Are expectations getting too high for Obama?

One of the issues hurled against Barack Obama during the US presidential election campaign was his lack of experience. Now that he has won the election in overwhelming fashion, all that is about to change.

Thanks to the traditional enemies of the United States, Obama will have his hands full right after he takes his oath on January 20. Right now, both Russia and Iran have already begun their sabre-rattling.

 George W. Bush, whose administration is being blamed for many of America’s woes, gallantly offered to assist Obama during the transition period, saying it is intention to help the president-elect hit the ground running.

And hit the ground running Obama will. Aside from the provocations of Russia and Iran, and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is the economy around which the campaign, both his and John McCain’s mostly revolved.

The prospects are indeed very daunting for “the man without experience” whom Americans took a chance with by voting into office in such persuasive fashion that has not been seen in many years.

Even the world jumped into the lake of Obama-mania. People of various nationalities, while obviously aided along tremendously by a suffocating international media coverage of the campaign, seemed to be genuinely fixated by the promise of change that Obama personified.

As an African-American elected to the presidency in a country rocked by racial riots only a few decades ago, Obama personified the hope that change was indeed coming to the most important nation in the world.

As always happens when you are the greatest nation on earth, the star of the celestial show so to speak, America cannot help but engage the rest of the world in a love-hate relationship.

Just as many nations and peoples love America, so must many nations and peoples hate it. And even if love and hate are too harsh words to describe such relationships, they do not detract from the true nature of such ties, which is mutual interest.

There is “love” when mutual interests flourish, and just as quickly there is “hate” when mutual interests degenerate. The only thing that seems constant, no matter who the partner is, is that the other one almost always seems to be no one else but you-know-who.

Now this you-know-who is about to be personified by Obama, the inexperienced black guy in whom so many people want to entrust their expectations of change, which by inference, is none other than change for the better.

But before Obama can hit the ground running, maybe now is the best time as any to ask the one question that seems to have been overlooked or overwhelmed by all the hooplah about his winning.

Why is there so much interest in Obama? Why is it that so many people, not just Americans, seem to expect that he can fulfill their hopes for them? What is in him that suggests he can deliver on the promise for change?

The only plausible answer is that the world has so degenerated that it has failed the expectations of many. The basic humanity of people has taken a backseat to the rush for power and influence. The sweeping human disappointment has given rise to a longing for heroes.

Obama came on the world stage at precisely the right time. And that is why the tag of inexperience did not stick. A hero in the eyes of people need no qualification. At the end of the day, the only real problem is if expectations rise too high for even Obama to reach.