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Glenn:

[W]e ought to wait to see what Obama does before forming conclusions about him and, certainly, before launching all sorts of criticisms at him. He was just elected four day ago and he's not actually the President yet.

There have been many different renditions of Obama and nobody knows -- including him, I believe -- how he'll govern. It's true that he has espoused some liberal principles and supported some liberal policies, but over the last several years, his political approach has clearly been one of centrism and placating the establishment. But none of that is a guaranteed indicator for what he will do with power. That all remains to be seen, though it seems extremely clear that liberals who are convinced that he will be some sort of icon of progressivism are going to be quite disappointed.

I don't view the campaign, or much of what Obama said during it, as being particularly instructive on this question at all. During the campaign, Obama maintained a single-minded fixation on one goal: to win, and most if not all of what he said in the last six months was designed to achieve that goal, not to signal what he actually thinks or will do....

It makes perfect sense -- for the reasons Digby so aptly described this week -- for people to start pressuring Obama now to pay attention to their political principles and agendas. And it's certainly likely that Obama will end up doing many, many things that warrant and provoke intense criticism. I have no doubt about that. But he's entitled to actually start doing things -- on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, civil liberties, the economy, and otherwise -- before judgments are formed.