Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Can he, yes?

Sincerest of congratulation to you President-elect Obama. My young daughter, who (thankfully and hopefully has no notion of how remarkable it is for this country to elect you to its highest office) walked around the house this morning saying "Rock Obama won, Rock Obama won.")

Now, the media paeans begin . . . at least until the first attempt to knock you off your pedestal arrives. But keep your head.

You may think you have a national mandate. You may have broken into Red States that haven't swung in your party's way for decades. You may have the most decisive Electoral College victory in the last several elections.

But, the popular vote shows that almost 48% of the people voted AGAINST you. Large parts of the country still went the other way. Members of Congress are going to inevitably worry about themselves instead of YOUR agenda.

And you've got enormous issues to begin fixing:

A systemically sick economy
Two nebulous war fronts
Deeply-felt cultural disagreements

I want you to succeed. I want the large amounts of people that you inspired and motivated and engaged to stay that way and care and think and work. But can you compete with TV and sports and the daily grind of living? Can you?

Yes, you can?

I want to believe that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think McPain only got 46%,
making the spread 6 points,
which makes the election, in technical terms, a righteous Smackdown.

and why do you have to be all qualify-y and second-guess-y?
don't you have more faith in him than in the alternative: shaking a rolled-up newspaper at the nation's problems?

David said...

I know it comes off negatively. But I was shooting for "pragmatic." I AM hopeful and I DO believe that Obama's plans are better than McCain's suggestions (hence the vote for same).

Six points is large in the context of the last two decades of votes, but there are almost half of the people who went the other way.

So, I was bringing up a downer note of caution, motivated by the very real happiness and hope that I felt on Election Night but tempered by the idea that as powerful as Obama can (may?) be, he is still one man working within a system.

He MIGHT be able to shape that system in dramatic ways, but that is ahead. I DO HOPE he will accomplish that.