While I am still elated over the Obama victory, I am also painfully aware of what an enormous task he faces when he becomes President of the United States in January. I heard a funny comment on the NPR show "Wait, wait, don't tell me!" on Saturday about how what Obama is basically going to have to do is to clean up after an eight year long drunken frat party, and nothing could be closer to the truth, as funny as that sounds. They've been spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave and plunging our economy into record deficits. They've so badly damaged our country, both internationally and at home, that it's going to be a long, tough haul for the Obama administration to clean up the mess they are leaving behind. What concerns me the most is that there are extremely high expectations riding on Obama's shoulders and given that he's black, he'll doubtless be judged by harsher standards than if he were white. The first misstep or mistake he makes, and the Republicans are going to be all over him, demanding that heads roll over it. There will be no mercy shown, no quarter given by the Republicans, you can bet your bottom dollar on that. Given their defeat in this election and the net gain of seats in both the Congress and the Senate, and of course, the ultimate prize, the White House, they're doubtless bitter and angry over their loss of power. But they have no one but themselves to blame for it. They allowed their party to be hijacked by extremists bent on world domination by military power like Rome, and the result has been a major repudiation of their agenda and a demand to steer our country in a totally different direction, or, rather, back to what it's supposed to be.
The thing that needs to happen now is to start a new "New Deal" to invest in clean energy "green collar" jobs and to rebuild our crumbling inftrastructure, much of which is over 100 years old. We need a new electrical grid, sewer lines, water lines, roads, bridges, and we need to find ways to end our dependence on foreign oil from nations that don't really have our best interests at heart. We need to wire our nation coast to coast for broadband internet access for everyone, regardless of where they live. We need to re-instate our passenger rail lines with high speed commuter trains to take the burden off of already overcrowded roads. We can do all of this and get this nation back to work again, just like during the New Deal during the Depression years. We can use all of the money wasted on these two wars we're waging to do this and more. I just hope that people can be patient with Mr. Obama. After all, none of this will happen overnight, and he's already said so any number of times in recent speeches. He's warned us that change won't happen in one week, one month, one year - maybe not even in one term, and people are going to have to understand that. These things are going to take time, and the sooner people realize that, the more prepared they are going to be for the long haul it's going to take to get this nation moving again after eight disastrous years of the Bush-Cheney years. What can get done immediately is to rebuild aging sewer and water lines, bridges and roads, invest in a massive upgrade of our hopelessly outdated electrical grid and other deteriorating parts of our infrastructure. That's something that can get done now, rather than later, and in the meantime, the government can make investments in green collar clean energy jobs of the future and increased research and development into various means of creating clean energy sources. That's going to take a bit more time to accomplish, but the eventual outcome will be a new manufacturing base for the US creating the clean energy systems of the future and three to five million new high paying jobs for Americans. If we can accomplish these visions, then I have no doubt that we have a far brighter future ahead, but I would beg everyone to please be patient as this new administration takes over soon. Give them time to clean up the mess left behind by their predecessors. It took eight years to create it, and it may take just as long to fix it all. So for Mr. Obama, now comes the really hard part of the job: actually becoming President of the United States and charting our course for the future. May he be guided by wiser hands and cooler minds than we have had for the past eight long agonizing years.
While I am still elated over the Obama victory, I am also painfully aware of what an enormous task he faces when he becomes President of the United States in January. I heard a funny comment on the NPR show "Wait, wait, don't tell me!" on Saturday about how what Obama is basically going to have to do is to clean up after an eight year long drunken frat party, and nothing could be closer to the truth, as funny as that sounds. They've been spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave and plunging our economy into record deficits. They've so badly damaged our country, both internationally and at home, that it's going to be a long, tough haul for the Obama administration to clean up the mess they are leaving behind. What concerns me the most is that there are extremely high expectations riding on Obama's shoulders and given that he's black, he'll doubtless be judged by harsher standards than if he were white. The first misstep or mistake he makes, and the Republicans are going to be all over him, demanding that heads roll over it. There will be no mercy shown, no quarter given by the Republicans, you can bet your bottom dollar on that. Given their defeat in this election and the net gain of seats in both the Congress and the Senate, and of course, the ultimate prize, the White House, they're doubtless bitter and angry over their loss of power. But they have no one but themselves to blame for it. They allowed their party to be hijacked by extremists bent on world domination by military power like Rome, and the result has been a major repudiation of their agenda and a demand to steer our country in a totally different direction, or, rather, back to what it's supposed to be.
The thing that needs to happen now is to start a new "New Deal" to invest in clean energy "green collar" jobs and to rebuild our crumbling inftrastructure, much of which is over 100 years old. We need a new electrical grid, sewer lines, water lines, roads, bridges, and we need to find ways to end our dependence on foreign oil from nations that don't really have our best interests at heart. We need to wire our nation coast to coast for broadband internet access for everyone, regardless of where they live. We need to re-instate our passenger rail lines with high speed commuter trains to take the burden off of already overcrowded roads. We can do all of this and get this nation back to work again, just like during the New Deal during the Depression years. We can use all of the money wasted on these two wars we're waging to do this and more. I just hope that people can be patient with Mr. Obama. After all, none of this will happen overnight, and he's already said so any number of times in recent speeches. He's warned us that change won't happen in one week, one month, one year - maybe not even in one term, and people are going to have to understand that. These things are going to take time, and the sooner people realize that, the more prepared they are going to be for the long haul it's going to take to get this nation moving again after eight disastrous years of the Bush-Cheney years. What can get done immediately is to rebuild aging sewer and water lines, bridges and roads, invest in a massive upgrade of our hopelessly outdated electrical grid and other deteriorating parts of our infrastructure. That's something that can get done now, rather than later, and in the meantime, the government can make investments in green collar clean energy jobs of the future and increased research and development into various means of creating clean energy sources. That's going to take a bit more time to accomplish, but the eventual outcome will be a new manufacturing base for the US creating the clean energy systems of the future and three to five million new high paying jobs for Americans. If we can accomplish these visions, then I have no doubt that we have a far brighter future ahead, but I would beg everyone to please be patient as this new administration takes over soon. Give them time to clean up the mess left behind by their predecessors. It took eight years to create it, and it may take just as long to fix it all. So for Mr. Obama, now comes the really hard part of the job: actually becoming President of the United States and charting our course for the future. May he be guided by wiser hands and cooler minds than we have had for the past eight long agonizing years.
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