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Mar. 27, 2009 Although President Obama has only been in office for two months he still holds a high rating among the American people. In my opinion, that rating is not warranted and will continue to slowly erode as time goes by and the many promises that he made during his long, long campaign fail to materialize. I don't totally blame the President for not being able to deliver on the nearly impossible tasks that he set forth for himself and his administration but I do blame him for setting up the American people for the let down we will all surely suffer as his Presidency continues. After a frustration filled eight year run by President Bush we the people were looking desperately for the "Change" that President Obama promised and seemed to represent. The truth is, no man or woman could possibly undo all that has been manifested in the dozen or so years that began with Bill Clinton's last term and continued throughout Bush's eight. Sadly, many saw (and still see) Obama as some kind of savior who would wave a magic wand and undo the wrongs of the past while sprinkling fairy dust over a magical future of prosperity, hope and that ever-present word, "Change". Many also believed that because the new President was of mixed race (more often referred too as the "First African-American" President), that things would automatically improve and since we had committed to a "post-racist" era, our lives would suddenly improve in every aspect. I tend to resent Obama for encouraging the magical thinking that continued to build and finally swell into a storm of momentum as he was elected. His soaring rhetoric and brilliant speechifying swept many along on a wave of suspended reality. There was nothing that couldn't be accomplished and there was everything to look forward too. This has not been the case and I doubt that we will even come close to what he promised while repeating his mantra of "Yes we can!!" over and over again across our great land. I don't believe that any of the changes that must be made in order for us to live comfortably and relatively worry free lives can be made because of someone's race, gender or religious preference. I DO believe that experience, patience and a deep understanding of what went wrong is required in order to make the necessary changes to restore America to it's greatness. I also DO believe that we CANNOT buy these changes. Who caused the financial disasters that we now face? Why are we fighting in wars where there have been no winners for thousands of years? Who should be penalized for robbing from the poor and the middle class and lining the pockets of the already wealthy among us? It appears that no one in any current position of leadership has the slightest clue as to the answers to the above questions, let alone the man who promised almost instant change and a brand new way of re-building what is broken in our country. President Obama is still on the campaign trail and I believe that he stays there because it was a place where he had the most control and the promises that he made looked more doable than they do from behind a desk in the Oval Office. It has only been 60 days and I am sincerely hoping that my beliefs are premature. I hope that he can bring the right changes to our country and that "Yes we can" is more than a chanted slogan.
We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, I'd feel a lot better if he'd stay in Washington and start to pay attention to the real issues rather than running around trying to convince people that supporting slogans is more important than solving problems.
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