The fierce reaction by gay activists to President-elect Obama’s invitation to Rick Warren to perform the invocation at the Inauguration highlights the difference between campaigning and governing. No, we haven’t quite gotten to the governing yet, but we have gotten to some of the choosing. And that is the nub of the distinction.
President-elect Obama escaped the campaign, to a greater degree than any other candidate in recent memory, without revealing a core set of beliefs or defined programs. Was he still wedded to an immediate withdrawal from Iraq or had he come around to a near-imitation of John McCain’s position? It depends what you wanted to hear. Was he signaling a new era of protectionism or a grudging defense of free trade? It depends what audience and which speech. Was he really going to raise taxes in a recession? It sounded less definitive as time went on, but paying higher taxes is patriotic, you know. He was a master of nuance, a marvel at maintaining enough ambiguity to assure conflicting constituencies that he was really on their side.
But that was a campaign – and that was talk. The essence of governing is doing and choosing. Rick Warren or Jesse Jackson? Secretary of Defense Robert Gates or Chuck Hagel? A tax increase or not? At some point your actions make clear your intentions. And inevitably one side or the other, both which thought he was with them, is disappointed.
One approach is to try to create an artificial balance of voices and give conflicting interests their own “seat at the table.” So, the Wall Street Journal reports:
“President-elect Barack Obama plans to name former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, a longtime free trader, as U.S. trade representative, and Rep. Hilda Solis, a free-trade opponent, as labor secretary, Obama advisers said, reflecting the split in the incoming administration over trade.”
Well that seems to be a gridlock in the making. And in any event, President Obama sooner or later will have to break the tie and decide. NAFTA renegotiation or Colombia Free Trade Agreement ratification? One side in the protection vs. free trade battle eventually will know its side lost.
The Warren pick is just a sample of what is to come. All of the elevated expectations and conflicting promises might have helped get him elected, but they will make the governing more challenging. As President Obama is forced to choose on issue after issue, the ambiguities will become fewer and the complaints greater. It happens to all politicians, and even President Obama can’t change that.
