After victory in the election, Obama has amassed quite a crowd of supporters, all loyal to his cause. After winning the election, picking his staff, lowering the expectations a little bit are 3rd on his "to do" list. Is this a good idea? It would be a weapon that Bush might have used, complete confidence in Obama could allow him to get away with anything. He could easily start a war if he really wanted to with very little reason. So why is he letting it slip?
There are several reasons:
1. Complete confidence and high expectations could cause anger if, say, research for a solution to Global Warming starts, the population would want it to happen almost immediately, lowering expectations will cause people to understand that nothing that will make a huge difference will happen overnight.
2. Admitting the truth will probably make people happier with Obama, America wants a President who will be honest with them, tell them the complete truth, by lowering expectations, Obama will be considered good and honest, the perfect President recipe.
3. Mr.Gibbs, one of Obama's senior advisers wants everyone to know that Obama is always trying to change things for the better, but even if it doesn't happen immediately, that doesn't mean that it's been given up and that there is little chance of seeing it ever happening.
This problem is very similar to the election of 1992, where Bill Clinton had collected amazingly high expectations from the people of America. Obama's changes to America should not be measured by 100 days. Obama told an interviewer it would be more reasonable to measure his changes in 1000 days.
Nothing will happen immediately, hopefully the Earth will know this when Obama moves into the White house.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
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5 comments:
Outstanding post --- I hope I can get a bit of your reasonable optimism....
Yes... It was a bit optimistic.
Oh well, I'll be less optimistic next time.
This is a really good post. You address the burning questions of change and expectations, and what many Americans are not thinking about -- what will happen 1,000 days from now and even beyond? America has only just begun its honeymoon phase with Obama.
Obama is right that the people should not expect change in the first 100 days. 1,000 days will be enough for the poor to benefit from his policies. Resources will be re-distributed to them and they will feel encouraged by it - if he is able to carry out his agenda, of course. I think he will succeed. I'm just afraid of these short-term feel-good changes and the impact they will have in 10,000 days - not 1,000. The impact and long-enduring effects (bad ones) of big government and major wealth re-distribution will take a long time to set in. Big government is notoriously inefficient. Will Americans start to feel the bad effects of big government and wealth/resources re-distribution in 8 years or 10 years?
My most serious concern - that America will become a more impoverished nation by the end of the next decade. I could be wrong. This may not happen. Many other economic factors can come into play here, but I do think it is highly likely, and for the reasons 'darkshadows' listed in his commentary on the other post.
First 1,000 days = America will be on a high like crack-cocaine.
10,000 days = a weaker America.
I would like to know what young people in Britain are saying about Barack Obama's election. Does this alter perceptions of the United States and its position in the world?
Great post!! It is a bit worrying that people have such high hopes of Obama, when a lot of the problems they face - global warming, the global cris cruch, are, guess what, global! The US can make a start on working towards solving these problems - and Obama clearly recognises the need to work within global communities. But the US can't solve any of this stuff by itself. I hope the people who voted for Obama did so because they wanted someone who who start working in the right direction, not someone who would magically deliver solutions....
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