Who can do this job? As
Barack Obama verges
on a historic victory
next week, it is clear he will in-
herit the desert: Costly and end-
less wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A global economic downturn. A
financial system choking on its
own excesses. Broken health
care. Unaddressed catastrophic
climate change. Gilded age in-
equality and rising poverty. A
collapsing infrastructure. Public
education starved for investment
and reform. A failed global eco-
nomic strategy. This list can go
on. He inherits the ruins left be-
hind by what he correctly calls a
"failed philosophy."
Can he possibly meet this chal-
lenge? Only time will tell, but we
can see that he comes into office
with assets of remarkable -- but
seldom remarked on -- power.
The first of these is trust.
Americans currently do not trust
their president -- as every poll
shows. Our allies do not trust our
president, nor do our adversaries.
Bush claimed "unitary" powers
greater than any president in
history -- but left himself ever
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weaker. Without trust, Ameri-
cans will not follow; allies will not
join; adversaries will not deal.
Take ending the war in Iraq.
Having America mired in Iraq is
against the security interests of
this country and of our allies. But
our allies will not cooperate to
help George Bush extricate him-
self from the catastrophe of his
own making. For Obama, on the
other hand, Americans will look
to him to lead us out. Allies will
cooperate with creating the col-
lective security and regional sec-
Can he possibly
meet this
Challenge?
urity meetings needed to make
the exit work. Even our adver-
saries like Iran will have greater
trust in dealing with Obama than
with a president who scorned
them as part of the "axis of evil."
And Obama does not ask us to
trust him. That's McCain's line: "I
know how to get bin Laden; I
know how to fix this economy; I'm
the maverick who acts alone."
Obama calls us to come together
to trust one another. "Yes, WE
can" is his slogan. Not I will save
you, but together we can build
anew.
The second powerful asset is
faith and hope. Faith, the Bible
tells us, is the "substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things
unseen." With faith and hope,
people can move mountains.
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Without it, fear and cynicism
make them easy to divide and dis
Bush, in the wake of Katrina, the
corruption in Washington, the ex-
cesses on Wall Street, Americans
have lost faith in their leaders and
their government. By challenging
that failure, demanding change,
calling on people once more to be-
lieve, Obama has begun to gener-
ate the hope and the energy that
can galvanize America. This is ev-
ident among the young who have
rallied to his cause. They see, in
John Kennedy's words, "the torch
of freedom passed to a new gen-
eration."
Obama's third powerful asset is
redemption, the lifting of past
sins and transcending of past
grievances. The Americans who
elect an African American with
the name Barack Hussein Obama
to the presidency will surprise
themselves. Across the world,
America will be seen once more
as a land of opportunity. Across
this country, racism will not end,
the legacies of 300 years will not
be erased. But the sense of heal-
ing, of possibility, of rising above
past grievances, will be univer-
sally shared. We will look at one
another differently on that day.
These are powerful, if unknow-
able, assets. They are not inde-
structible. Trust can be violated;
faith can be shattered; redemp-
tion can fall short. But Obama
will face the forbidding challenges
of this time bolstered and
emboldened by these powerful
forces.
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