If current trends continue President-Elect Obama is going to really screw with the far left and far right in this country – and perhaps retain a strong centrist base from which to execute two terms in office. Right now Obama is really defying many of claims he will govern as an extreme liberal, defanging the far right as their dire predictions of pending doom fail to materialize and driving Obama’s far left base insane as they find another centrist democrat ignoring their risky policy schemes.

So far Obama seems to on a pretty reasonable line with Iraq, keeping Secretary Gates on board and dumping any talk of a hasty and risky retreat. In Afghanistan he is promoting an increase in forces and investment to drive a security and policy wedge between the Taliban and the rest of the Muslim community there. And let’s not forget Obama voted to keep the NSA-FISA surveillance changes Bush put in place after 9-11.

And Obama is taking a lot of heat for siding, albeit quietly, with Israel on its efforts to destroy the murderous terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

And in what has to be driving the left absolutely nuts is Obama’s plan to provide a huge tax cut package in his stimulus plan – a tax cut package that actually reduces the tax burden on Americans, over two years, to a greater extent than either of the tax cuts enacted by Bush and the GOP led Congress:

 President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer about $300 billion of tax cuts to individuals and businesses, a move aimed at attracting Republican support for an economic-stimulus package and prodding companies to create jobs.

The size of the proposed tax cuts — which would account for about 40% of a stimulus package that could reach $775 billion over two years — is greater than many on both sides of the aisle in Congress had anticipated. 

…

Mr. Bush’s 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut of 2001, considered the largest in history, contained $174 billion of cuts during its first two full years, according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation. The second-largest tax cut — the 10-year, $350 billion package engineered by Mr. Bush in 2003 — contained $231 billion in 2004 and 2005.

As with tax hikes, once tax cuts are enacted it is nearly impossible to convince Americans higher taxes will do them good. We all know there has to be some compromise to the left in any stimulus package, so there will be lame and useless government program growth. But what is interesting is how this approach really drives a stake into the far left liberal policies of taxing the rich, and how that defangs the liberal left and doom & gloom crying far right.

Obama is turning out to be quite a surprise.

Tags: Bush, FISA, NSA, Obama, Stimulus Package, Tax Cuts