There are not red lights and green lights… there are only traffic lights
January 26th, 2009 at 02:07
I was delighted last week to see the inauguration after what felt like an eternity of “transitioning”, and the end it brought to the nightmarish Bush administration.
I’m fully confident that the prediction made by Hillary Clinton last February that if Obama were to win the election that “The skies will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect” will happen any day now – especially now that Dick Cheney’s power is limited to scaring the children who can’t run away faster than his wheelchair can move and the only big red buttons George Bush has access to are on his Lego Duplo playset.
Okay, fine, I admit it – a “George Bush is stupid” joke is both easy and now, dated, and it is actually much more complex than that. He actually plays with Lego Technic.
It really has been a stunning turnaround for America. Two years ago it was less popular than a kick in the face and now it enjoys an unprecedented amount of goodwill. And what’s more, this is all down to one man: Barack Obama.
At the moment I think we’re at the point where we’re about to find out if all of those high hopes were justified, or whether we’re about to be bitterly disappointed. Is the Obama Presidency going to be the best thing or ever, or is the whole world queuing up at the cinema to see The Matrix Revolutions, excited by the hype, blissfully unaware about what is about to unfold?
I think if Obama wants to “win” his Presidency as convincingly as he won the election, then he needs to start thinking now about his legacy and what to do next. One mistake a lot of Presidents make is not considering this early enough. Clinton tried to sort out the Middle East only when he realised if he didn’t he’d be indelibly linked to Monica Lewinksky, and Dubya tried the same thing only last year when he realised that “starting a horrible war that has killed thousands” doesn’t look very good on his CV for getting a job afterwards.
In eight years time (trivialities of “another election” aside) President Obama will be homeless, much like the rest of us may be by then, so he needs to start thinking now about what he’s going to do next. Sure, he could mill around in the library that every President gets built in their name (that’s right: at the moment some poor architect, somewhere is planning the George W Bush Library), but I think that Obama should consider a career as an in-car satellite navigation voice for his post-Presidency career.
When you’re lost he’ll take you in a New Direction. When you’re waiting at the lights he’ll give you hope for the Change You Need. The Obama satnav could be bundled with the road-maps for peace (and western Europe) – and if he stops working or won’t turn left or right and insists on staying in the centre, there’ll always be the old fashioned Joe Biden A-Z in the glove compartment as back-up.
Post to: [ del.icio.us ][ Digg it ][ Furl ][ Netscape ][ Newsvine ][ reddit ][ StumbleUpon ][ Yahoo MyWeb ]Categories: Politics |
