I love the quote I heard over the weekend: "To many of us, he's the first black president...but to a whole generation of young people out there, he's just president."

Simply put, I hope that we can get back to the days where people actually have respect for the office, pay attention to what the man says, and genuinely trust that he has the best interests of the American people at heart. When's the last time we had that? Not Bush, certainly. And Clinton, even if you think he was a good president, you can't deny the level of scandals and lies - he wasn't exactly the epitome of "I trust this guy."

Somebody somewhere likened Obama's YouTube addresses to the old "Fireside Chats" of yore. I like that image. I like the idea of an entire family actually paying attention to what the president says, not so that they have evidence for the next political debate, but so that they can have some hope for the future.

Once upon a time a president could stand up and say "We're going to the moon." I'm sure a portion of people said "He's frickin crazy." But you know what happened - we went to the damned moon. I'm waiting for Obama to stand up and say "Solve problem X"...and have us (and I'd like to include myself) solve it. (I just came out of the education industry, and used to daydream about that problem being "get kids into college". It's a problem, it doesn't have an easy solution. Does that mean it can't be solved, or is it just that we're all so damned pessimistic and paranoid that all we ever want to talk about is what can't be done?)

I fear that the bipartisan bad blood is too great to overcome in just one man / one term, and he will be haunted at every turn with people trying to make him fail, just so they can say "See? He wasn't the Chosen One."  When's the last time you heard somebody use his middle name who *wasnt* being sarcastic?

Source(s):
The hope, that comes from me. The fear? That comes from every Republican talking head I've ever heard.

http://sunlightlabs.com/appsforamerica/
http://change.gov/americaserves/

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