You know, one of the favorite points made during the campaign, in my opinion, came from Joe Biden.
Biden pointed out the importance of wisdom. Now, in this age of political positions, plans, proposals, and platforms, wisdom is an awfully hard thing to quantify. We can measure experience, but all we know about wisdom is that some people have a knack of making good choices. Bush the Younger liked to talk about making decisions from his gut. I wouldn't have the slightest problem with that if he made good decisions from his gut, but sadly, that wasn't how it worked out for Bush... or for us.
So here's the question: will the kind of wisdom that led Obama to run a masterful and disciplined campaign help him govern?
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In almost every way, Obama has led a charmed political career.
At the Democratic Convention of 2004 he gave the stump speech that he had refined on the campaign trail for Illinois legislature. It had been reasonably well received in the minor leagues of lesser state office, but it turned out to be exactly the right message for a disturbed and disrupted nation, and it propelled him to national attention.
In his campaign for Senate, itself an unlikely move, the Republican party self-destructed on his behalf. Barack Obama couldn't have lost that election if he combined the worst of McCain and Palin.
In his run for President the national exhaustion with the incompetent government of the Bush White House was dramatically enhanced by an election season meltdown of the financial system, directly attributable to the kinds of Republican governance that was exactly out of McCain's strong suit. McCain further helped Obama by running a disorganized, undisciplined campaign, by playing the broken Republican game rather than delivering his own message, and by choosing a ridiculously unqualified and unprepared running mate.
Don't get me wrong: Obama had every opportunity to self-destruct, and that he didn't do so is testament to something.
But is it testament to his ability to govern?
We know he is wildly short on the sort of experience that most good presidents bring to the job. But he'll have the best advice the Democratic party can provide.
With good luck, a silver tongue, and a steady hand, this community organizer has become a president. Whether he becomes a good president will come down to whether he can employ wisdom in choosing how to use the combined advice and experience that will accompany him to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Personally, I believe that recipients of good fortune are always doomed to learn that fate is fickle. And Obama's walking into the most difficult circumstances that any president in living memory.
So what do you think: Does Obama have the personal wisdom to build on outrageous good fortune? Must we hope that luck will continue to break for Obama, or can we be confident that he can deliver on the promise of his campaign?