Great Expectations

Whenever we place unrealistic expectations upon ourselves or someone else, disappointment and sorrow are soon to follow. Both the "Audacity of Hope" and the Obama administration have just been dragged into unfair territory.

Articles just this morning include:

-A plea by many for Obama to legalize "Mary Jane";
-An expose' demanding that Obama stop sexual exploitation of children;
-A call for Obama to nationalize and oversee American automobile production;
-More calls for immediate universal health care;

This weeks' emails included:

- Various invitations from multiple groups, sponsoring Obama "house parties". At these gatherings, they will apparently produce lists of issues and problems, which they will presumably submit to the Obama administration for immediate action. This presupposes an immdiate response, but no one seems braced for disappointment. Proverbial caution has been thrown to the proverbial wind.

- I recieved no less than 8 (eight) petitions from assorted groups, asking Obama to save whales, save polar bears, end poverty, stop global warming, reduce nukes, reform banks, turn coal green and reform Congressional ethics laws. And they all "expect" them to be a fait accompli by early 2009.

In none of these do I see or hear the word "compromise", nor do I sense any reasonable approach concerning just how long it takes to accomplish any of these. Obama does, after all, have to work with and through the Congress to effect any of this. But perhaps I have erred on the side of realism.

The "Audacity of Hope" is mutating into unreasonable demands and expectations. The only way for the new administration to succeed, to any measureable degree, is for the American people NOT TO BURDEN it with lists of demands founded on the wildest of dreams and unrealistic expectations. Southern plantation owners did that to black slaves 250 years ago. Surely we can do better, today.

Put yet another way, why should we party so hearty that we give Obama a hangover before he even reaches office?

And does anyone we remember how we scoffed at the Bush administration, for proposing "Aspirational horizons"? I am also inclined to think that unbounded ecstasy and euphoria can lead to catastrophic misery.

Life goes on in Texas.