The Sky Fell Yesterday On The Conservative World

Wow.

President Obama had the audacity in his Inaugural Address to shout-out respect to the constituencies in his winning coalition, and articulate without guile a liberal, 'we're-all-in-this-together' (Obama used the verboten word "collective") agenda endorsed in the voting by an electorate that said "No" to the Romney/Ryan alternative - - and conservatives today are shocked, shocked at some sort of perceived breach in Presidential protocols and proprieties.

Who made up these rules?

You can bet that if Obama opted instead for middling pablum and pious platitudes, the right would have said, 'Ha, ha, boring. No vision...failed oratory,' because conservatives always have to attack Obama.

As they have 24/7 for the last four years, because any praise would be considered treasonous retreat and defeat.

So Milwaukee talk radio this morning was warning listeners about the coming push to the hard left. It's gonna be worse than The New Deal.

The Wall Street Journal told us that Republicans - - masters of gridlock, filibuster and threatened government shutdowns - - had their feelings hurt by Obama's language and tone, as they saw it:

Republicans widely viewed the speech as confrontational. Rather than a new beginning, they saw it as the capstone of two years of divided government in which the two parties have struggled to reach policy agreements.

"I am hoping that the president will recognize that compromise should have been the words for today, and they clearly weren't," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.). "We were hoping that he would use this day to reach out to all Americans and to all parties. He clearly did not."

The Journal Sentinel editorially took the President to task with a swipe that wins the award for Most Tortured Lede:

Like Abraham Lincoln's hair, the inauguration speech delivered Monday by President Barack Obama was an odd and unruly thing.

Others saw the speech as "Lincolnesque," and Obama took his oath of office with his hand on one of Lincoln's bibles, yet the local paper's editorial writers figured out a way to take that imagery away from Obama.

And someone put this grim spin on top of a conservative Washington Post column:

Obama shoves idealism into its grave

Everyone take a breath.