Cold Days, Grim Days

The weather has turned. The brightness gives way to a gloomy season, a time of abandonment and lonely confusion. I know holidays are supposed to be happy times, but for me personally, they usually prove to be the opposite.

The state of the world hangs heavily over this holiday season. The terrible terror attack in Mumbai continues to threaten to destabilize of one of the world's biggest and most important countries.

At home, the President-elect risks sacrificing the sense of excitement that would have greeted his inauguration on January 20th by feeling it necessary to appear at major events almost daily, publicizing his appointments and policy plans to stabilizing this nation's economy.

A side effect of the economic meltdown, which continues to look as if it will get far worse for a long time before it gets better, is the opportunity for Americans to break out of the ideological gridlock that has virtually paralyzed effective government since Newt Gingrich, one of the most polarizing figures in modern political history, drove his right-wing agenda into Republican control of the House.

To be fair (and accurate), it was a centrist Democrat as President, Bill Clinton, who in the early part of his administration committed two huge blunders -- forcing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on an unwilling military, and then ending his wife Hillary to try and establish a national health plan that a coalition of opponents was able to paint as "socialism."

Now we have another, perhaps more determined centrist Democrat. My more liberal friends and colleagues preferred John Edwards early on, and Hillary later, apparntly because they feel more ideologically compatible with those politicians.

Not me. I liked Obama early and I liked him often. Now I like him better than ever. The economic team he's assembled is distinctly non-ideological. There is both a continuity between his team and the current leadership, and some glaring differences, in that Obama's team is preparing to try and right the situation, not just apply band-aids.

For those both on the right and left who like to fight more than they care about the actual fate of our people, I'm afraid you are in for a dark winter indeed. Right-wingers: Your fantasy that Obama is a dangerous liberal is essentially a neurosis. Get over it or seek professional help.

Left-wingers: Your tendency to project onto Obama an opportunity for "pay-back" against eight years of Bush/Rove/Cheney supremacy says a hell of a lot more about you than him.

Read his books. Study his speeches. Evaluate his appointees and take the time to carefully read through his complex policy proposals.

This is a President for the ages. For once, we Americans have actually gotten it right at the polls. I just hope that the convergence of global political and economic crises does not so handcuff him in his first term that we fail to experience the full force of his leadership potential.

With this qualification, despite personal gloom, I remain what is called "cautiously hopeful."

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