Question to all the US residents……
Has Obama solved the financial crisis, prevented torture, made global warming go away, stopped war etc (oh, and found me a nice, cushy job) !? I mean he has had 24 hours to work on these stuff, come on !
On a serious note: I am quite happy that the US finally has a president who can more than put together two consecutive coherent sentences – in fact, one who is truly a great orator. I am even happier as a scientist that the new President does not share his predecessor’s disdain for intellectualism, and in fact has gone out of his way to court scientists in his administration. And I do realize it is quite an historic occasion for the US to be electing an African-American president, barely a few decades removed from an era when in some parts of the country they were not even allowed to ride in the same portion of the bus.
However, what does irk me is the group of Twitterers, bloggers and Facebook-ers who seem to view the inauguration of Obama as the 44th US president as the coming of some sort of a Messiah. The manner of going into raptures over every bit of utterings/actions of the new President and the examples of near-worshipping devotion I have noted on the internet are simply beyond satrical proportions. And the sad thing is that these people are setting themselves up for a big disappointment, because whatever he is, Obama apppears to me firstly as a very pragmatic politician.
Finally, someone who isn’t taken in by the emotions of greatness and at the same time recognizes the potential of the man. True. So true.
It’s only the beginning….
Trailblazer
January 23, 2009 at 9:56 am
I agree that some are major fans out there (prolly incl.me) but Obama as a candidate and Obama as a President can or may be two different people and it is up to those fans to try and keep the two as similar as possible.
Patrix
January 24, 2009 at 3:47 pm