"What we don't know yet is whether my administration and this next generation of leadership is going to be able to hew to a new, more pragmatic approach that is less interested in whether we have big government or small government; they're more interested in whether we have a smart, effective government,"
-President-elect Barack Obama, December 2008
Terrell Shaw
I believe Obama's even-tempered pragmatism is exactly what we need... I hope our nation will be patient enough to allow it to succeed in the face of a unified obstructionist Republican opposition and grumbling from the more doctrinaire on the left.
Susan Cherones
I agree that it is a dern sight better to have him at the helm, but my dreams were shattered when he installed Geithner and Summers in the henhouse. These are the very foxes who orchestrated (years ago) the policies which brought down the financial crises and to have those foxes let loose in our treasury indicated, without a doubt, that Obama is just as controlled as that other one by the true "leaders" of our country. My heart is still broken, and I can't even imagine what to do about it-my joy was so great at the prospect of change and my hopes just dashed when I realized though he is smarter and seems to be a better human being, he is either as corrupt as all the rest or is under such control by the shadow govt that he can do nothing of substance about his promises. I'll take the scraps I can get, any reversals of Bush's policies and practices are something, but Lord HELP us, how in the world can We the People ever ever ever get our country bacK??
Rhonda Ingram Bramlette
Whole heartedly agree, Mr. Shaw.
Terrell Shaw
Susan I disagree vehemently with your assessment.
Politics is the art of the possible. Those who thought that Obama is a left-wing idealogue were not listening as well as they should. It was starry-eyed liberals -- who thought Al Gore was no better than Bush -- put Bush in office with their third-party "votes of conscience". Our system is not made for sudden and radical change. Obama is steering us away from the brink and he had to have some market insiders to pull that off.
There will be no European style state health care in America anytime soon. But we can have a better, fairer, less expensive, closer to universal health system if we Democrats will not form our usual circular firing squad.
Al Gore won the election in 2000 but lost the Presidency because of Democrats. Jimmy Carter lost the Presidency in 1980 because of Democrats. Those two losses cost the United States thousands of lives, a loss of standing in the world, trillions of dollars of wealth, and the environmental cost is unlikely ever to be recovered.
To me the prospects of change under our current President are exciting but not revolutionary, and they are not something anyone should reasonably think will be obvious in 12 months.
If America cannot develop a longer attention span we are in even bigger trouble than a giant recession and two wars.
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