Last week, Barack Obama was (we presume) elected president of the United States as the country fell deeper into recession. Nearly 300,000 jobs were lost in October in the United States as the official unemployment rate rose almost a half percent since September to 6.5%. The Dow fell 4% last week despite all the good feelings. When he takes office in January 2009 the new president will surely face an economic situation as dire as Franklin Roosevelt faced in 1933 Not only the United States, but the rest of the world, is looking to him to find a way out of economic disaster. Will he deliver?
Obama appears to be as gifted as any U.S. president in a long time. In addition, he seems far more balanced and lacking in personal demons than most presidents. Like Franklin Roosevelt, Obama's talents fit the times well: he appears calm, intelligent, and compassionate, and projects a sense of competence and being in control. Finally, he has, in these hopeless times, given many people, especially young people, hope. Even one of our darkest, most pessimistic poets, Bob Dylan, was moved to remark at a performance in Minnesota that "I was born in 1941, the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I've been living in darkness ever since. But it looks like things are going to change now." Then he danced a jig. Yes, Bob Dylan danced onstage. Maybe Obama really can work miracles.
Read full story
