There were so many reasons to vote for Barack Obama on this last Nov. 6.
But for me, one, if not THE MOST PERSUASIVE reason, was that if you put a truly smart man up against it, you're likely to see him get smarter. Because the real definition of intelligence is somewhere between IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence). A truly sage human being has a good mix of both. And that's something I've always felt in Barack Obama's vibe.
I think the same was true of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and well, all our really great presidents who consistently win the test of time.
Follow me below the swirl of orange cotton candy to discuss the benefits of a smart person given the time and space to grow smarter.
Because see, for me, that was so much the thing with this president. I watched him for four years, bobbing and weaving and often succeeding, despite his, at times, incredible, painful innocence. And I do believe Barack Obama came to the office of the presidency with more innocence than many before him.
First of all, he came to the office at quite a young age. And, unlike say, JFK, he did not have a family dynasty that propelled him into office, he did not have a father like Joseph Kennedy, who had been around the political block many times and had come to know his way through the maze and how to manipulate it via experience and money.
No. Instead, the times, luck, and the sheer determination of Barack Obama lifted him to the presidency at a young age with NONE of the trappings of money or dynasty. Not to mention he is African American. Really, this should STILL set us all back on our heels a bit, the way those rare things that happen when we'd never believe they could, do.
I don't think it's possible to evaluate the breath and depth of President Obama's learning curve, from where we sit, with our faces plastered up against the window pane. It was ever so much easier for all of us to sit back and judge these last four years. And judge and lambast we did. And that was OK, and just like Democrats, except for that mid term thing, which was a MISERABLE Democratic failure that we're going to pay for, for a long time to come, and that I DEARLY hope we learned something from.
Fade in fade out, all of a sudden, it's December of 2012, and Obama has won a DECISIVE victory. What do we see in our crystal ball? What does Obama see?
Well, here's what I think. I think this president is going to give the republicans a run for their money like nothing we've seen in some time. No, he's not going to be a progressive genie, because the country is simply not ready for that. But I think HE IS going to be a smart man grown ever so much smarter.
IMO, in giving Barack Obama a second term, we elected to let good wine age. We elected to give Barack Obama, a very smart man, the chance to get even smarter. We elected to give Barack Obama the chance he asked us for, the chance to do even better for everything he's learned.
This week on the Daily Beast, John Avalon wrote about the curse of the second term, using Reagan, Clinton and GWB as examples. Well, John, meet Barack Obama, a man more disciplined and circumspect than any of your examples. He had to be, he was black in a white culture, and he learned early how to do it better than white men do, or are asked to do.
I am unafraid to say, and unabashed to say, that I hope and believe in good things for Barack Obama's second term, because our country desperately needs that. And while I consider myself to the left of this president, I will give him room.
A simple look at the headlines of the last week will tell you the GOP has learned exactly nothing. And, that Barack Obama is going to have to take them on all over again, BUT as I premise here, as a smarter president.
Dare I say it? Well yeah, I guess I do dare to say it. There's no reason why Democrats can't have their own "Regan,"---the guy who redefines things for decades to come. Well, I think the age of Reagan is dwindling, and the age of Obama is just beginning.