Feeding Frenzy

Months ago I speculated about the impossibly high expectations Senator Obama was creating for himself, and how this might be something of a trap for him. In the past couple of days I have seen an onslaught of ideas from liberal pundits as to what Obama should do from the op-ed sites I like to visit. To wit:

• a reversal in funding protocols for abortions in and outside the U.S.
  
• a dramatic change in the funding of public education, including merit pay (is that really liberal?)
• a dramatic infusion of money to poorer families in the form of seed-money savings account for children born into poverty
• a bailout of the Detroit auto industry (oh, wait, let's get President Bush to do that and take the bullet)
• a reversal on most federal policies governing stem-cell research
• an infusion of financial aid to Africa
  

Perhaps all this is normal speculation for adherents to a political faction that finds itself suddenly empowered. Yet political capital is a finite good, and the president-elect must be judicious in figuring out how to bring his weight to bear for a rather daunting set of economic and political issues.