SOBRIETY

Posted at 10:38 a.m. ET

Karl Rove, who's been there, presents a sober view of what Barack Obama will face on Tuesday.  Once Chris Matthews and his associates finish with the gushing, the adjectives, the religious comparisons, Mr. Obama will have to govern.  As Rove suggests, that's the part they don't include in the travel brochure.  He considers the presidential aides:

What these aides will soon realize is that they aren't history, but passing through it. I learned that from an elderly man who told me "to honor the house" as he emptied my trash bin late my first day at work.

That is what an administration owes the country. But it is not all it owes. There is also the matter of governing. Team Obama is about to learn that it's easier to campaign than to govern.

Right.  And maybe they'll develop some appreciation of George W. Bush.

In fact, they are already learning it. Last February, Congress passed a stimulus bill, adding $152 billion to the deficit. Mr. Obama called it "deficit spending" and criticized the "disdain for pay-as-you-go budgeting" in Washington. Now he forecasts trillion dollar deficits on his watch. Mr. Obama, the candidate, criticized the "careless and incompetent execution" of the Iraq war. But as president-elect, he decided to retain George W. Bush's defense secretary and put a Bush adviser in charge of the National Security Council.

The real world closes in.  The Daily Kos and MoveOn.org are not the real world.

Mr. Obama also tripped himself up by sending advisers to Capitol Hill on Dec. 18 to say that he wanted a stimulus bill to cost between $670 billion and $770 billion, but that he would accept $850 billion. This invited Congress to roll him and spend more.

But...

Mr. Obama can recover. But he has to avoid loosing his footing again by allowing Congress to enact its wish list instead of policies that will help the economy. He seems to be mistaking what may be good ideas for economic stimulants.

Rove is right.  Many of the ideas coming from Congress are being proposed just to satisfy interest groups.

There is also the question of the practicality of Mr. Obama's own proposals and projections:

Take the "green jobs" he promises. There are 6,856 people who work for companies that make solar cells in America and 2,150 people who work for the biggest wind equipment maker. Mr. Obama says he'll create 459,000 new "green energy" jobs like those. Can he really do that? A lot of people will be keeping score.

Finally...

Mr. Obama says 244,000 of his new jobs will be in government. Will these new government employees disappear when the economy recovers? Or is Mr. Obama pushing the largest expansion of government since LBJ's Great Society?

For all the pride America can have next Tuesday, these issues are real and not going away. The inauguration is a moment of constitutional significance and important symbolism. Team Obama should enjoy it. As I can attest personally, it won't last long. By the next day, the realities of governing will intrude.

Words of wisdom from someone who's been on the inside, looking out, which is where Team Obama will be Tuesday afternoon.

January 15, 2009.