may not all happen in one term. But, he knows that small increments show progress to a goal.
This is where many politicians have failed: they think it is all or nothing. So, they try to pass some monstrosity that fails spectacularly and makes it impossible to try anything after.
Obama has made it clear that the economy is job 1. Since consumer confidence is a big factor in the economy, he knows he needs to deal with that aspect as much as anything else. Credit markets will recover with funding, but consumer confidence is much trickier.

"A man who would do that might be the sort of person who could mistake an election for a coronation, and become the kind of arrogant, dictatorial president that voters inevitably come to despise."

Only in your dreams Tucker Carlson. how revealing... the guy is afraid that his banal gushings of Bush for the last 8 years will leave him irrelevant going forward. Spoken like a true spoiled loser- "sure he won, but..."

is switching from a bow-tie to a conventional tie considered 'real change' or 'incremental improvement' ?

Hey Tucker- the bow-tie may help you stand-out better on a 'washed-up/has-been' reality show, which is probably in your future.

ciao-

We have no doubt that the Democrats will screw up. I thought that was obvious. There's a reason they're not allowed to run things very often.

Of course we conservatives want change, just not the big expensive socialist nanny government that Obama craves.

You think people want incremental improvements in the terminal disease you and yours inflicted on this country? You might want to think *that one* through a little longer, Tucker.

-AngelaT-

"big expensive socialist nanny government?" Have you seen the deficit lately?


By the way, not counting the Federalist, Democratic/Republican, or Whig party, Democrats have occupied the White House several more times than have Republicans. As for congress, that would require a little more fact-finding. Damn, pesky facts.

Carlson is an irrelevant pundit trying to now get relevant again.
He and the rest of the right wing punditry are lookin and they g for a reason to be critical.
What Carlson doesn't understand is that people finally recognize the GOP cannot govern. They want better government and they have figured out that the GOP method of governing, which is a series of social legislation to keep the right wing happy doesn't work.
Note to Tucker: Go to Fox News. You can work with Dick Morris and Hannity.

Tucker, I kinda like you. You're kinda amusing. However, I don't think that the Republicans are ailing as much as you'd like to think. I wish they were, but they aren't. First off, I live in Tennessee, a state that will cut off it's own nose rather than see anything progressive happen (kind of amusing when you consider that the only thing that made Tennessee a livible place was the New Deal...Tennessee owes everything to Big Government). I am originally from Pennsylvania. I promise, Republicans could win PA if they would stop making such a big deal out of Abortion. Oh, and as long as the Republicans currently in office prove some competency and willingness to work with Democrats. Pennsylvania is, at heart, a split-ticket state.

Mr. Tucker says and I quote "The Democrats will have to screw up first." for a Republican comeback... WOW is that the best you have to offer as your insight and opinion into salvaging the Republican Party...

What if they don't "Screw UP", will the Republican Party sit on the sidelines? I think not... Is it implied that if they don't "Screw up" then we better make sure that they DO! thats our only chance to get back into power...

Is this the general ideological direction prevelant in the Republican Party or an argument from Mr. Tucker... we will have to wait and watch...

This idea seem to have already taken roots as seen in the recent objections to the appointment of Mr. Rahm Emmanuel and we can be sure to see more of the same "Pull them down, so we can look repectably higher on the popularity meter". Don't be surprised to see the right wing media assualt to call on any stumbles that this administration may encounter... and the PUSH behind the stumble will most likely originate through Republicans who hold such an ideology.

It is unfortunate, but it seems that the Republicans have lost the accumen to develop anything other than negative and divisive strategies that we have seen all thorugh the campaign and it would be hardly surprising to find that this "Knock them down to gain power again" maybe a viable idea being discussed and strategized during the recent and feverent Republican party rebuilding efforts.

Not surprisingly, in this article you have tried to paint President-Elect Mr. Obama's competence in the areas of writing, policy making and governing as just a "High Self-Regard", Really!! Would you rather have an in-competent Commander-in-chief who can't make proper judgements call on importants issues that plague this nation and the world at large?

I quote again: "A man like that might even wind up convincing himself that the American people really want change. They don't of course. They want incremental improvements to their lives. But wholesale change? Nothing upsets Americans more."

I respectfully disagree Mr. Tucker, as a professional, your articles must shun the urge to protect the top echelons in this country, may it be a person or an organization, for whom an incremental change is comfortable and allows them to adjust to change at a slow and steady pace in order to protect their current agenda and assets.

Incremental change needed to be implemented 8 or more years ago and apparently the parties in power then did little to further the incremental change effort, instead they RAPED this country and have left us in tatters.

NOW, today in the midst of 2 wars, a global financial meltdown and many of the major civic bodies in America failing to provide basic services, sweeping changes that cleanup the mess, dirty politics and self-serving policies left behing by past administrations is exactly what we need.

Wether the Change promised by President-Elect Obama is deliverd to us during his term is immaterial, his message of Change in ideologies, in forward thinking, in responsible governing has set the course for future political parties to maintain and better in the coming years.

Has there ever existed a presidential candidate without an enormous ego? Highly unlikely. The good news is that Obama has the advantages of intelligence, eloquence, and sanity (qualities that Bush lacks). Bad news is that he's only liberal when compared with his competition, so "change" is a relative term that doesn't have to reach all that far to look like progress to most middle left Americans.

About health care. all Obama has to say is "this was my plan before the bailout. we can't afford it now and we can all see thats not my fault. But hey!! re elect me in 4 years and then we can talk!!"

""...the sort of person who could mistake an election for a coronation, and become the kind of arrogant, dictatorial president that voters inevitably come to despise.".

Hmmm. Sounds a bit like the guy whose ass you've been kissing for the last eight years, Tucker. Looks like everyone is running for the middle.

Tucker Carlson? Is he still round? Name one thing this guy has ever said of importance.

Raising taxes on 5% of the people in order to give tax breaks to 95%...? Government mandated healthcare...? Employee free choice act...? Massive government "stimulus" spending...? These concepts are screw ups of no mean proportion--and core to the Obama platform.

When the people can't discern that certain well-understood ideas are screw ups (thank you opinion making class), a President Obama will have carte blanche.

I wouldn't get your hopes up Tucker. Obama will undoubtedly screw up, but you're not as good a judge of temperament as George Will. Admitting that he's arrogant is a sign of someone that is intimately aware of themselves at all moments and is probably continually listening and analyzing those he's talking to so he can anticipate the correct thing to say (or not say). He knows his own limitations and tells them to his staff upfront so they can compensate for them when he's not watching himself.

It's true, Obama's constrained in what he can do with his plans because of the financial crisis, but he can still be successful if he attacks those issues in different ways. Too cash-strapped for the health care proposal? I don't see anything expensive about tort reform and capping liability payments. Where's the big costs for taking a nice slice of some of those "budgetary surpluses" non-profit insurers like Pittsburgh's UPMC and making an affordable-health insurance fund? How much money does it take to negotiate with hospitals and insurance companies to bring down the huge mark-ups on procedures?

Obama's biggest challenge isn't the cost of his plans or the financial crisis. It's the fact that all of this stuff has to go through Congress and despite all of the focus on Obama, generally people don't pay much attention to our Legislature, and we all know how wonderfully productive they've been. Early alliances in Congress with McCain and Clinton and actions that put on a good bi-partisan face for the media will be very important.

Oh, and since I can't edit: If the Republicans really want to make a comeback they'll elect Ron Paul as Minority Leader