In the FP thread last night: Sunday Talk - Sweet Victory Edition, a large portion of the commentary was about the media affronts that the Obama campaign, and those only slightly left of center, had suffered through the long election season. The rest of the comments were about how sweet the air smelled.
We were braced for the worst on today's Sunday's talk. But, it wasn't at all like many expected.
Let's start with George Will, perhaps the chief agitant. On This Week, George trotted out his center-right meme, sure enough, right off the bat. But, lo and behold Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal Constitution was armed and ready. "51% of Americans recently polled said government should do more for Americans. A ten point shift since 2004," she added. George usually sniffs out a distorting retort but this time he was silent, squirming replacing his characteristic rigid posture. Cynthia had more to say about the shift in voter views and even David Gergen did not dissent.
A big topic was whether Obama should take on his agenda all at once or in pieces. David Gergen said 100 days is not the real limit, it could be 200 or so. Fareed Zakaria made an excellent point about an expansion of the deficit needed for the planned Obama economic stimulus, which he supported. All of the industrialized Western country's deficits are going to be high. So, it won't hurt us to increase ours. (Implicit in that remark is the fact that if just the US were increasing it's deficit it's currency would devalue and it would be inflationary.) Why didn't anyone in the commentariat say this during the campaign? Go figure.
There was a lot of talk about the numbers: youth vote heavily Obama, hispanic vote heavily Obama (much more than for Kerry). Gergan, commenting on the youth vote compared it to the Reagan era, saying that voters tend to stick with the party for which they first vote, or with which they grew up. Gergen claimed that (residually) the 30-44 went for McCain, but in fact it went 52 - 48 for Obama, up + 6 from Kerry. Not as good as below 30, but still a win for Obama. And this looks good for Obama and the dems going forward. Update: Gergan's point is given weight by some comments in the thread below (see choochmac) which talk about political imprinting at an early age usually sticking. This had been the case with the 30-44 group until this election. We can attribute this shift to (D), this breaking of some of the imprinting, to the screw ups of the repubs over the past 8 years. The heavy favoring of Obama-dems in the under 30 group would accordingly stick as long as the Obama presidency and the dem congress deliver.
On Matthews, Chris was effusive in his introduction about Obama. Even Little Davey Brooks (as one of the commenters called him last night) was not his usual obnoxious self. He praised Obama's temperament and intelligence and offered essentially no Obama critique. Chastened, no, but you could listen to him without having your hand always readied for slapping motions.
Dan Rather was pretty snarky in talking about Monday's Obama-Bush visit. He said that Obama doesn't need anything from Bush. "Just say goodbye to the president, it's a new day...adios." Cynthia Tucker joined in on the slam saying Obama will "seem to be interested," in what the President has to say. Sounds like a tough task to me, but prob won't be for our poise-perfect President elect.
Didn't catch all of MTP. But, saw a segment where Doris Kearns Goodwin was poised to go in for the kill about why the repubs lost the day and she held back, leaving it to Meachem to have to lay it out himself, admit he had it wrong. I'm amazed at how these center-right pundits have developed an appetite for crow so quickly. David Brooks goes a step beyond, almost convincingly pretending in some respects that he was really on the Obama team all along. (Update: several commenters have correctly pointed out that Brooks was supportive of Obama to a large extent during the campaign. What was different today was that he didn't mute each line of praise of Obama with an immediately following attack on a dem, or left-of-center principle.)
There are more goodies. For instance, Rahm Emanuel did pretty well. Repub Brokaw wasn't choking on his positive comments about Obama as much. Though, he has a way to go - or, maybe he should just "go".
I'll fill in some details later and will try to add some video segments. If you find video links before I do, post them in the comments, please.
Update: Actually, the 30-44 vote went for Obama, 52-48, up 6 from Kerry.
Update 2: Forgot to mention that Matthews brought out the 'No drama Obama' phrase. Of course, we've been hearing that for many months. But, it was one of the first times I remember hearing it on national TV by a host. Chris was using it as a compliment, saying how focused and disciplined the campaign had been and how this temperament quality likely will result in an administration that gets the job done - and done well.
Update 3: Wow, the rec list! Thanks so much everyone! First time. What an honor to be noticed by this esteemed community.
Update 4: Had planned to fill in the details better in the diary, but the comments are so good, they do the job of filling in quite well. They show that while the tonal shift was clearly recognizable today, there are still choking remnants of Bush-era think, such as in Brokaw, and of course at Faux. MTP's Brokaw, who I didn't see, really gets taken to task in the comments. And, surprise, surprise Charles Krauthammer praises Obama, though his teeth seem to be clenched.
Update 5: Several commenters have correctly pointed out that Brooks was supportive of Obama to a large extent during the campaign. What was different today was that he didn't mute each line of praise of Obama with an immediately following attack on a dem, or left-of-center principle. Maybe Brooks believes the Obama presidency will be post-partisan, or that it will provide opportunities for him to continue to comment in a positive way.
Update 6: Missed this Brooks comment re: Palin 2012. "She has hardly been preparing all her life for the intellectual resurrection of the Republican Party". Gotta chuckle at that. (Thanks to HowAboutTheTruth!)