President Obama

At the dawn of Inauguration Day, watching TV coverage I got emotional. The peaceful transition of power under the American Constitutional system is almost always inspiring [the Supreme Court election of George W. Bush being a glaring exception]. But this time there was the thrill of seeing an African-American coming into the highest office, overwhelmingly chosen by the American people accepting his message of hope and change for the better, and what this meant especially to Americans of color. And there was the inspired encouragement being expressed by so many people, not just in America but world wide, at the reality of the disgraced George W. Bush leaving town and the chosen Barack Obama taking over.

I watched the swearing in as the invited breakfast guest of my long time friends Joe and Georgia, who are always good company, and were especially fun to be with to witness this enormous step in the racial maturing of America. Joe has long roots in America leading back to some African ancestry, so his family has experienced racial prejudice first hand. Georgia, though an American citizen by birth, was sent to a "relocation camp" during World War II, because her grandparents were born in Japan.

Eight years, or even four, is a long time for a young person to wait to see a new President, and at first look the new person may look out of place. Seeing Ike replace Truman is not much of a memory to me, but seeing Kennedy replace Ike is quite vivid. I liked that the new man was younger, a Democrat and a Catholic. I did not like him being rich, but I liked seeing him as President. When Kennedy was killed and Johnson took over, I did not like seeing Johnson as President. Though he did not come from money and he was a Democrat, he was from the South which turned me off. He did do things for civil rights and poor people, but his escalation of the Vietnam War repulsed me.

I grew up seeing Nixon as Vice-President and that was bad enough. But when he became President, it was almost unbearable. I was overjoyed when he resigned and was willing to see just about anybody take over. Ford was a bumbler and I always just looked on him as a caretaker until the next election. Carter came from nowhere. Another southerner was another turn off. He only seemed Presidential when meeting with foreign heads of state. Reagan always looked like the B grade actor he was and his years in office were as bad as Nixon's. Bush I seemed a weak and aloof President and like he was not sure he wanted the job. Then along came another southern unknown, Clinton, who began to look Presidential just about the time his libido undermined him, leaving him to look a bit pathetic. Bush II, the usurping fraud, at first looked like a deer frozen in headlights, and then like the pompous dork he is, but never anything even remotely Presidential.

Obama is the President who I am most comfortable seeing in the job of any President during my lifetime. The two year campaign about which there was so much complaint, actually gave America the opportunity to see Obama in action through a long process. The man we saw lead that campaign was exceptionally impressive and the obvious choice for us to make to lead America out of our troubles and into a new future. As he said in his Inaugural address, we face big problems and the solutions are not easy, but working together, we can begin to solve them. Polls show the American people are in great support of Obama and willing to give him time to work. If there is to be a fly in the ointment, it will come from Senate Republicans. One early contender is Cornyn from Texas, who is holding up the Clinton confirmation to ask more about donors to the Clinton Library.