Lots to do, little time

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Now that the hurricane of Election Day and all the historic moments of Grant Park are a week old, the harsh reality of how dire the U.S. economy has gotten since the beginning of the economic crisis is resurfacing after the attempts to deluge it in the wash of hope and promise that was spilling out on Election Night.

For President-elect Barack Obama, he can do little in terms of policy until he takes the Oath of Office on Jan. 20, and even then he is currently learning that a sitting president, lame-duck or not, has much less in terms of the power to directly affect the U.S. economy from the desk of the Oval Office. It’s much like the moon altering the gravitational forces in the solar system – sure, the moon has a role in determining the orbits of the various cosmic bodies that travel in their respective ellipses, but you cannot expect the moon to control how the rest of the solar system moves from the position it exists in.

All that Obama’s forming transitional team can do now is exactly that: form up. As soon as all of his ducks are in a row, we will only be able to conjecture what the Obama Administration will do once it takes over in the White House on the morning of Jan. 21.

The media talking-heads like to assume anything about what will happen after Inauguration Day – from the likeliness of Obama passing legislation to offer universal health care within two years of taking office, to fixing the credit crisis, to allowing drilling in previously off-limits locations, to whether the curtains will match his eye color!

The point is that many people want to have answers to some very difficult questions. Will I have a job? Can I go to school to get an education? Will I have gas in my tank, or can I afford to pay for my health insurance? Will I be able to retire before I drop dead? How will I know that the stock market won’t play tricks on me? Can I enjoy the American dream like my previous generations?

Alas, the only thing for now is to work under the conditions we have right now, hope for some dumb luck to fall on our laps and be thankful we even have the right to ask questions of our government, and maybe we can get some straight answers about what needs to be done.

I know I’m willing to get what needs doing done, and I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that. We all have to get a little dirty before we can get something cleaned out. There really is no other alternative after all.