Able to leap logic in a single bound.

Yesterday marked the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States.  Although this was admittedly an historic event, the hype surrounding it has gone too far.

One of the headlines at the top of the sports section of the msn.com page yesterday read “Five ways Barack Obama can fix sports.”   Fix sports? Is that part of his presidential responsibilities?  Maybe he can also make sure I never get the wrong order at Starbuck’s and fix the plumbing in my house.  Maybe Obama can bring peace to the Middle East, put a stop to international terrorism by force of personality, and make my farts smell like peach cobbler.

This up swelling of emotion is patently absurd.  It has gone beyond self-parody.  Monty Python couldn’t write a skit as inane as what surrounded yesterday’s inauguration.  Previous inaugurations have gone by relatively unmarked in comparison.  I understand this is the first black man elected as President, but that shouldn’t matter.  The fact that it does is by its very definition racist.  This is still all about color of skin taking priority over content of character.  I am by no means impugning the character of our President, but he is untested and untried and the emotion surrounding his fledgling administration is premature.  Congressman Jose Serrano of New York even proposed repealing the 22nd amendment so that Mr. Obama can be President indefinitely without dealing with those pesky term limits.  We don’t even know if he’s going to be any good yet and already some folks want him to hold the office permanently.

For all of you folks who are enjoying the multiple Obasms from the inauguration, keep reminding yourself that Obama is just a man.  Repeat after me:  “He’s just a man.  He is not a messianic prophet.  He’s just another politician with no other marketable skills.”  Repeat that mantra as many times as you need.  Keep in mind that this also applies to your fondest JFK memories.

In addition, I have one question for the truther conspiracy nuts out there.  What the fuck man? What’s the deal?  You guys told me President Bush would declare martial law before Obama was inaugurated and seize power permanently.  What happened?  Did Mr. Bush oversleep?  Maybe Obama is “in on it” too.  That must suck for you guys.  I’m sure you were convinced Obama wasn’t under the influence of the Freemasons and the Bilderburg Group.  Oh well, at least now you nutjobs have a new scapegoat to kick around for at least four more years.

It would be nice if Obama’s administration heralded peace and prosperity for America but I doubt that it will.  We aren’t in a position to extricate ourselves from most of the conflicts where our military is currently involved.  As far as prosperity goes, Obama’s plan of increasing the federal budget by $800 billion is not likely to do the U.S. economy a lot of good in the long term.  I predicted that if Obama became President that he would be Carter 2.0.  Now that it has come to pass, it’s time to brace ourselves.  I’d like to be as hopeful as the masses of the faithful who have made the pilgrimage to Washington D.C. this week, but I can’t.  I know better.  History has shown that Keynesian economic policies do not work, and right now that’s what we have to look forward to for the next four years.