A week into February and already we can lay to rest any hopes that there was truth in President Obama’s rhetoric about bipartisanship and moderation:

Obama poured scorn on Republican critics who said the stimulus bill lacked enough tax cutting measures and pointed his finger at the polices of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush for dragging the country into recession.

“We can’t expect relief from the tired old theories that, in eight short years, doubled the national debt, threw our economy into a tailspin, and led us into this mess in the first place,” Obama said.

“We can’t rely on a losing formula that offers only tax cuts as the answer to all our problems while ignoring our fundamental economic challenges.”

The MoveOn.org tone is unbecoming. How long will we have to listen to this fairytale where President Bush harmed the country by being insufficiently progressive? More spending! More regulation! More taxes! We have a lot of making up to do after 8 years under that deregulation-crazed, tax-cutting cowboy!

This whole situation has been a perfect opportunity for Obama the Centrist, if only he existed. Every bill Nancy Pelosi supports and every statement she makes provides new nonsense he could position himself to the right of. Why not encourage the idea of spending an assload of money on liberal pet projects while paying lip service to trimming the most ridiculous features and letting Americans keep more of their money? Because Obama is Pelosi with a better speaking voice.