David - I just took the time to go back and read some of your early posting from Feb '08 forward. While I think you area pretty good writer you lack much depth.

You cannot see beyond your own narrow view, of this country, Obama and the people who elected him. You assume he is lacking and by extension those of us who voted for him are equally lacking. And while you may think what you write is painfully obvious let me remind you . . .

Never assume the obvious is true

And I have to agree with Hillarym99 your cynicism has made you a glass half empty person.

Nice try, but champion doomer James Kunstler paints an even gloomier picture:

... Mr. Obama's victory was a moment of epochal exhilaration, not least because he appears to be a decent and intelligent person self-made from a humble background -- someone who has personally bought tube socks in the K-mart, worried about money, and made many trips in a subway car. The current occupant of the White House, however, has sedulously prepared for his successor the biggest shit sandwich the world has ever seen, and there is naturally some concern that Mr. Obama might choke on it. The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. There will be pressure from nearly every quarter to keep it hooked up to the costly life support machines even though it is dead. A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that has died. The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to. Do we even have a prayer of getting to it, or are we going to squander our dwindling resources on life support for something that is already dead?

David, thanks for the post. We should all understand that Obama is no messiah. I think people here understand that. Yet we should savor the results a bit before we head out for some serious work, and for some that means poking fun at the other guys. Too much "tapas" and not enough "santosha" makes change a dull boy.

My analysis is more sanguine. The US is not broke, though it is certainly deep in debt. The debt levels are not unprecedented (take a look at the debt after the depression); I sincerely hope it doesn't take a world war, mass death and starvation to get out of it. But a shift in spending priorities to building or caring for people and things rather than destroying them takes an economy that is tilted down, and tips it back up, and that is something that Obama can execute as the President and the democrats can legislate.

"We are talking about a process." Yes, and a collective one at that. With the whole planet involved. So how do you get people to change? Well, if one doesn't live with integrity to begin with, mere words of change are as light as a feather. So far, Obama seems to have integrity as well as restraint. If his actions in office match, he will gain more.

Though he may not be able to push people where they don't want to go, great leaders don't force them, but incentives are always fair. For those that simply won't go, leaders go anyway, by example, and leave a trail and a seed.

Those to be pitied are not Americans who can evaluate David's writings from reality-based POVs, it's the poor shmucks in Spain who read El Mundo thinking that surely, he must have a clue because he did live there once upon a time.......

Speaking of the Department of "moist and trusting comments"; International division, I ran across this blog from Tel Aviv that features the reactions of Israel's media to Obama's election.

http://lisagoldman.net/2008/11/10/a-view-on-obama-from-tel-aviv/

Lisa Goldman presents the front pages from several Israel's Hebrew publications. She includes my personal favorite example that features two veteran members of the commentariat from Israel's Channel 10:

"Raviv Druker and Ofer Shelach put together a 12-minute piece on Obama’s victory for their Friday night news magazine show. It’s called “the dream that became reality,” and you can watch it here in streaming video. Druker introduces the piece by announcing in mock-amazement that he nearly had a car accident upon hearing that Shelach, supposedly a tough, seasoned reporter, had leaked a few tears while watching Obama’s election-night speech."

Moist!

;>}