Over the last day conservative talking heads have been scrutinizing Obama’s inaugural address for clues as to how the new president will govern. Two thoughts:

—We’ve gone through two years of the most heavily covered presidential campaign and transition in history yet we remain essentially clueless about how Obama will govern. Wonderful.

—Those who assert that Obama’s address indicates he may govern more or less conservatively should remember that Obama’s pattern throughout his public career has been to engage in conservative rhetoric, make a show of “listening” to conservatives, but come down–invariably–on the left side of the issue (there’s a reason he was rated the most liberal member of the senate). A clever, successful practice.

It’s likely that events and circumstances will constrain Obama to govern more conservatively than his base expects. We’ve already seen suggestions of that in matters related to national security. But his default position is to the left.

To say that he won’t be as liberal as Pelosi, Rangel, Frank, and Reid isn’t saying much.