Hope Fades, Reality Sets In

Barrack Obama is a smart guy. With a throng of hero-worshipping liberals, the Hollyweird elite and the leftist media whipped into a frenzy, he chose an overall message of personal responsibility to center his inauguration speech around.

That gives me some hope. Hope that President Obama is more centered and has a firmer grip on reality than many of his most avid supporters, who think he's going to waive a magic wand and cure all of our individual and collective woes. These are the same people who will likely be the first to turn on him when he doesn't support their pet projects with equal fervor.

I'm hoping that Obama is successful as a President and helps bring our two parties together, as partisanship is slowly killing this nation. Of course, I'm very skeptical but I have to believe that he didn't honestly think he was going to be able to live up to all of his campaign promises, many of which would face vigorous opposition from conservatives.

He has a Democratic House and Senate to help him push his agenda. The only thing left to wonder is whether he will use them to push the country to the far left or whether he is willing to truly be a consensus builder as he promised.

My biggest hope though is that he keeps us safe and defends our great nation with vigilance equal to that of President Bush. I'm not convinced that he can, but I hope that he does.

Good luck Mr. President!