Perhaps the best change of all

Tomorrows inauguration of Barak Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America is one of the most important inaugurations that has taken place in this country's history. Not because he will be our first African-American president. That in itself is indeed a milestone, but more importantly, Barak Obama is inheriting some of the biggest problems any president has ever faced. George Washington's task was great. As the first president he would be setting precedents for every president to follow him. The responsibility was daunting, and he met that responsibility as no other could or would have. He realized the importance of his presidency to the future of this country, and he had the confidence in himself, and the character, to do it right. Abraham Lincoln was to have probably the greatest burden of them all. Revolt and civil war threatened this country as nothing else could. Again, as with George Washington, the right man was elected. Only a man of Lincoln's temperment and intellect could have held this country together. It was closer to being lost than we like to think, but thanks to Lincoln we made it through. Woodrow Wilson was called upon to lead the country through the WWI. A peace loving intellectual, again the nation had a man of the moral fiber, courage, and leadership to pull us through. The onerous task that FDR was saddled with would have broken a healthy man, but even with his infirmary, he was up to the task of facing the Great Depression and WWII. In the end it destroyed his health and killed him, but thank God he survived long enough to lead the country to victory. I believe that FDR was the last truly great president we had. Truman had his moments, with the A-bomb and the ending of both the European and Asian wars. Eisenhower was a capable but uninspiring president, no matter how great a general he was. Kennedy met the Russian Bear head on, and won the stare down, but had failure in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. We will never really know how great he may have been. Johnson proved no match for the challenges of a complicated war such as the Vietnam war. Nixon! Need I say more? Jimmy Carter was clearly a good man, ad might have been remembered as a good president but for events that happened over which he truly had no control. Good, but I don't think great. For all the brouhaha over Ronald Reagan, I was never impressed. He was known as "the Great Communicator", and to me that was all. He was a good speaker, I don't even think a great one. He did come up with some zingers against Jimmy Carter in the presidential debates, but the rest of his speeches were just slogans, and slogans do not equal greatness. This same sloganism carried over onto Bush Sr. His speeches were full of catch phrases and propaganda, but he offered no substance. To me, of all the "not  great" presidents, though, I think he actually did the least harm, except for the cover-up of Iran-Contra. Otherwise, to me, his effect was neutral. (To be fair , I did vote for Reagan for his second term, just couldn't see Mondale as president, and I voted for Bush sr. in his first, same reason-Dukakis?) Bill Clinton could nearly have been one of the great ones, save three things: himself and Newt Gingrich and the consistent attacks by the right wing nuts. Clinton's lack of discipline with the ladies ultimately was his downfall, as I believe without the sex scandals he could have brushed aside Whitewater. He entrapped himself. Next, there is Bush jr. (shrub) I cold give him the same amount of attention as I did Nixon, except that Nixon was not nearly as harmful for the country and the unity of the country as Bush has been. The country has seen many divisions due to partisan politics since its birth, but I don't think anyone else ever used the idea of dividing the country to gain political control, and to try to destroy the other party, as ruthlessly or as effectively, as Bush, through the diabolical genius that Karl Rove was. Rove set out to divide the country, and of all the people in the Bush club, he is the one that should face a jury. His tactics split the country terribly. Others have done so before, but I believe that most did not use division on purpose as policy, but Rove made no secret of it. To my mind he is as guilty of treason as Benedict Arnold ever was.

The only other president that I believe was a great one was Thomas Jefferson, but the country faced no true threat during his two terms. Some of his policies laid the groundwork for future growth, but he lacked vision in some ways. He failed to recognize the importance of industry and manufacture, instead thinking that agriculture was all that would insure our well being. His contributions to the advancement of science,  the Louisiana Purchase, and some of his banking policies nearly put him on the pedestal of greatness, but I believe he fell just short.

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Barak Obama will be inaugurated as our 44th president. He will succeed the man that many, including myself, believe to be the worst president in our history, including Herbert Hoover. George W. Bush has left this country in shambles. He accomplished nearly nothing of the agenda he laid out in his 2000 campaign, even though his party had control of Congress, and most Democrats in Congress at the time were so weak and spineless they could not and would not oppose him( They are nearly as responsible as Bush and the GOP in many ways for the wreck that our economy is, our military is, and for the disasters that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are ).  Even though I disagreed with most of what he laid out, the things he proposed publicly (except for Social Security Reform) would not have been as disastrous as his hidden agenda was, which was to allow Big Business to run amok, with little or no oversight, to wreck our banking system, pollute our air and water, and to start a war in Iraq that was illegal, unnecessary, and unwinnable in the way he undertook it. 

Herbert Hoover left office when our financial systems were nearly in ruin. He also ignored the apparent, and chose to allow business to police itself. His successor was up to the task and willing to do whatever it took to save the ship from sinking. He didn't do it alone. FDR was able to get public opinion on his side. And the public believed in him, and was patient for years. Is Obama going to be up to the task? I believe he has the intelligence and the will to do it. but it will also require public support. Do we have the patience to trust and support him long enough to get the job done? We had better be. We just can't  start expecting things to start getting better Wednesday.  Our leaders have to be held accountable, but we have to allow them enough time to get some real results, and we may have to swallow some medicine we won't like before healing begins. Let's hope the general population is smart enough to allow Obama and his team to get some positive results before they start calling for his head.