Excerpt from the Economist

The Economist ran a good story briefly bioing (newword) all the various bigshots in President-Elect Obama's master campaign. The key figures seem to be a Mr. David Axelrod, strategist and Mr. David Plouffe, campaign manager who have overseen a stunning victory over the practically-anointed Mrs. Clinton, as well as the masterminding of a movement that rose from nothing and has become quite literally, the mainstream in every walk of American life. Anyway, concerning that movement, I found this closing paragraph particularly insightful and thought-provoking:

The ambition of Mr Obama's team is exciting, but in office it could be dangerous. In 1993 the clever Clintons tripped up very quickly. What if Congress doesn't care for the finely-tuned policies of Mr Obama's top-notch economists? Or if Mr Obama finds he can't pull out of Iraq as planned? Or if Americans tire of his charisma and he stops being able to attract adoring crowds tens of thousands strong? The lynchpin of his campaign has been a faith, almost messianic, in his personal excellence. If that fades, then the whole operation could collapse in frustration and disillusionment.

That is perhaps the best question the media's offered since it crowned Obama the President-Elect. What happens when this wave of good will and national adoration for Mr. Obama breaks on the shores of a country facing global scorn, irrelevance, economic and military castration and climate change?

Read the whole article here:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11551686

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