Obama Rolls The Dice

His mind-set is somewhat reminiscent of Ronald Reagan's in 1981, when he recognized that the Democrats' self-confidence had been shattered by his victory and that the door was therefore open for him to enact more of the conservative agenda than any Republican in 50 years.

Reagan could do that in part because he was unchallenged on the Republican side of the aisle and he had the only program that counted.

The risk to Obama's ambitions is likely to arise less from the defeated Republicans than from the victorious Democrats, who have all too many ideas of their own about what should be done in energy, health care and education.

And the other risk is in what he barely mentioned Tuesday: the rest of the world. Obama has just ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a country with a stumbling government and a shaky neighbor in Pakistan, and a place where the United States is still searching for a plausible strategy.

The world provides no respite for an American president, especially one already as burdened as this one.

When we elected Obama, we didn't know what a gambler we were getting.

davidbroder@washpost.com