Posted by
Buster Foghorn on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 6:05:43 PM
We are finished, finally; it is the end of a long Presidential campaign, and now we wait; there is calm, like an interregnum between sovereigns, a pause while one President winds down, and a new President forms his administration and sets his policy goals. Barack Obama’s election, as our first African-American, is a singular event.
For President-Elect Obama there is opportunity and risk. It is an opportunity to govern, but a risk of excess by trying to rule from Day One—a characterization used by Valerie Jarrett, Co-Chair Obama Transition Team. It is an opportunity to lead by reason and prudence, but a risk of going beyond his support and advancing his policies by coercion and resentment.
It is an opportunity to change policy, but a risk of over-reaching. Michael Gerson reviews very early mistakes of another President, Bill Clinton, in “Where the Mines Are.” He discusses three tripwires for President-Elect Obama: The first tripwire concerns abortion and bioethics. He also identifies the Fairness Doctrine (eliminating conservative talk radio) and “card check” for unions (eliminating secret ballots) as landmines.
Regarding the tripwire of abortion, President-Elect Obama is more than an advocate of denying care to an infant born of a botched partial-birth abortion procedure. He is, in fact, a champion of the euphonious Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). His promised changes in abortion law and policy are dramatic. In fact, one commentator describes him: “as the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to have ever run on a major party ticket.”
He has promised that 'the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act’ (known as FOCA). This proposed legislation would create a federally guaranteed 'fundamental right' to abortion….In essence, FOCA would abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry-protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs. The pro-abortion National Organization for Women has proclaimed with approval that FOCA would 'sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies.'
This Presidential election felt more significant, perhaps because war rages abroad and economic woes lead the headlines at home. Whether President-Elect Obama’s term in office is also a significant one, a Presidential term that is substantial, consequential, and historic, depends on his actions, his policies, and his accomplishments. It depends on whether he avoids those landmines and tripwires that can prematurely terminate any Presidential honeymoon, any feeling of goodwill, and any willingness to work with a new President.
Will President-Elect Obama avoid the tripwire of abortion and bioethics; or will he take the risk, the risk of trying to rule rather than govern; the risk of over-reaching on policy decisions; the risk of going beyond his support and compelling Americans to follow? If his abortion agenda is one of those avoidable landmines that can derail a newly elected President in the first days of his Presidency, as it seems to be, then his decision will be a defining one.