Not bad for a guy who was unelectable. I have a feeling my friend Roger still thinks that. At least though Roger seems to be turning loose of the certainty that Obama is a socialist who "hangs around with terrorists" (plural, though Roger was unable to name more than one, and not even a recent one). John McCain sure doesn't seem to believe that claptrap that he and his supporters spread around during the election.
A couple of readers of this site argued my remark the other day that my country seemed happy. They aren't happy, I guess, and all insisted that those who voted for McCain aren't happy. I don't think that's true. Every poll suggests that a lot of McCain voters are rooting for Obama…and I suspect that a lot of them, getting a clean look at Obama in a non-election context, are finding more to like about him.
In 2000, there was a quick disappointment in Bush that I expect/trust will not be repeated here. Bush seemed to think that since he'd won, even by a technicality or a questionable Supreme Court vote, he was entitled to all the marbles. Remember that famous remark about spending political capital? It was like Pat Buchanan's memo to Nixon about how it was fine to break the country in two as long as you held onto the bigger piece. Obama seems more likely to include the minority party than to trample over them. At some point, it will probably all come to shove but for the time being, we may have the civil interaction of learned men and women leading us, as opposed to the appeasement of the Talk Radio mob.