I just don't get it. I understand that Obama's innauguration is historic, but the media's messiah-like treatment of Obama has gone from Chris Matthews and his thrill going up his leg to the absurdity of Time magazine putting Obama on the cover 14 times in the last year.
So it was refreshing to read reality check reminder in the Chicago Tribune:
People—basically all of us at some point—aren't going to like him. Remember, nearly half the country voted for the other guy. You, even if you've been a dyed-in-the-wool Obama-ite from the word "go," are almost certain to be upset by or turned off by something he'll do over the next four years.
Sure, he's the first African-American president, and there will always be something special about that. But he's just a guy, and this is a job that involves dozens, if not hundreds, of decisions every day. Every decision involves winners and losers, and the losers don't like not winning.
I'm not saying Obama will be a bad president. He could be good, even great. But greatness is not protection against criticism.
[. . .]
The novelty of this guy with the interesting life story will wear off. He'll be just another president—like the 43 who preceded him.
We'll judge him on what he does. Over and over and over again.
Enough said.
Chicago Tribune's Patrick Readon's reality reminder that,"Remember, nearly half the country voted for the other guy", is totally inaccurate! Do a little reading and find that in the 2004 census there were estimated 215,000,000 registered voters in the US. Using that figure, in the 2008 presidential election, 66,882,230 of those voted for Mr Obama and 65,117,770 "voted for the other guys". This does not total up to "nearly half of the country". Looks like over 148 million registered US voters did not vote for anyone!
Posted by: skaliwag1 | Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 01:35 AM