{"id":524,"date":"2008-11-26T21:18:57","date_gmt":"2008-11-27T04:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/11\/26\/obamas-center-right-economic-team\/"},"modified":"2008-11-26T22:30:44","modified_gmt":"2008-11-27T05:30:44","slug":"obamas-center-right-economic-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/11\/26\/obamas-center-right-economic-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s “center-right” economic team?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Larry Kudlow, no raving Leftist he, evaluates Obama’s economic team as being predominantly center-right. And this seems to give him hope<\/a> that Obama is going to talk a Left leaning game, while governing more from the center.<\/p>\n

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In fact, there is no question that Obama’s economic team is right of center. All three are market-oriented. They’re also pro-free-trade. Hopefully Summers and Geithner maintain the Robert Rubin King Dollar policy of the Clinton years. And if Ms. Romer can stop tax hikes, that will help the greenback even more.<\/p>\n

At a minimum, both Romer and Geithner could have served under Gerald Ford or George H. W. Bush. But they may be more pro-growth than that. Romer’s study of the damage of tax hikes on the economy and her emphasis on investment are right on target. In a New York Times story, a former Treasury colleague of Geithner’s says, “he’s no liberal.” As for Summers, while he has been mau-maued by Democratic feminists and some of the unions, he is a tough, clear-headed thinker who has for years tried to merge Keynesian and supply-side policies. No mean feat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems possible than in the arenas of foreign policy and economics, based on the pick’s the president-elect has made, we may be in for a president who talked Left to get nominated, moved to the center to get elected, and then, amazingly, continues to STAY in the center on foreign policy and economics, at least. More than one pundit thinks that this means Obama has already begun his re-election campaign, and is saving the real leftward jerk for a second term when he has nothing to lose by it.<\/p>\n

What’s maddening about this is that if Obama simply doesn’t take too many damaging actions, the economy will recover on its own during his first term, and he’ll get the credit for it, regardless if some of his actions actually slow the recovery, similar to Clinton getting credit for the 1990s surge, even though his higher taxes arguably slowed it down.<\/p>\n

If it is true that Obama intends to create centrist foreign policy and economic policy, it’s going to drive the Left totally bananas. To counteract the fury of the loony Left, Obama will have to placate them by following through on certain hard-left promises he has made, like the Freedom of Choice Act, union card check, very Left judicial appointments, probably extreme environmental positions, and so on.<\/p>\n

I’ve said it before:\u00a0 the best those of us in the center-Right can hope for is that he doesn’t keep all his campaign promises.<\/p>\n

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