Hating Barack Obama

Something occurred to me shortly before the election regarding this Barack Obama guy. I like him. I like him a lot. He is just so likeable and has so much appeal across such a wide spectrum. I began to be troubled by this as I thought about it and something occurred to me; something astonishing.

I was desperately trying to find something NOT to like about this guy. Please don't interpret me as one of these people who worships at his altar every morning and exfoliates my pores with bottled Barack sweat. I'm not one of the types who believes, to coin a zinger by John Stewart, that "every time Barack Obama speaks, an angel has an orgasm." Finding flaws in anyone isn't hard, but I don't know the guy, and I'm partial to him both as I am a Democrat and as a liberal thinker who is extremely worried about the state of our country and the world at large. Regardless of this, the guy is charismatic and very appealing. Women often adore his looks and smile, and men are drawn to his scholarly, yet subdued way. If you don't believe me, compare the crowds he drew as compared with John McCain or John Kerry in 2004. This guy has inspired an entire, lethargic, apathetic generation of youngsters to vote for the firt time, to be engaged, and to be (gasp!) informed. There are all too many 35 year-old prefossors of political science who can't do that.

Still, what really throws me for a loop is that when Barack takes office, we may not like him anymore. In fact, we really SHOULDN'T like or necessarily trust him, at least not in a way that prevents us from having high expectations and a healthy level of cynicism. Our duty as Americans almost demands it. I thought "Geez, this is gonna be a rough transition." In order to do our jobs as Americans, we need to be informed; to be skeptical; to have high expectations. We are Barack's new bosses. He can no longer be our "best friend." Face it,: he's a politician, and whether we like it or not, he never was. He may just have better intentions than the last guy. We're really gonna have to put his feet to the fire, but don't worry, I'm sure an economy on life-support and two wars will do that job for us, at least to some degree.

I'm almost trying to ease this transition by finding something, anything that will make me angry at this guy. He's been desribed as "arrogant." Who likes that?! His first cabinet picks are throwing a few people out there for a loop . . .. maybe . . . hopefully he'll pick Sensen Brenner for Secretary of State. That would piss me off . . . . no . . . . . Who am I kidding, that won't (and really can't) happen. And who am I kidding? I still like him.

I'm not saying we have to HATE our employee (our President), but that if he is to do his best job, those of us who do need to stop adoring him. This man is far from perfect, but this Barack honeymoon has got to end sometime and it throws me for a loop that it will end.

One last thing: Stop talking about the "first 100 days" guys. It's not gonna happen. We're in too deep of a hole to get much of anything done in 100 days.