It seems everyday I am hearing accusations of "So much for change" and how Obama has betrayed us or some other rant. more after the fold.
It seems there are a great deal of nay sayers these day, in the media and in the blogosphere. Unreasonable expectations of our President elect are being expressed or implied. Let me clarify this for everybody. Obama has not taken office "Yet" and does not have the vested power of the Presidents office "Yet" therefore he has a very limited impact that he can make "Yet"...it is critical for everyone to understand this as "Fact".
Another thing to understand with clarity is that the situation during the last two years of campaigning has changed dramatically. Presidnet Obama will not just be handed a country in a mess, rather a country in crisis and disaster. I have never seen our country in such dire straights in my life and this is not going to be an easy fix. Thank God we have an intelligent and thoughtful President coming into office that gives us hope of coming through these situations.
President Obama is having to pick his cabinet, refocus his policies and priorities to fit the circumstances he is being handed. The seriousness of the situation demands he revamps his ambitions and even scales back his aspirations, he did not ask or hope for this situation, it was created under Bush and company and will be handed to him to fix.
In many ways his hands have been tied. He can't afford to be pure and have a power fight, he must have cooperation to salvage what he can of the country...don't you get that?
Now to another point, each and everyone of us has opininons and a vision of how we think he should do things, which policies we want him to push, who he should appoint to certain cabinet positions, etc.
I am guilty as the rest of second guessing Obama and his staff. I second guessed his VP pick, his campaign strategy, and many more things that just do not come to mind at the moment. Guess what, Obama and his staff had vision and clarity several levels above mine and time and time again they proved to be right and I was wrong and so were you.
At the very least we owe President Obama the courtesy of an opportunity to vindicate his policies, actions, and staffing picks through his actions, which can only be done once he enters office in January.
President Obama does not need a bunch of back seat drivers second guessing him, especially given the fact that he has out classed most of us back seat drivers in the past and I have no reason to believe he will not continue this trend in the future.
What he does need from you and I is our support, thoughtful communication and backing in order to push our policies through congress, he needs us to be constructive, patient and focused...can we do this? I say "Yes we can"
The GOP is fearful of it's relevance, there is an excellent article that everyone should read that talks about universal health care, if Obama pushes this through it will mean the destruction of the GOP.
Read it Here
Why did you vote for Obama, I hope the answer is the same is mine. Because I believe in him, I believe he has the intellect to see our country through the seriousness of the times, I believe President Obama understands what it is like to be you and me since he came through life like us..poor, middle class, and on to success thanks to hard work and a quality education. I trust him because I never found him lying to me, unlike so many other politicians (that is definitely change I believe in).
Finally, I want to say this from the very fiber of my being. I worked extremely hard and spent a great deal of energy, time, and money to see Obama in office, I do NOT believe that my efforts were wasted. Barack Obama is my President and I believe in him and give him the benefit of time to prove and justify my faith in him and I pray my fellow Democrats will extend the same opportunity to OUR President.
I know this is a rant and forgive me for that, I just felt it was important to say. We must have solidarity to face the challenges we are facing.
UPDATE: I guess my point is being misunderstood, I am not saying that we should not be involved or even disagree, especially when justified. I am saying give Obama a chance, he has proven to be methodical and does things for reasons...give him a chance to show us his intentions before bashing him. I believe in Democracy just like you, I do not want a Democratic version of Bush.