Great Expectations (?)

The question keeps getting asked or proposed, lately, about President-elect Obama and that is, "Can he live up to our, literally, great expectations?"

And my answer is, yes--unequivocally, absolutely yes.

And here's why:

The conservative writer David Brooks, on PBS evening news last week, said he thought Obama was "non-partisan", in his words.

From a Conservative Republican, that's pretty extraordinary, for starters.

But more than that--much more--is that it seems that this new President is going to be, apparently and hopefully, a statesman, of all things.

We haven't seen one of those for a long time.

You may have already heard that the President-elect had dinner last week with a few very conservative columnists like William Kristol, for heavens sake, at George Will's home.

That's already very nearly unbelievable.

Can you remember the last time such a thing happened? I know I can't.

Another quote from last Friday evening's newscast was that Mr. Brooks found Mr. Obama to be much less of an "ideologue" and this, too, is so very welcome and now foreign to our politicians and politics.

It's generally agreed that the last 16 years have been tremendously ideological and divisive.

Far from being a "uniter", as President Bush promised he would be, years ago, he and his administration were loaded with ideologues and ideology, to the point of out-and-out dogma.

Right-wing, conservative, business-serving dogma and it's been very divisive and negative for the country.

When Republican Presidential administrations and campaigns started, years ago, clearing and denying attendees at what were supposed to be public speeches and presentations, so they could get audiences that were purely and completely acceptable to them and their ideas and directions, I was surprised--almost shocked--and disappointed, knowing we were going down a bad path.


I think President-elect Obama, as President, is going to bring statemanship, wisdom, calmness and intelligence back to the Presidency and so, the whole country.

Will Democrats and liberals get everything they want, always, from this new President?

No, certainly not. I'll say that right up front.

Barack Obama isn't perfect--he doesn't "walk on water", by any means.

But he's going to be what we need in this country, especially now, when we need to recover from the legal, internal and external, constitutional and financial issues, problems and messes we have now, due to the last 8 years of mismanagement, ineptitude and travesties.

This really is a new day.

A very welcome new day.