Inauguration Part Two

Okay, I thought about my blog from yesterday, and I started to wonder if what I wrote was fair. And I think I'm going to end up back in the middle.

Is it fair to say that Obama must have an above average presidency to be considered a success? No, I do not believe so. I simply believe that he's going to have to do more than just be known as the first black president. And I think that, wrong or right, his performance will be America's litmus test for how well a non-white-male president will perform. For example, if Obama's presidency is an unquestioned success, it will be much easier for someone like Bill Richardson (a Hispanic man) or Hilary Clinton (a woman) to be elected president because Americans will realize that a white protestant man doesn't have to be their leader.

But if Obama's term is an unquestioned failure, I'm sure we'll see the US dip back into a few more white male presidents until we get the guts to try something different again.

I think my main issue with Obama's success is where the bar is set. I think some of it is his own fault (hope and change is an easy cause to get behind but a very difficult one to accomplish, I believe), but some of his supporters are just plain ridiculous. A woman claimed that she believed Obama would pay off her mortgage. Others believe that Obama's presidency will bring about new money (the amounts vary) into their checking account.

And then there's all the messiah talk - how is that bar attainable?

You hear all that, and you wonder if Obama would be able to survive with simply "above average" results. Anything short of turning water into wine seems like it'd be a failure, and I'm only half kidding with that statement.

This is probably the most important presidency in many of our lifetimes, and I think it will create unimaginable pressure on President Obama. Future minority candidates are counting on him, the entire African American community is counting on him, and his zealots are really counting on him.

And he's also going to have to try to get us out of this war, fix the economy, deal with Gitmo, and push through Universal Health Care. And he's probably going to have to do all of that in four years.

I hope our new president is up to the challenge, but he needs to start by curbing some of the country's enthusiasm. The next four years aren't going to bring automatic positive change just because Barack Obama is in the White House. Many of our problems can't be solved in four years, and several probably can't be solved in eight.

Most presidents get credit by getting the ball rolling, or at the very least, stopping its movement in the wrong direction. I don't think that will be the case for Obama, and I think that, if he fails, his critics will be the least of his problem. All the people who expect change and don't get it might turn on Obama quicker than his conservative critics.

And that's why things have a chance to get really ugly. Because messiahs don't tend to fall short.