I hope Obama turns out to be a great leader

One thing that has been missing from the US Presidency for a long time is strong leadership. Bush was many things, and opinions about him span the entire spectrum, but, in my opinion, he was not an effective leader. I especially disliked the way Bush used fear as a motivator for his agenda. In my opinion, Reagan was the last president who was a true leader. He created inspiration during his first years as President at a time when the country was in bad shape.

I watched some of Obama's speeches yesterday and thought that he did a fairly good job at creating inspiration. And maybe that is what this country does need now more than "experience" - there is a big need right now for leadership with the economy collapsing, two wars going on, terrorist threats, corruption in government becoming rampant, a broken immigration system, government growth (there are now more people working in government in the US than in manufacturing and construction), an unsustainable growth in medical costs, declining oil and gas production, unemployment, the housing market collapse, etc.

I have issues with many things about Obama's past but today is a new day - for the country and for Obama. I'm hoping for the best and hoping that Obama is a fast learner. His decisions over the next year or two will have major impacts for decades to come, not only in the US but for the world. I hope he is up to the task.

Here is an excerpt from today's Tom Friedman op-ed which I tend to agree with (although I don't think a gasoline tax is a dramatic new initiative):

We can’t thrive as a country any longer by coasting on our reputation, by postponing solutions to every big problem that might involve some pain and by telling ourselves that dramatic new initiatives — like a gasoline tax, national health care or banking reform — are too hard or “off the table.” So my most fervent hope about President Obama is that he will be as radical as this moment — that he will put everything on the table.

Opportunities for bold initiatives and truly new beginnings are rare in our system — in part because of the sheer inertia and stalemate designed into our Constitution, with its deliberate separation of powers, and in part because of the way lobbying money, a 24-hour news cycle and a permanent presidential campaign all conspire to paralyze big changes.

...........

So, in sum, while it is impossible to exaggerate what a radical departure it is from our past that we have inaugurated a black man as president, it is equally impossible to exaggerate how much our future depends on a radical departure from our present. As Obama himself declared from the Capitol steps: “Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed.”

We need to get back to work on our country and our planet in wholly new ways. The hour is late, the project couldn’t be harder, the stakes couldn’t be higher, the payoff couldn’t be greater.