Obama disappointment watch

1. Rick Warren.
2. Passively pardoning Bush.

The man is not a political messiah.  As a culture we have a tendency to swing to extremes (if something is great, it's got to be perfect), and after the first eight years of this century,* we really ought to be pretty thrilled by a president's just not being atrociously horrible.  And what we really need from Barack Obama is for him to do a good job—not for him to be flawless.  I've been saying from the start (and said here in July) that the ways in which Obama is inspirational are more like tools or bonuses than they are the essence of the thing: in a democracy, being inspirational and exciting is a strength, and universally strength is valuable insofar as you can use it to accomplish things—what else is it good for?  And while I agree with Krugman (see link above) in theory, isn't it important in practice to move forward?  If Obama really focused on going after Bush, it would pretty much guarantee that whatever chance he has at the bi- or nonpartisan politics he talked about would go directly out of the window; as a politician (rather than as a superhero), isn't his responsibility to get the most important things done, even if it means sacrificing some other important goals?  I'd love to see Bush & Cheney in jail, but not at all costs.

On the other hand—

Well, you know...at a certain point you begin to feel betrayed.  And at a certain point super practicality (like, we've got to give this up if we want that) translates into a total lack of principle, or rather the principle devolves eventually into something perilously close to a power game—not might-makes-right, what term am I looking for?  Maybe it doesn't exist.  What I'm saying is that at a certain point you wind up with the classic situation, which some would argue is the only situation, wherein a leader's main goal is to ensure that he leads, and survival is the only priority.  No, there's a term for that: amorality.

I'm not saying we're there, or even close...I'm just saying.

* 2000 was the last year of the 20th century because the first year A.D. (or C.E.) was 1, not 0.