Publisher’s Pen: High Expectations
Published 11:27 pm Thursday, January 22, 2009
Is it just me or is anyone else troubled by the amount of attention — and for that matter, expectations — laid at the feet of new President Barack Obama?
I have no doubt he will be a capable leader. I have no doubt many of his policies and ideas are long overdue and needed.
But, I also have no doubt Obama’s trail will be full of questionable decisions, controversial moves and mistakes. Every president has them. Obama’s no different. He’s not going to be any more perfect than any president before him. The sticky part about decisions is there are good ones and bad ones. You rarely know which is which until they’ve already been made.
Obama’s inherited a mess like nothing else I’ve ever seen. Credit problems, a struggling national banking system, a recession many economists say we’ve seen the worst of; they’re all staring our new leader in the face.
It’s not rational to expect Obama to fix all these problems in his first 100 days in office, but millions of Americans watch his presidency by the minute hands of their watch.
It’s troubling that many Americans think the solutions to all our problems lie in the hands of just one man. He can only do so much, and while we’re all anxious to see how much that may be, it will be impressive if he can live up to those high expectations.
– Jason Cannon