Reduce expectations to a simmer

Some people have been sitting in dread of Inauguration Day since Nov. 4. Others have been waiting eight years in anticipation. Still others have patiently endured a lifetime and longer with the hope that today would come and the fear that it never would. Regardless of your position, Democrat Barack Obama, the first African-American president in U.S. history, was inaugurated this week, and expectations are high, perhaps too much so.

A majority of those surveyed in a recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll believe that Barack Obama will be able to keep all 10 of his major campaign promises.

They are:
• Ensure all children have health insurance coverage.
• Double the production of alternative energy.
• Reduce health care costs for the typical American family by up to $2,500 per year.
• Enact a major spending program to strengthen the nation's infrastructure of bridges, roads and schools.
• Cut federal income taxes for 95 percent of working families.
• Withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.
• Increase U.S. military strength in Afghanistan by at least two brigades.
• Lift restrictions on government funding of embryonic stem-cell research.
• Close the U.S. prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo.
• Make it easier for labor unions to organize.

Whoa, whoa, whoa... let us do what Obama will surely be doing in his first days as president — lower expectations.

Obama has proven to be an impressive leader even in the short time he has existed as the president-elect. He has made good on his claims of bipartisanship, forming a diverse presidential cabinet and consulting with the GOP on some of his plans. He has continued to stir our spirits with his speeches, and he has maintained his calm equilibrium even as many of us feel the ceiling of our country crashing down around our feet. But despite what some may think or jokingly imply, Obama is not the messiah. The world, and our country, will not be made whole by him alone. He can lead, but he cannot perform magic.

Some of his promises may be relatively easy to keep, and some are currently in the pipeline.

The American public shouldn't place Obama on such a pedestal that any deviation from his standard plan will bring him swiftly to the ground. But we should expect that he will make progress on his promises and that he will give his all to do so.

Hope, yes. Certainty, no.

Stafford County Sun editorials represent the opinion of the managing editor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on his page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily the Stafford County Sun.