Nov 6, 2008

The Skinny Kid With The Funny Name

FEEL-GOOD exercise: Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_presidents. Then, scroll down the list of US presidents while reading each name. Finally, read the last name. It goes something like this:

George Washington

...

Thomas Jefferson

...

(aside: Benjamin Franklin was never a president? Surprising!)

...

Abraham Lincoln

...

the Roosevelts

...

... a whole bunch of other WASPy names ...

John F. Kennedy

...

Bill Clinton, the Bushes ...

and then ... BARACK OBAMA.

If I forget everything else that's happened in the US since its founding, I know that in more than 200 years, there's never been anything like this. He's magic, there's no other way to explain it. I hope that the confidence and the faith he brings out in all of us eventually becomes a virtuous cycle, a self-fulfilling prophecy of global recovery and progress. But in the meantime, I know he's just landed himself in the biggest fight of his life. But then, this is what every US president-elect should be thrown into.

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