This will be a long diary. Fooled ya, didn't I? Thought I was gonna say short.
Well, maybe it depends on how long it takes me to figure out what I want to say.
I might delete this and go to bed. Had a hard day.
But the weather was quite lovely. Which brings me to the Oval Office...
When I was very young, before I learned to write, I had the urge to write. I would sit on the back porch, pen in hand, and try to get out the ideas that swirled in my wrinkled lump of 60% fat. Since I had no idea how to get those thoughts onto the paper, I naturally ended up with a mass of squiggles.
By the time I finally could write, I tried my hand at fiction. I found that around second grade, I was fascinated by the presidency. I tried to write a short story about this president, whose name was John Jacob Faraday. I was quite impressed with that last name, as I was convinced I had made it up out of thin air. Until a few years later, when a TV show came on about a governor and his daughter, and the governor's name was...Faraday...imagine my chagrin.
It's Friday night, and I'm so tired I'm getting punchy, but I swear there is something substantive floating around waiting for me to catch it.
Being president is different now. The public is different. We don't immediately accept greatness when we see it, when we elect it. What is greatness, anyway? Was Franklin Roosevelt great? Some say yes, some say no. John F. Kennedy? Truman, Eisenhower? Same. But then, it seems people were more accepting...damn, I wanted Barack Obama to be instantly embraced by a nation tired of divisions. But this country doesn't embrace anymore...do we?
Maybe we need to re-learn. This president has such potential for genuine greatness. I am not wild-eyed, incapable of seeing his foibles, his weak spots. But Barack Obama knows when he makes a mistake. He owns up to it, and learns from it. This is a human being. I found a picture of the president kneeling beside his niece as she sat in the grass holding a dandelion up for her uncle Barack to blow, to send its seeds all over that beautiful White House lawn. I use that shot for my desktop background. http://www.flickr.com/...
Everything is in place, or so it seems to me and my high-powered intuition. It is as if he's about to burst. The stars are aligned, angels sing on high, The Great Spirit smiles on the First Family and those dedicated to protecting them. However one wants to couch it, something has to give.
I don't talk details. That's not why I am here on Daily Kos. I'm not good at all the ins and outs...Obama didn't deliver on this, or he forgot us on that...I am here to report what I see.
Notice how the Obamas just keep being themselves? They don't get down on the same level as the uglies, they don't shout back in kind at the crazies. They keep moving forward. Maybe Mr. President does not seem to do or act as we think he should, or we thought he would, but the man keeps on coming. "Do you see?" asked the wise old man, his pale blue eyes piercing my very soul. I saw, by-god. Couldn't help but see. If I think of something now, President Obama thought of it an hour ago. I know what it's like to consistently be the smartest one in the room. People sense that, and it pisses them off. Royally. I want to see this dude do more press conferences.
Yes, I do see. And I will continue to report. Been a long journey from the back porch, ballpoint in hand...