Let's Pull Him Leftward

I tend to think that Barack Obama honest-to-god wants to "reach across the aisle" and find common ground with Republicans in Congress when he can. This move will, of course, disappoint the left, which would love to see a full-on progressive movement take shape from the top.

Well, it's going to be up to that giant group of left-leaning small donors to push him there, as is already becoming clear.

Rahm Emanuel is a tenacious fighter and, as Chief of Staff, will serve as an effective bad cop to Obama's good one. But let's not forget that he was also a member of the Clinton White House, which pushed the entire Democratic Party to the right. And Rahm was a big part of that. I for one hope that Rahm Israel Emanuel (also a good moniker balance to Barack Hussein Obama) taps into his Sarah Lawrence College roots, slips back into his dance tights, and gets reacquainted with his deeply left-leaning liberal arts education.

Also of concern is the prominence of Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers on Obama's economic team. These two free-marketeers also served the Clinton administration and are about as responsible as anyone for the total lack of regulation on Wall Street. Let's hope that Obama gives more weight to economic minds like Robert Reich's instead. And if someone could convince Barack Obama to use his impressive oratory skills to lure Paul Krugman away from his Nobel Prize in Economics to serve as Secretary of the Treasury, I'd be a happy, happy man.

Obama is a pragmatist more than anything. He will want to get things done. And it will be up to those millions of small donors to hold him accountable to the movement that elected him.

He won, but this thing ain't over.