by Eric Kohn
While even in the midst of celebrating the inauguration of their personal political Messiah, some of the Left couldn't resist acting like petulant school children:
The crowd packed on the west side of the Capitol grounds serenaded President Bush in mocking fashion when he took to the inaugural stage alongside Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye," a section of the crowd chanted.
The crowd packed immediately below the podium received Bush in stony silence when he took his seat on the stage surrounding the podium where Barack Obama was scheduled to take the oath office to become the 44th president of the United States. ...
Later... at least one man was seen giving the chopper what Bush used to call the "one-finger salute."
Another man, with a thick New England accent, yelled, "Go back to Crawford!"
And a woman shouted, "Good riddance! He's leaving!"
The rank immaturity continued in Houston:
Houston police are looking for a vandal who defaced a monument in honor of former President George Bush.
Shortly before 2pm, Houston police got a call of criminal mischief in progress at the George Bush monument on Bagby at Preston in downtown Houston. Witnesses say a man who appeared to be homeless was using paint to vandalize the monument.
The man was described as having long blond hair, possibly in a ponytail, and wearing a plaid shirt. He may still have some yellow paint on him.
Pleasantly, most conservative voices I heard yesterday acted with a good deal more tact in receiving Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Except, that is, for one Rush Limbaugh:
My hope, and please understand me when I say this. I disagree fervently with the people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, "Well, I hope he succeeds. We've got to give him a chance." Why? They didn't give Bush a chance in 2000. Before he was inaugurated the search-and-destroy mission had begun. I'm not talking about search-and-destroy, but I've been listening to Barack Obama for a year-and-a-half. I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed.
While I generally like Rush, he couldn't be more wrong here about how I and others like me behold the Obama presidency. Hoping that he's successful is by no means acquiescing to a Leftist progressive or statist agenda. That's a completely incorrect means of measuring success. I'm not interested in marking success by Obama accomplishing the implementation of a his agenda without qualitative evaluation of its merits, but instead with him prescribing the most time-proven and helpful remedies for what ails the nation. What will save us is the free market capitalistic, limited government, individual-empowering and personal liberty-based vision for this nation that was expressed by our founding fathers - individuals to whom Obama at least paid rhetorical tribute yesterday. I hope Obama comes to believe in the wisdom of their design for our nation and is successful in driving us back towards those ends.
Simply put, I'm not hoping that he's successful in whatever he chooses. I hope he successful in doing the right thing. The policy is truly more important than either the person or the political party.
That said, I'm not optimistic that's the direction Obama seeks to go. He's given me no real reason to be. But, then again, from the sweepingly grand and intellectually conflicted oratory of yesterday's speech, I can't quite get a good gauge on what specifically he wants to do. Now he has to govern. And we have to wait to see what he does. I'll support him when I can, and stand up against him when I must.
Oh yeah, and I eagerly await that list of government programs that don't work that he plans to cut.
But there is another reason to happily and proudly receive yesterday's inauguration. This is summed up well by National Review's Jonah Goldberg:
Conservatives who try too hard to belittle the importance of this milestone are mistaken on several fronts. First, this is simply a wonderful—and wonderfully American—story. Any political movement that is joyless about what this represents risks succumbing to bitter political crankery.
For instance, you will not soon see a German chancellor of Turkish descent. Nor will a child of North African immigrants soon take the reins of power in France. It will be a long time before a Pakistani or Indian last name appears on the mailbox at 10 Downing St. And yet these countries bubble over with haughty finger-waggers eager to lecture backward and provincial America about race and tolerance. Why not enjoy rubbing Barack Obama in their faces?
Why not, indeed.
Cross-posted at EricKohn.com
