The New Boy In the Neighborhood

The air smells cleaner, today is perfection, Mr. Pres-elect is a cutie...just a few of the things my friends have written on Facebook today. And right now, in the background, I can hear Oprah's famous whooping on her "Presidential Party" show that I actually convinced Brad to Tivo. Most of my friends, family, Oprah and Hollywood are as thrilled today as I am that President-elect Obama and his beautiful, young family will be moving into the White House. Furthermore, the Dems have taken back the majority control of the government which is another win for "our" side. Now, I'm not a political mind-I know the main issues, players, etc. but I will not pretend that I am as well-read as I would have liked to be going to the polling station at the school behind my house yesterday. I'm guessing that a lot of people I know are the same way, but I believe we have one thing in common as American voters-we want change. We are smart enough, or dumb enough because the world is spelling it out for us on a daily basis, to know that how we are currently living in this country is not working and we're terrified. So although I celebrated at home last night as the news stations announced Obama's victory and continue to feel an added warmth that our country has made history by electing the first African-American to lead our nation, I have to admit, I'm a little nervous. As an Obama supporter, I know that the American people are looking at President Obama through rose-colored glasses. We see a man, who is not Bush or McCain, who is wearing a red cape and can fly-he's our Superman. You know what Peter Parker's uncle said-with great power comes great responsibility. There's no larger responsibility one can take on than to lead the world's Super Power back to that exact status. We voted Obama in because we want him to "fix" all of our problems. It's like getting a new boss...we're going to complain to him about everything the last guy did and we expect, now that he's in control, that he'll make everything better. Oh yeah, and we all need raises. Maybe even a co-sign on a loan? I worry a little about the expectations the country has of this president. We need change immediately, but it's not realistic for everything to be fixed at once. I think what we probably need to do is think of Obama as Spider Man instead of Superman. In Spider Man, Peter Parker wakes up one day with super powers but instead of going and fighting crime right away, he takes a little time to hone his skills-before long, he's catching thieves in his web. I hope the American people, Republicans and Democrats, will allow President-elect Obama to learn to scale walls before expecting him to swing from buildings.