I believe those who expected conservatives to suddenly discover their libertarian side with the ascent of Obama might be disappointed. So far, if talk radio is any indication, I fear the opposite. Yes, there will be more talk about the problem with taxes and socialism, but somehow conservatives manage to talk about that even when their guy is in charge.

I predicted that conservatives would put a lot of pressure on Obama to prove his warmongering credentials. And I did hear Sean Hannity say that the main goal of conservatives now is to not allow the Democrats to wave the white flag of surrender. This is a political atmosphere for even more war than we get from the Republicans.

Meanwhile, I have been somewhat surprised to hear conservatives warm up to Obama so quickly. Michael Savage, who had just spent weeks warning about the Marxist takeover of America if Obama wins, now says “Obama is not an evil man” (quite a compliment from him!) and expresses strong support for the potential for universal national civilian service, as portended by Obama’s pick of Rahm Emmanuel. Such gestures to the warmongering “center” — and, unfortunately, these gestures will probably not be hollow – will get many rightwingers on board. Another talk radio rightie said last night, “Rooting against Obama is the same as rooting against America.” I fear that Obama will indeed be the uniter that Bush never was. If so, given the financial crisis and continuing war on terror, we might be in for a nightmare.