I sat down yesterday morning to compose a post on the election and I failed miserably in translating my thoughts into words on a screen.  Conflicted, perhaps, upset because my pick didn’t win, but at the same time it felt good to be an American.  The process worked, as it has for hundreds of years despite what people say about 2000, and that’s ultimately more important than any single person occupying the White House.

These are interesting times, indeed.  The world watched the American Way.  As I kept up with the messages on Twitter, some across the pond jested at our style; others were utterly confused.  Our brand of Democracy is different.  It was designed that way and because of it, the United States has risen to the status of the most powerful nation on the planet in a little over 200 years.

Our representative form of democracy, our Republic, is the stabilizing factor in our otherwise unstable concoction of a world in which we live.  Our Republic gives us continuity and consistency and spares us wild swings from left to right and visa-versa.

Mob rule (masses are asses) can’t control our government and, even though we will have a single party controlling the Executive and Legislative branches, the system or the people won’t allow them to run rampant.  We’ve seen these patterns of swings many times.  Congress swung right during the Clinton years and now we’ve swung left.  The American People will give this combination two years to make good on the many promises bandied about during the campaign.

Which brings me to my real point.  Obama’s train of promises includes cars full of Hope, Change, government sponsored health care, tax credits (not cuts) for 95% of people, end of Iraq war, a fix for the economy, 10% renewable energy by 2012 and the list goes on.  That train is speeding down the tracks with Obama, Biden, Pelosi and Reid in the conductor’s chair and 64+ million people crammed in the caboose, hanging out the windows and running alongside.

I don’t agree with many of these policies, hence the reason I didn’t vote for Obama,  but I’m comforted by the fact that it is difficult for one president to enact a single promise in one term and nearly impossible to execute on two promises.  Many times throughout the campaign I likened Obama to running for student council president.  ”Soda machines in every classroom!”  It’s a promise for the ignorant.  If you were astute in high school, you’d know that a student council president cannot put soda machines in every classroom.  He doesn’t have that authority to make that change.  But ignorant students–who don’t know better–buy that promise.

Obama was selling Hope and Change along with many other soda machines.  It was smart, no doubt.  Like Batman, Obama became a symbol.  The message is incorruptible.  Change and Hope are just words, not policies.  They are words that nearly every human on the planet can get behind.  Who doesn’t want Hope?  Who doesn’t want some facet of Change in their life?  Whether it’s change in economy, political policy, money in your bank account or a new hair style, Change is universally wanted.

In the software world we have a term for selling words.  It’s called vaporware.  It’s a product that doesn’t exist.  But when you’re going after that big account and the potential client asks for a feature or product you don’t make… “Sure, we can do that, no problem.”  You make the sell, get the money and then figure out a way to provide on your promise.  That, my friends (as McCain would say), is what Obama just did to the American people.

And so when you watched Obama give his victory speech in Chicago and you saw the indelible smiles and the tears of relief and, in some instances, validation (rightly so), don’t forget that Hope and Change put this man on a pedestal higher than any single President in the history of this country.

And like all other Presidents that came before him, he will be held accountable and judged for the promises he has made.  But this President’s platform is much higher than any other’s and the fall, if it happens, will be more painful as well.

In the coming weeks as we’re introduced to the Obama Administration, we’ll begin to see how he’ll govern this country.  He’ll move to the center, as all leftists do, because that’s what we really are.  A nation of centrists that dislikes extremes.  Because, honestly, what we really don’t want is extreme Change.  I Hope the next four years are as good to you as my last four years.

Tags: election2008, obama, politics, president

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.