I'm back after taking a break. The election coverage and all the silliness that made up this election just finally got to me. I hope that Obama will do all the things that he promised and be an agent of real change. The economy though may make it impossible to do all the things he wants to do. Health care, Social Security and all the rest take money and right now that is in short supply. The country can't just keep printing more money to fix its problems. We need to get the economy moving, create real jobs, shore up the auto industry, work to remove the strangle hold of foreign oil and show investors that things are getting better so that the stock markets will start working again to provide capital for business to grow. Without economic growth and the money it brings in, Obama will be unable to do any of the things that he promised.
Now that the Democrats have both houses of congress and the oval office many people think there is nothing that they can't do. That may be true but it had better be the right thing and it had better work or the mid-term elections may give one or more of the houses in congress back to the Republicans. If nothing else Americans' are an impatient people. Also there has been so much gridlock and political posturing by the congress, I think people are sick of it. We want our government to work and for far too long now it has not.
So I hope that Obama gets off to a good start. I hope that Congress will work together to solve issues. I hope that the Republicans can find their soul or whatever and get their act together. We need to two parties or more for our form of government to work and right now the Republicans aren't really a party. Here's hoping that we get out of Iraq and can find a way to solve Afghanistan without having to kill more American service people. Here's hoping that 4 years from now we don't look back and say "that Bush wasn't really all that bad".
