If history teaches us anything, it is that the assumptions, promises and priorities one makes before taking a new position are quickly adjusted to hard realities once the job is obtained.
New data is made available, things change, some priorities give way to practicalities.
Nevertheless we can often pick out key themes from a prospective candidate and hammer out general 'intentions.'
Obama is a more statist than libertarian, and young, and oriented to the public and service organizations than to corporations. He is a consensus builder, but chooses among the alternatives available against his own priorities and principles when the going gets tough. This is often the basis of a self-made man whose character has been hammered and tempered by adversity.
He is a strong organizer and knows how to play the game. His first obstacle is to discover what the game is at the level on which he will be playing. He thinks he knows it, but he doesn't, not yet. He is about to get a deep look into the darkness of the human heart, the abyss, and it will change him.
He faces a daunting task and expectations are high. He must prioritize heavily and reset expectations to what can be done first, and what can be attempted over time. There will be window-dressing, and genuinely effective efforts.
He is extremely intelligent, a quick study, and will benefit from a sincere alarm among highly capable men and women concerning the state of the country, which is more dire than most realize.
The vultures are swarming, and promises of kingdoms on earth are being whispered in his ear.
Those too lazy to think will retreat into cynicism, surmise, sarcasm and rumour, as they always do.
There will be a brief period of good will and allowance, and then the examination of Obama will be harsher, and more critical, and often probably unrealistic.
Watch his selection of Treasury Secretary to see how the first 100 days will be, and who is handling him, influencing him.
There will be a strong minority that will be quick to condemn and attempt to block all change. They would like him to fail, and badly, to justify their own prejudice and self-interest.
He will disappoint many, in many ways, including Le Propriétaire here at the Cafe. How can it be otherwise? He is only a man, facing some of the toughest choices presented to a new president taking office in war and economic crisis. Truman and FDR rose to the task. So did another Illinois Senator with only one term under his belt when he took office: Abraham Lincoln.
He could fail, he could succumb to partisan corruption, he could not only disappoint but fail to deliver on the promise of change for any number of reasons. John F. Kennedy was the fist Catholic ever elected president. Most now have forgotten the concern and a general fear this caused among the same groups and the elite that also fear Obama. Kennedy and his brother took on an embedded element of corruption that was pervasive in the country, and they both paid for it with the greatest sacrifice.
We cannot know what will happen, we do not know if and how he might rise to this terrible occasion, but we do know that we will not agree with everything he does, and may even become as bitterly disappointed with him as we were with George W. Bush after his first term in office. We hope not, for his failure will be our collective misfortune.
But for our own sake and those of the people of the US, we do sincerely wish him well, and would do anything to help to secure our national welfare from the dangers we now face, and those which are yet to appear.
So, taken in that context, here are the priorities in the president-elect's own words.
"Let us remember that if the financial crisis has taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers,” he said in his speech Tuesday night. “In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people.”
Obama from his debate transcript: "We're going to have to prioritize, just like a family has to prioritize. Now, I've listed the things that I think have to be at the top of the list.
Energy we have to deal with today, because you're paying $3.80 here in Nashville for gasoline, and it could go up. And it's a strain on your family budget, but it's also bad for our national security, because countries like Russia and Venezuela and, you know, in some cases, countries like Iran, are benefiting from higher oil prices.
So we've got to deal with that right away. That's why I've called for an investment of $15 billion a year over 10 years. Our goal should be, in 10 year's time, we are free of dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
And we can do it. Now, when JFK said we're going to the Moon in 10 years, nobody was sure how to do it, but we understood that, if the American people make a decision to do something, it gets done. So that would be priority number one.
Health care is priority number two, because that broken health care system is bad not only for families, but it's making our businesses less competitive.
And, number three, we've got to deal with education so that our young people are competitive in a global economy.
But just one point I want to make, Tom. Sen. McCain mentioned looking at our records. We do need to look at our records.
Sen. McCain likes to talk about earmarks a lot. And that's important. I want to go line by line through every item in the federal budget and eliminate programs that don't work and make sure that those that do work, work better and cheaper.
But understand this: We also have to look at where some of our tax revenues are going. So when Sen. McCain proposes a $300 billion tax cut, a continuation not only of the Bush tax cuts, but an additional $200 billion that he's going to give to big corporations, including big oil companies, $4 billion worth, that's money out of the system.
And so we've got to prioritize both our spending side and our tax policies to make sure that they're working for you."
"The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith." J. W.
von Goethe
And, we might add, the
conflict between the obligation of duty and a retreat into self-absorption and despair.
