Obamanation

I have a picture one of my sisters made hanging on my door of Barack Obama. It's signed in cursive in the bottom right corner beneath the note, "Best wishes - Barry," and his face is appropriately decorated with a saloon style mustache and soul patch. I walk by that thing everyday and I can hear him in my head, with his intermittent pauses and perfect tempo akin to comedic timing dispensing nuggets of wisdom to me.



Today he told me to wear a hat or I would catch a cold, but I got sick anyway. I feel fantastic regardless, however, as the simple pleasure of witnessing Obama's slow methodical back peddling towards centralism sustains me. The playing up of the insurmountable obstructions to the success of our nation so as not to set our expectations too high, literally drawing comparison (as many have parroted since) to our current economic state as being that of the great depression; it reminds me of those kids who have the sun perpetually in their eyes, who "haven't played in awhile so they might be rusty."

Obama faces difficulties to be sure, but I ask you, what president hasn't? Where's the vigor from the trail? The demands for Osama's head as early as October 7th have been replaced with cautious optimism for his isolation in his recent interview with Katie Couric. His cow towing to leftists through the immediate dismantling of our conflict in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay are suddenly fraught with complications and a blurry timeline as reported by the Orlando Sentinal. I'm starting to have some faith in the man through his lack of conviction. It's common practice to vamp up distribution of wishes when you're bargaining the public for the white house, but Jesus 2.0 built his tower a little too high.

Don't get me wrong, I love where this is going. I pray to my Obama picture every day that he continues the path I believe him set upon, and, in the grand tradition of Clinton realizing his ideas weren't working, will move to the middle of the two parties and becomes simply a pretty good president rather than a terrible one. It would be in the interest of us all to strike some kind of equilibrium between extremes. But I am held in constant wonder of this product of our superficial understanding of politics. I have hope in Obama that he will regain that fervor he seemed to have not more than a few months ago but redirect it further towards realistic objectives instead of the fluff and fast numbers he was promising to get elected, that he does not let perception and opinion dictate his actions and that he continues to stray from his previous pattern of pandering to the lowest denominator.

My question is not what his plans are, as we all knew he wasn't going to be the man he was last year once his seat was secure, but what are yours, America? Where are the cries for transparent government and questioning of authority when the government is your own? I imagine no one is eager to bandwagon against a president until they're sure everyone else is on their side first. I won't judge too harshly since many of those proudly displaying "impeach Bush" bumper stickers on their cars are too busy looking around to make sure they're still in the crowd to follow the news; but it will be interesting to see how many of those disappear once the headline skimmers catch up, who will choose proud ignorance or cowardice and hypocrisy if Obama doesn't end up being the savior you who adore him need.



Four Reasons To Doubt Obama