A New Day

Well, duh. "Groundhog Day" was cute, but apart from that story, every day is a new day. New opportunities, new risks, new challenges, new surprises.

Yesterday was a biggie with President Obama's inauguration. Our 44th president, and the fifth to whom I've paid attention. Carter was my cusp -- I wasn't very political in the late '70's -- but starting with Reagan I have been, and yesterday was important to me for a couple reasons.

First, President Bush's approval rating yesterday was around 23%. Obama has a honeymoon because Bush has, in the parlance of our British friends, "assed it up" so very thoroughly.

It's difficult to think of the tremendous energy and time and money and apologies and court battles that lay ahead to mitigate or undo some of what Congress and the Bush/Cheney administration "achieved." I hope Obama, Congress, and most importantly, we the people, have the tenacity and long-range thinking to stick with it.

Second, Obama has stayed above the fray and seems like a good, normal guy.

ALERT! ALERT! Bush is the regular guy! Bush is the rancher who just wants to wear his cowboy hat and cut brush.

REALITY! REALITY! Yeah, not so much. The Crawford Ranch was purchased and the house built during the 2000 presidential campaign. It was, in nearly every way, a prop. A set-piece. He didn't live there before he became president, and he's not going back to it. 'Course, he is an ex-president, so if he wants to do some chainsawin' in the backyard of his new exclusive Dallas neighborhood, I don't expect too many folks will complain.

Obama seems like a good, normal, smart guy. When he's attacked, he keeps it civil and focuses on policy. Bush had a nasty team running his campaigns, and McCain hired most of them for his. As Clinton slid into the dregs with her campaign, Obama never really bit. So we really have Bush, and Cheney, and most especially Mr. Rove, to thank for the margin of victory and the sentiment that massive change was needed from the past eight years.

I didn't vote for Obama because he's black, or because he's a Democrat. Obama had the only sensible, radical campaign of change. How amazingly cool that George Bush and Dick Cheney brought our country to a place where the color of the candidate's skin was so far removed from so many voters' minds?

It's a ramble -- sorry. The new administration has an enormous set of challenges ahead, and I wish them (and us) lots of energy and enthusiasm. Many people (and a whole cable network) are attacking because he's not their guy, and that's fine. The issues to be faced and the damage to be undone are too big to be bothered by the small stuff.

Bush and his handlers were consistent in their arrogance and inflexibility; Obama has promised to listen to anyone with good ideas for the country, and has asked for help from all sides. Devolve into partisan politics as usual, Mr. New President Guy, and, well, 23% approval ratings will seem like the good old days.