Remember these lyrics from Jesus Christ Superstar? "...I've been changed, yes really changed.We'd best keep that sentiment in mind. The euphoria still runs high over the ascension of Barack Obama to the Presidency. He ran a nearly flawless campaign and the transition is exceeding expectations. However, as with all "highs", they end.
In these past few days, when I've seen myself,
I seem like someone else.
I don't know how to take this.
I don't see why he moves me.
He's a man. He's just a man.
And I've had so many men before,
In very many ways,
He's just one more".
Even the Republicans are giving Obama good marks. To date he appears to be everything we who supported him had hoped. We must remember, however, he is not yet in office. That will be the true test beyond the window dressing we are now witnessing.
He himself reminded us in his acceptance speech, solving the problems that face the country won't be easy nor immediate. There will be false starts and bad decisions.
As much as we want a knight in shining armor to whisk us away to utopia, the sooner we settle down from this high the better. The Ingrahams and Hannitys and Limbaughs haven't let up nor will they. The most minute gaffe will be seized upon and beaten to a pulp. Sarah Palin should take a lesson from what's coming. If she thinks she was roughed up during the campaign, she hasn't seen anything until she actually assumes a highly visible office.
I have no doubt Obama is well aware of what's coming as he assumes office and ownership of the trials and errors that are inevitable. Those of us who feel he has emancipated us need a good dose of reality too. If we are as zealous in his defense for those inevitable missteps as we are in celebration of his election, everyone will take sides and we'll end up right back where we started. Bickering, bitter partisans.
Obama deserves better. We owe him better. We can begin by remembering he is a man, a very capable one, but never-the-less, he's just a man.
4 comments:
Such wise words.
I agree. We cannot expect him to "fix" the economy that it too eight years to break,
I love Jesus Christ Superstar! And you're right, he can't fix everything at once and it will take patience and faith on the part of the American people.
I agree. This is and has always been firmly in my mind, as the evangelical appeal of the Obama movement swept through my millennial students in their electoral awakenings as citizens voting for te first time, participating in their first presidential campaign.
The 24/7 news cycle has been a disaster for democracy, magnifying both errors and accomplishments to unrealistic proportions.
This morning, the Morning Joe (Scarborough) team on MSNBC discussed whether Franklin Roosevelt could be FDR in this world. He held off-the-cuff news conversations in his office in which everything was off-the-record. The White House edited the newsreels that were shown in movie theaters.
Their conclusion: It's unlikely that either FDR or Lincoln could fulfill their images in our times.
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