HopeandChange™, express style

Even with a stacked Congress to help him ramrod his agenda, it seems the "Lightworker" may not want to wait for that pesky legislative process to work.

President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

Anything else? Maybe some kind of policy that might be hard to get through even an increasingly statist Congress? Something like . . . oh, I don't know--a federal ban on concealed carry; a ban on the importation, manufacture, and possession of semi-automatic firearms and all handguns; a five mile gun shop exclusion zone around schools, parks, churches (and maybe car washes, just to be safe); a ban on almost all centerfire rifle ammunition--that kind of HopeandChange™? The kind of HopeandChange™ that someone has apparently decided that we're not supposed to know about yet?

Back to the article:

Podesta also said Obama is working to build a diverse Cabinet.

Oh, good. A cabinet full of the same kind of statist toadies would be boring--it'll be nice to have two or three flavors.

Obama was elected on a promise of change, but the nature of the job makes it difficult for presidents to do much that has an immediate impact on the lives of average people.

That darned, antiquated separation of powers--that's what makes executive orders so cool!

"Obama's advantage of course is he'll have the House and the Senate working with him, and that makes it easier," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. "But even then, having an immediate impact is very difficult to do because the machinery of government doesn't move that quickly."

I want my HopeandChange™, and I want it now!

Here comes the money line (emphasis mine):

Executive orders "have the power of law and they can cover just about anything," Tobias said in a telephone interview.

"[J]ust about anything," eh? That would seem to cover quite a lot of HopeandChange™.

I have to point out that the article gives the impression that the Obama administration will not be shy about pointing out "The Decider's" . . . enthusiastic use of executive orders, to justify his own use of them.

That's a pretty good demonstration of why abuses of power, even by "our" side, in pursuit of an agenda some of us might approve of, aren't such a good thing.

Note: I'm not the first to have speculated about this.