Now what?
So, the pivotal moment has come and gone. Some of my friends were in this crowd.
So far the most surprising thing that has happened was Dick Cheney in a wheel-chair. Throwing out your back "moving" things, eh, Dick? Let's see, this is capital hill, right? Politicians don't do their own heavy lifting, especially when that lifting is literally lifting stuff.
What kinda physical exertion do politicians notoriously get up to... Nevermind. Bad mental image.
But yes. More than one million people packed into the area to be able to say that they were there. Yo Yo Ma was on hand. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court flubbed his lines. And Obama gave a speech that I enjoyed. I liked this part:
We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
So America has inaugurated it's first actually black President. And the first few hours of the Obama administration have gone pretty well. Now what?
Are we actually prepared for this paragon to do the grunt work of leading our country? Can the pundits who so endlessly laud him handle waiting weeks and months for Congress to cobble together legislation? Are we going to be able to handle it when the inevitable missteps occur?
I honestly wonder if these same people who look on Obama as the messiah will have the patience to wait for things to get better. These last 8 (perhaps 12) years have to have rocked everyone's faith in our elected leadership. I get this eerie feeling that if the next 6 months aren't a complete revolution, that cynicism and weariness that has so marked our political discourse will creep back in.