Obama Tells It Like It Is

In case anybody's been wondering - which I very highly doubt - here are my views on the current economic crisis: I don't know squat about it, not really.

Neither does 99.9994% of the rest of the world. It's too big, too complicated, too abstract for me to get my mind around, like quantum physics or why Miley Cyrus has a bigger annual income than half the countries of the world.

All I know is what I read in the papers, and I 'spect that goes for you too. I had a few business courses in college, but found out that wasn't my thing. Never had a class in economics, wish I had. So all I can do - all any of us can really do - is trust that the people we elected to run the big shebang get it right. And I think that Obama will do the best that anyone can do with all this. Not merely because he's a Democrat, but because he seems sincerely committed to getting the best advice, the best people, and the best minds to work on it, and not simply to gain a political advantage for himself, but because it needs to be done.

By the time you get past 50, like me, you're a fool if you haven't learned to size people up at least to the degree of knowing when they are truthing or bullshitting. I believe he's telling the truth; that doesn't mean he's infallible by any means, no man is. But at least with a leader who is honest and dealing with the actual reality of things, we can have hope for a good outcome in the long run.

I got a kick out of this fired-up speech he gave yesterday to House Democrats in Williamsburg, think you will too.

And here's the President's weekly video address on the same subject (text here):

Update: When I say I believe Obama is telling the truth, I mean on the whole and in the main. Like every other politician, he is sometimes guilty of elision: glossing over the small details, giving the gist of something but not the whole entire truth.

As, for example, when I noted several times during the campaign he would say something like "I passed this-and-such legislation"; well, no single legislator does any such thing. Legislation is passed by a vote of the full body. But presumably he and his opponents, who all used the same phraseology, meant that as shorthand for "I worked really hard to encourage my fellow legislators to pass this bill."

I have no doubt that when he talks about the economy, the stimulus, the war, or any of a number of other topics, he's often leaving out the fine print, as every politician does. Go read up on Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR if you don't believe me. "All we have to fear is fear itself"; not literally true - but true in a metaphorical way that makes the bare enumeration of details beside the point.

Now most of the time that may be harmless, though of course sometimes the devil is in the details. But my point is, I do believe Obama comes pretty near the mark of speaking the truth most of the time; certainly much, much more than his predecessor ever did. Obama's neither perfect nor inerrant; but he's a helluva lot better than what we had. I believe he really intends to do all he can, from the noblest motives, to run this country in the best interests of ordinary people and to restore constitutional government; and I have faith that Change will in the long run be a great and wonderful thing for us all.