‘Hope’ is Obama’s message; I hope he doesn’t fail

Published 4:17 pm Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Commentary By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



Yesterday, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the nation’s 44th president.

Yes, Barack Hussein Obama.

Even the president himself sees humor in the fact that someone with his name now holds the highest office in the world. It was a fact that he alluded to several times on the campaign trail.

It honestly seems like years since the election night in which he addressed a million or more supporters in Chicago and millions more supporters and detractors around the world.

Obama’s transition team experienced quite the bumpy ride in those two-plus months. There’s been the controversy over his cabinet picks of Hillary Clinton (secretary of state), chief of staff (Rahm Emanuel), secretary of commerce (New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson), CIA chief (Leon Pannetta) and secretary of defense (Robert Gates) just to name a few. Richardson has since declined the cabinet post, noting an ongoing investigation against him.

There was even bickering over his choice of speaker, Pastor Rick Warren of “Purpose-Driven Life” fame, at his inauguration. Not to mention the whole Rod Blagojevich scandal in which the governor of Illinois is accused of selling Obama’s U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder.

The amount of scandal and speculation may not bode well for Obama. One can hope things will settle down tremendously, and that the cluster of partisan bickering and scandal can be chalked up to nervousness and trepidation on both sides.

One can hope.

No matter how you voted in the 2008 election, the simple fact is that there’s a new sheriff in town and we’ve all got to live with it for four more years, at least.

I can’t really speculate on what kind of president Obama will turn out to be. I hope, for the sake of country, that he’s a good one. I hope he can get us back on track economically, spiritually and fundamentally.

I also hope he’ll be a good listener and not give in to lobbyists or those who only have their own interests at stake. If anything, I hope he’ll do what our last few presidents did not and listen to the everyday American. After all, it’s the everyday Americans who are down in the trenches of life, continually slogging our way through increasingly rough terrain.

I’m a firm believer that those in power tend to forget about us little people. And sadly, it’s us little people that usually have the best and brightest ideas on how to fix our country. I hope Obama won’t shut us out.

It’s too soon to tell what kind of president Obama will be. I guess all we can do is pray for him and pray for our nation.

The pundits and the economists have said things will get worse before they get better. I hope, for our sake, that’s not the case.