I mean, we all elected him, right?  I gave at the campaign (a first), wore stickers (a first) and have my T-Shirt to wear on inauguration day (another first). 

Between the huge upside showiness of November 4th and now, I’ve seen more than I expected out of the campaign.  Good emails, requests to participate in issues, YouTube video of important meetings.  I’m ecstatic about all that.  I like how open the inauguration planning and the post-picking has been.  Better transparency than we’ve ever had.

I’m also starting to hear much grumpiness with specifics.  Questioning choices is great.  We should do that.  I bet Barak hopes we will.  That’s how we’re going to move forward.   But I’ve now heard three different people lose hope over one issue or another.  I’ve heard “He’s not going to get us out of Iraq right away,” and “How could he pick an anti-gay preacher to pray at the inauguration?” and, “He must be connected to all that bad stuff in Chicago.”  Yes, the news media has said all that.  But so have way too many people I know personally.  He hasn’t even become President yet.  When he does, he has two wars (or more if you count Gaza), a failing economy, a failed Health Care system, and the list goes on.  None of these problems are small.  None of them will be solved in the first hundred days (I’m hoping for progress).  Most of them won’t be solved by the end of the first year (I’m hoping for progress).

The entire world has hung so many expectation on this guy that we will be disappointed.  My more liberal friends are shocked at his cabinet appointments (did you all hear that he’s a centrist?  He said so.  That’s okay – we need to make purple out of our red and blue).

But if we can be patient, this is the best chance we’ve had in eight or more years for real, fundamental change for the better in American politics.  Bill Clinton actually did a lot of good.  But his mistakes cost him, and us (Gee – he’s human.  Barak will be too.  I’m hoping for different mistakes, though).

We need to help.  I hear a lot about us and them.  Red and blue us and them.  But also the government and us.  It’s a bad cliche, but true:  We have to be the change we want.  And that change might have to start with a little patience.  I really hate the idea of giving up hope before we even get to inauguration day.