Hope

Right now the United States is celebrating a new president. This has been an interesting thing for me to watch. I was overseas when George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton started their presidencies. I was here for George W. Bush but when he became president half of the country hated him. This is the first time that I have been in country for the start of a presidency that people are actually excited about.
One thing that I have noticed is that people everywhere are treating President Obama as a modern day messiah. Supposedly he is going to fix the economy, bring peace to the world, stop all corporate crime, provide millions of jobs, keep our neighbors happy and do it all while looking cool. He isn't going to step on any toes, have any scandals, enact any policies that are going to be controversial or waffle on any issues. This guy is perfect.
So here is my concern. What happens when he isn't able to do all of these things? What happens when he makes decisions that are not popular with his support base? What happens when he does not see eye to eye with congress let alone his own party? Remember, this guy hasn't even served a full term in the Senate, his only experience in government. What happens if and when he discovers that some of the Bush policies might have actually been good policies now that he has a lot more information to go on? What happens when the honeymoon is over?
Right now his approval ratings are through the ceiling. We have our first Black president. People are almost more excited about the color of his skin than they are about anything he actually has to say. What happens when people notice that he is human? What will happen to his approval ratings? I'm concerned that so much expectation has been piled on him that there is no way to live up to the expectations and that his ability to govern will be affected by that.
So what will happen then?