A new day dawns, it does indeed …

[aadler]

 
Welcome, Mister President.

You arrived in this office on a message of hope and change. The change has come. These are my hopes:

I hope you’re even one-tenth as special as your most enraptured supporters appear to believe.

I hope you’re every bit as idealistic as you’ve presented yourself as being, and at the same time cynically calculating as to which campaign promises you intend to keep (and how), because winning a campaign and running a country are entirely different tasks, not to be carried out in the same way.

I hope there is solid substance underlying the magnificent style, resulting in years of impressive performance to (finally) fulfill all that perceived potential.

I hope that, having won largely on the basis of race — while presenting yourself as post-racial — you can actually move this country beyond the dogmatic straitjacket of racial politics.

I hope you can inspire both parties, but especially your own, to more idealism and less ideological posturing.

I hope you will actively resist the desires of some on your side of the aisle to attempt the ex post facto criminalization of policy differences. This is a sword that cuts both ways, and would do incalculable harm to the nation for decades to come, regardless of which side happens to be in power.

I hope the man who turned the national imagination toward the future will avoid falling back on those past nostrums (particularly socialism and New-Deal-style big-government interventionism) that not only aren’t new but were consistent failures in their own heyday.

I hope “the smartest guy in every room he’s ever occupied” will have the wisdom to surround himself by people who know more than he does, and listen carefully to them before making his decisions.

Above all, I hope the next four years — or more — will be a time of actual growth in this country, rather than something that simply has to be survived.

[Advance warning: any comments expounding on the evils and contemptibility of the departed Bush administration will be deleted without reply.]

Comments

[lwbush.livejournal.com]

Amen and thank you.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I couldn't have said it better, well done. I especially liked that last line -- why didn't I think to just make a deletion warning, instead of verbally sparring with the blind Bush haters?

[frogfarm]

I do not Believe.

'Nuff said.

[learnedhand-dj.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but "having won largely on the basis of race?" Do you really think that if President Obama was white, the election result would have been significantly different? If anything, a white President Obama would have won by a somewhat wider margin, based on the polls done earlier in the campaign that showed both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards doing better against most of the potential Republican opponents that President Obama. What are you basing "won largely on the basis of race" on?

[lmzjewel.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I didn't party yesterday. I will party when and if he's able to pull off even half of what he needs to. With that said, I do feel a great deal of sympathy for our new President. There is alot of expectations put on his shoulders and even in the best of times I would not want his job. Well, anyway, here's to hoping that he will lead the country with wisdom and integrity.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I echo your hopes. My mother is devastated that Obama won the election. I have repeatedly told her that the candidate and the president are two different people and I am witholding judgement until I see President Obama in action. I am hoping for the best and braced for the worst. We'll see what happens.

As to Bush's administration, for some strange reason (sarcasm fully intended) Marc Anthony's speech from Julius Ceasar keeps running through my head. "The evil men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones." I've thought of doing a post listing all the positive things Bush and his administration accomplished but I don't think I'm braced for the fallout that would bring. Also, it seems rather pointless. It would change no one's mind as anything positive would be found to be a fault or declared a lie.