The Obama Administration may not be as Left as the Left had hoped it would be. 

In our last newsletter, we predicted the next two years are likely to be a continuous nightmare for conservatives. But surprisingly, President-elect Obama has upset key liberal constituencies with his actions and appointments.

Denis Dison of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund said Obama had given them "a double punch to the gut" in naming evangelical Pastor Rick Warren, a prominent opponent of homosexual marriage, to give the invocation at the Inaugural and in not appointing an open homosexual to the Cabinet.

Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, fired off an angry letter to Obama, saying, "Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your Inauguration is a genuine blow to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans.  We feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination."

Kevin Naff, editor of the Washington Blade, a homosexual newspaper, said Warren's "presence on the inauguration stand is a slap in the faces of the millions of LGBT voters.  This tone-deafness to our concerns must not be tolerated. We have just endured eight years of endless assaults on our dignity and equality from a president beholden to bigoted conservative Christians. The election was supposed to have ended that era. It appears otherwise."

 Organized labor was not too pleased with Obama either.

In an article at http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1868355,00.html?xid=rss-topstories Time magazine reported that "the President-elect has proven to be more of a pragmatist than labor envisioned. From his podium in Chicago during the debate over whether to bail out the Big Three automakers, Obama has been critical of the United Auto Workers, arguing that the union must be willing to grant concessions on its workers' hard-fought wages and benefits.

"Labor has also been disappointed by some of Obama's initial appointments," including former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk to be U.S. Trade Representative, who "has a record of supporting free trade deals, anathema to labor."

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was also irked at Obama.

Although the President-elect selected four African-Americans for Cabinet positions, he passed over others for the departments of Education, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development.

Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) said the African-America community expected a lot more. 

In an article at http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/black-lawmakers-irked-by-obamas-diverse-cabinet-2008-12-22_2.html The Hill newspaper reported, "Another senior member of the CBC who requested anonymity said more pointedly that Obama ‘isn't doing enough for the black folks.'"

Another interesting development was Vice President-elect Joe Biden's pledge that he would not permit earmarks to be inserted in the stimulus bill.

"President-elect Obama and I are absolutely determined that this economic recovery package will not become a Christmas tree," Biden said.  He added that "every dollar will be watched" to make sure there is no waste or "make work" projects.  In addition, liberals are upset over the tax cuts in the stimulus package.

Perhaps the Obama-Biden Administration will not be quite as bad as conservatives have feared.  Or at least not quite as "good" as his most ardent supporters on the Left had hoped.