Overreaction on Obama

I must confess that I never got why Obama is thought be some kind of a prophet. I never thought that his personal story or his black skin really mattered a whole lot. It may be a great progress in terms of civil rights for minorities but the much bigger problems of recession, massive deficit, two wars and other problems will not be solved by his past or his ethnic background. What will end up solving those problems is good and thoroughly thought out policy.

When one looks at Obama’s manifesto one quickly realises that he is not a revolutionary many hold him to be. He is mildly centre-left with some bad protectionist overtones, not very different from a typical democrat really. I think he will pick a cabinet composed of ministers with broad range of experience, knowledge and political outlook. This will help him to develop well thought out policy. Although I worried that the lack of a check from the Congress, which is now entirely controlled by the Democratic Party, will not help to guide Obama in the right direction.

Ultimately devil is in the detail. Big sweeping speeches may make a great difference during a World War but during the everyday it is the detail of analysis and solution of a problem that makes the difference. It remains to be seen whether Obama will be a good president but I suspect he will be far from the worst.