Joan Didion on Obama

Maybe you weren’t with me when I linked to Adolph Reed Jr.‘s now infa­mous “Oba­ma No” piece from the pro­gres­sive, but you might find Joan Did­ion’s sober thoughts on the Oba­ma pres­i­den­cy more palat­able. From her essay in the New York Review of Books:

No one ever sug­gest­ed that the can­di­date him­self was drink­ing the Kool-Aid—if there had been any doubt about this, his ini­tial appoint­ments laid them to rest. In fact it seemed increas­ing­ly clear not only that he would wel­come some healthy real­ism but that its absence had become a source of wor­ry. “The exu­ber­ance of Tues­day night’s vic­to­ries,” TheNew York Times report­ed on Novem­ber 6, “was also tem­pered by unease over the pub­lic’s high expec­ta­tions for a par­ty in con­trol of both Con­gress and the White House amid eco­nom­ic tur­moil, two wars over­seas and a yawn­ing bud­get gap.” A head­line in the same day’s Times : “With Vic­to­ry in Hand, Oba­ma Aides Say Task Now Is to Tem­per High Expectations.”

What’s hap­pen­ing now is pret­ty much what hap­pened with Bill Clin­ton. Peo­ple thought the rev­o­lu­tion was at hand and then wel­fare was more or less abol­ished. We’re din­ing on thin polit­i­cal gru­el these days, but there are those who call it a feast. It’s time for what remains of the Amer­i­can left to regain its sens­es and active­ly pur­sue a pro­gres­sive agen­da in the face of aus­ter­i­ty. It’s our only hope.