City of Legends

In about 262 hours, Barack Obama becomes the President of the United States, inheriting an economy and a foreign policy in shambles and a military-industrial complex out of control.

He’s got his job cut out for him.

But, so far, he has looked deep into the pragmatic realms of his soul and decided to surround himself with individuals who have experience, grit and passion. He will need their counsel, their experience and their determination if he is to succeed.

But by what yardstick will we measure success?

He represents more than the usual person stepping into that role. He is our first "person of color" to be elected to that office, beating out a man who would have been the oldest person to have ever been elected, and only slightly edging she who would have been our first female President.. Demands placed upon him by this status will be mighty. The price of failure will not only resonate down the political canyons of this country, but also down the ethnic and sociological paths. If he fails, fifty years from now people will still be using his failure as an excuse to refuse to vote for individuals of all sorts of non-Northern European ethnicities.

It is to his credit as a person, as a politician and as a visionary that he was not dogged by many of the same problems in this campaign that the Rev. Jesse Jackson was dogged by when he ran in 1984 and 1988. I recall that the mantra of the media was to ask the question "What does Jesse Jackson really want?" as if wanting to be a black man elected President was so absurd as to confound reason. I have in my scrapbook a political cartoon of Jesse Jackson being sworn in as President while a reporter at the fringes of the crowd is asking a dignitary "What does Jesse Jackson really want?".

I hope, I pray, that Barack Obama will be a wise and just leader. A man who can reach for consensus, follow his own moral compass, and be honest with us when things go wrong. Bill Clinton accomplished a lot, including balancing a budget now decimated in just 8 short years of infantile insanity, but even he can not be the yardstick for President Obama. We are not looking for a Prophet or a King, we are looking for a Messiah as we face wars in diverse places and an economy that has already cost us nearly three million jobs in the last twelve months.

But, fortunately, as we are not a Monarchy, he does not have to do it alone. As long as people of good will keep their shoulders to the stone, we can work our way out of our crises. We will do so, we will accomplish yet great things.

Ani DiFranco said in one of her songs that "Don’t you think that kitten gets out of the tree whether or not you ever show up?"

I do, I’d just rather it not stay frightened too long or get hurt too bad when it jumps or falls out.

And that is going to be a major part of the necessity of Barack Obama as he takes his place at what Teddy Roosevelt called "the bully pulpit" He must help us feel good, feel strong, feel safe as we get out of that tree.

I supported Hillary Clinton, tooth and nail, for the nomination. I believe that John McCain is a noble American and would have made a good President. But I will be among the first, come the 20th of January, to say, with pride, "That’s my President" and I only hope and pray that four or eight years from now, he has done his best, it has been good enough and that we recognize the impact he has had on the Presidency, on the nation, on the American people, and the world.