Me and Krauthammer, Who Would Have Thought?

Reading Krauthammer today, or yesterday for those of you that don't live in the hinterland, was one of those great, surrealist moments where I am so far left and Krauthammer is so far right that we end up having the same reading on the American political scene; me with anticipation and hope in my heart and Krauthammer with trepidation and fear.

Aside from Krauthammer's hilarious assertion that the last few months saw the "forced partial nationalization of nine of the largest banks, the kind of stuff that happens in Peronist Argentina with a gun on the table," I can't find much I disagree with. I mean I hope to God that Krauthammer is right when he says the following:

To meet the opportunity[provided by the tanking global economy], Obama has the political power that comes from a smashing electoral victory. It not only gave him a personal mandate. It increased Democratic majorities in both houses, thereby demonstrating coattails and giving him clout. And by running on nothing much more than change and (often contradictory) hopes, he has given himself enormous freedom of action.

Obama was quite serious when he said he was going to change the world. And now he has a national crisis, a personal mandate, a pliant Congress, a desperate public -- and, at his disposal, the greatest pot of money in galactic history. (I include here the extrasolar planets.)

It begins with a near $1 trillion stimulus package. This is where Obama will show himself ideologically. It is his one great opportunity to plant the seeds for everything he cares about: a new green economy, universal health care, a labor resurgence, government as benevolent private-sector "partner." It is the community organizer's ultimate dream.

For some reason Krauthammer fears these changes. I honestly can't imagine why. One would have to live in a world where there is nothing wrong with the environment, the health care system, the economic system, or the regulatory system to not believe that transformation would be good thing. Why, one would have to be a right-winger of Krauthammerian proportions to not believe that transformation is desperately needed.

I also love that fact that Krauthammer repeatedly points out that Obama and the Democrats overwhelmingly won the election and the American people voted for this very change, that it is coming, and no one can stop it. From his keyboard to God's ear, no?