Celebration time is over

I write the following as a supporter of Barack Obama. In a big way. I, like many other people in my generation, have found great inspiration in our new president. We have for too long felt alienated from our own identity as Americans. So comfortable we had become in being outsiders in our own country, we forgot that we ever wanted to be Americans in the first place. But then there was a presidential candidate with whom we could truly identify. Someone who seemed a bit like us, but, at the same time, seemed genuinely presidential. And then he won.

Without a doubt, this is cause for celebration. And there was much celebration, and rightly so, when the final results came in on that first week in November. But, as the hype surrounding the inaugural festivities has built and built, I have found myself frequently annoyed. Maybe its just a sense of burn-out: after advocating so vigorously for Obama the candidate for such an extended period of time, perhaps I'm just worn out of talking about him. But there's a little something more. And that is the feeling that, now that the campaign is won, the time for unbridled advocacy and unqualified support has ended. Obama is no longer a long-shot candidate, a figure representing the hope for something new. Tomorrow, he will be the President of the United States. And our task should shift from that of vigorous campaigners to that of skeptical, demanding citizens.

In fact, the level of ecstasy that some feel as a result of the Obama presidency is one of his greatest potential pitfalls. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall," is a maxim that sums up this concern. Unless his supporters can sober up a bit, both in their own expectations and in the expectations they create in the minds of others, we face the possibility of an unusually strong backlash when trouble emerges. And, inevitably, it will. No leader can completely avoid crisis. No man is infallible, and Obama will, without a doubt, make mistakes. There will be low points. The true test of his presidency will be his resilience, his ability to recover from mistakes and to keep moving forward. So betting it all on a perfect and dream-like next 8 is a bad move.

If I were on the Obama team, my advice would be to start tamping down expectations, and hard. One way to do this would be to forgo all of the spectacular inauguration activities. I saw that a conservative friend of mine had posted on his facebook status something like "I can't believe we're spending $100 million on an inauguration during a recession." And, you know, this was a little annoying to me, just because I know his feelings are rooted in some sort of Rush Limbaugh mind frame, but, at the same time, that sentiment is one that a lot of average Americans could probably identify with. There's a certain obvious truth to it. Perhaps a little bit of modesty, a bit of sobriety are in order. What if, after the swearing in, Obama said "Thank you for all the praise, but the time for inspirational speeches is over, here's the economic bill I want Congress to pass this week." What a way to both calm people's enormously high expectations and to transition from the picture-perfect image of the campaign and into what will certainly be a much rougher, much clumsier 4 years as president. Its going to happen sooner or later. Why not capture the opportunity to manage that moment on your own terms?