Flashback: The Rhetorical Gap far Exceeds the Policy Gap

Before the election I blogged a couple of times (here and here) about how Democrats and Republicans talk so differently about public policy, but ultimately execute so similarly.

Since then, I noted how quickly President-elect and Democrat Obama withdrew is plans to repeal the Bush tax cut.

Now we learn that:

• President-elect Obama plans to cut taxes MORE than Bush did!
• President-elect Obama's Mideast stance may not be so different than we were led to believe. "Arab commentators and editorialists say there is growing disappointment at Obama's detachment - and that his failure to distance himself from George Bush's strongly pro-Israeli stance is encouraging the belief that he either shares Bush's bias or simply does not care."

You might say events have changed significantly since Nov 4, and these events coincidentally caused President-elect Obama to act more Republican. What events, exactly? Are we more worried about the economy now than we were in October (remember that's the month when we decided to give away $700 billion to banks)? Is it brand new that Israel has violent encounters with Hamas?

And why does coincidence perennially push in the directions of causing Democrats to act more Republican and Republicans to act more Democratic?