Time will tell

It finally happened. Barack Obama is now the president. For real. Bush is history. It's like the whole world got a shot of endorphins, the way people are behaving. Not a bad thing to happen. Hope, after all, is what keeps everyone going, and it's in terrible shortage today. Nice speech also, although I expected something more. But I suppose this high-expectation-followed-by-slight-disappointment feeling is something I'll have to get used to, as there's absolutely no way he can match up to the unfair standards I have decided to judge him on.

Anyway, right now, it's easy to find Obama-gushing, but it would be prudent to look at some brickbats as well. Disappointingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, they're mostly from the right-wingers of the world.

After being led down completely by Tony Blair, I don't blame this guy for his lack of eagerness to embrace Obama's message of Change, but bashing Obama as someone who can just give a good speech is a bit of a stretch. And then, also, Obama might make unpopular decisions, but that's hardly different from what Bush did. It's just that, this time, the choices will be unpopular with a different group of people. It is what happens when parties change at the helm.
But this part his rant got to me:
The most powerful nation on earth is confronting its worst economic crisis under the leadership of its most extremely liberal politician, who has virtually no experience of federal politics. That is not an opportunity but a catastrophe.

Weelll, right now it all depends on who's doing the judging. But, as with everything else, time will tell, and in just a few days we'll all know how right or wrong we were. The truth is anyone will look brilliant after George Bush, so maybe this "Obamamania" is an overreaction. But, personally, when I hear someone (and not just someone, but a President who's a civil rights lawyer and, happily, a "most extremely liberal politician") declare that "we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals," it can only be a good thing. Maybe not as good as we all want---and hope for---but good, nonetheless. I'm a cynic when it comes to the current state of the world, but I feel if there's any hope for improvement, it's quite possibly in Obama's hands.

So consider my fingers crossed.

But say something about Gaza already, damnit!