January 20...

President Obama has already made a great degree of success...he has made people forget  about Bush, the worst Presidency in memory...and that covers quite a long time.  It is like filling in the Grand Canyon, making people believe in the positive power of the US Presidency, yet somehow it has been done.  And speaking of the Grand Canyon, the depths of the problems inherited by President Obama...is a depth that seems to grow as more and more truth is revealed.  And yet, he seems up to the challenge and the need to innovate, solve crises and handle the routines too.  Like walking and chewing gum at the same time while spouting beautiful poetry...following a non leader with a bright new star for many to simply find and be guided.   January 20 will come and go ...so will the hangovers and sore throats from laughter and applause... but the beginnings will grow into days of achievement for a nation so accustomed to getting things done...but recently so accepting of a syndrome of failure.
Now suddenly we can have jobs, and peace. Prosperity and new businesses that stay in the US; friends overseas among our sister nations, respect without threats and fear.  January 20 will roll with the calendar but some things will stay in our thoughts and perhaps in our hearts.

Hard Choices...already

Hard choices  seem to be everywhere the Obama Administration seems willing to accept a baptism in firestorms created by many previous years of horribly mistaken priorities.  So infrastructure and the bailout frenzy will carry some of the benefits of Obama policy into the economy, the war in Iraq will play itself down on a separate stage, for the next year it will not receive much CHANGE, the economy is the key..and an administration can be tied to failure if it does not appear to grapple with the problem and make some progress.

Energy will be another important area, oil prices will be forced to rise as much as the damaged economies of the West can bear, a potential that progress from the recession will be consumed by rising oil prices, diplomacy is a key ingredient in the need to hold down the habit of gouging the market...difficult since so many national economies depend upon the price and value of oil.

But the stage has been set, the new administration has become a world focus of hope for change...an honest and friendly desire for success, for it is plain now to so many...what a difference leadership can make.