A New Political Actor

With that historic speech, Barack Obama became the 44th President-elect of the United States of America. Since that Tuesday we as a nation have seen economic collapse, automotive bailout, and foreign combat. We thought during the summer that getting out of Iraq and fixing education were the most urgent and important issues for the next president and we were wrong. Obama was elected largely because he seemed to be the antidote to the political system. He was the Anti-Bush. He said exactly what everyone wanted to hear and he seemed to actually mean it. Now things have changed. Across the board situations have gotten worse. CEOs can't even afford private jets anymore. The lofty language of Obama's campaign has shifted as well.  He is no longer talking to get elected; he is talking to lead.  As someone who has been on the campaign trail and said some things that were a little on the rosy side, I understand what it's like to try and get elected.  You're not lying to the voters, but you don't want to be completely realistic.  People like to be sweettalked.  You're a little more optimistic about time-tables and all those little variables like the credit-bubble bursting don't enter into your equation.

Obama is pledging the largest public works program that has been introduced in 60 years.  Rather than giving banks and companies money in return for bad business practices, or just giving people cash and flooding the market with currency, Obama is promising to build schools and upgrade roads; things we need anyway that are the government's responsibility to spend money on that we have been sorely lacking.  More on the economy later.

Soon to be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also on the leading edge of Obama's other main job: foreign affairs.  No longer are we the go-it-alone cowboys of the West... ern hemisphere but rather we are (hopefully) going to be a leader internationally with diplomacy.  The President recognizes that there are problems abroad that need to be dealt with and that our military strength can't solve them.  Especially in places like Gaza.

Obama took a nostalgic whistle-stop tour from Philadelphia through Baltimore stopping at the Lincoln Memorial that reminded the nation of that great leader who took us through equally, if not more, difficult times.  The links on the names are to the text of his speeches at each location, please take the time to read them.  When he arrived in Washington people started really noticing that all of this was happening and the hard questions started getting asked.  Can he do it?  Can he restore the American faith in the government, create jobs, and build a better life for all?  The Economist had this to say:

Then, on Tuesday at noon, Barack Obama stepped up to the podium and addressed the nation as the new President.

Wow.  When a program works we'll move forward.  How do we know when it works?  We'll know that programs work when people stop questioning the basic principles upon which this country was founded.  We can't become isolationist, Herbert Hoover tried and the Depression became not only worse but also global.  We can't become socialist because our system won't support it.  We must instead do what made this nation great: make money.  We started as a colony and started making so much money that when the motherland needed money they had to tax ours.  We split off so that we could make more money.  The best medicine, science, technology, and other vasts ports of ingenuity come from our deep desire to make lots of money.

Much is at stake over the next four years.  Our new leader has asked for a lot.  If Obama and his cabinet keep up their end of the deal, the American people have shown through history that they will keep up theirs.