There's nothing like a financial crisis to help liberals grudgingly accept the realities that liberals normally try to deny. It appears that Obama's team may recognize that in a struggling economy, raising taxes on the rich will harm the economy. So they may delay raising taxes on the rich, going back on a popular class-warfare campaign promise.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/23/national/main4628788.shtml

Obama's plans, outlined by his transition team on television talk shows, could put aside his campaign pledge to repeal a Bush tax cut for the wealthy. With the downturn in the economy, those tax cuts may remain in place until they are scheduled to die in 2011, said William M. Daley, an economic adviser. "That looks more likely than not," he said...

But there were no plans to balance the tax cuts with an immediate tax increase on the wealthy. During the campaign, Obama said he would pay for increased tax relief by raising taxes on people making more than $250,000.

"There won't be any tax increases in the January package," said one Obama aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the Obama package have not been fleshed out.

Obama could delay any tax increase to 2011, when current Bush administration tax cuts expire.

It really makes me wonder why they think raising taxes on the rich in a healthy economy is any less damaging? Isn't it possible that they are just as damaging but in a good economy it isn't quite as noticeable?

I wouldn't be surprised if the news that Obama is backing off his tax hike threats will help the stock markets stabilize a bit. The Dow Jones lost 15.5% of its value in the 6 weeks following the announcement of the financial crisis and bailout up until the election of Obama, and then almost as much again in just the 2-1/2 weeks following Obama's election. That's not to say that Obama's win caused that drop, but it's naive to believe that investors aren't reacting at least partially to the threat of higher capital gains taxes that Obama promised during the campaign. I would expect that the more Obama signals that there won't be a tax hike, the quicker markets will stabilize.