Who Really Expected "Change" To Be So... Well, Different?

Every weekend, I watch President Obama's weekly address with great interest, and I'm struck each time by just how much change he's actually introducing. In the past, when politicians won on platforms of "reform", "change" or "a new day", what the electorate almost inevitably got for their vote was either more of the same, or a return to the status quo from the last time that party held office. Obama's version, on the other hand, is proving to be the rarest of all political fowls: change that you've never seen before.

I'm not sophisticated enough to know whether the measures he's enacting are actually going to stem the Recession, but I do know that they're in line with my own personal values. When Bush would strut around the stage, puff out his chest and talk about "evildoers" and how everyone was either "with us or agin us," his eerily child-like approach didn't reflect any attitude that I could get behind at all. I want to see green technologies take off, health care for all, fiscal responsibility and transparency within the government... and we're getting all of that, and more, from this latest American administration. But at the same time, Obama is providing the Peanut Gallery (formerly known as the Republican Party) so much ammunition with which to fuel their Fear Machines, thanks to him venturing into new territory as he is. I worry about just how long the American public will continue to ignore those nattering nabobs of negativism, especially as the financial meltdown refuses to hit bottom. After a month and a half in office, I don't think the new President has gotten even one bit of good news to reward his efforts. I just hope that no one ever told him that this was going to be easy!