Almost ANYTHING would be better. Certainly having a leader who is no idealogue will be a change. Just speaking intelligently will be a welcome relief. Looking at so much rejoicing around the planet after hearing of an Obama win is also quite refreshing. Until next summer most opinion of how he will govern will be just that, opinion. And as a wise man once said opinions are like assholes everbodys got one some smell while others stink like chit.

Barack Obama is a thinker and a problem solver which is just what we need. Certainly there are problems.

FDR never figured out how to end the Depression. What he left is a litany of things that didn't work very well.

Hitler figured out how to end the depression in Germany and I don't mean the war. Building Autobahns and things like that did the trick.

In the USA, the best program was President Eisenhower's Interstate highway building.

Today, the problems are worse because of overpopulation and the resulting global climate change.

Now what will Obama do? I have no idea except to wish him well.

It seems a touch naive to say Mr. Obama 'isn't beholden to anyone.' I believe his appointments indicate exactly to whom he IS beholden. Here are some names from the top of his campaign donor list:

Goldman Sachs

Citigroup

JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Morgan Stanley

UBS AG

Now let's try it again. To whom is Mr. Obama obviously beholden?

As far as his being liberal I'm afraid many people drank the Kool-Aid and forgot about Obama's Senate voting record. This is the one actual indicator of his politics; FISA-yes, horrible energy bill-yes, every war funding bill-yes, filibuster right wing judges-no.

The one thing you can count on from Mr. Obama is his never taking a specific position on anything so as he changes with the wind we will hear his oft repeated refrain..."as I have ALWAYS said”...

I worked for the Obama campaign for the same reason I always work for the Dems. They're the lesser of two evils.

Now that Salon has become a team of full-time Obama apologists, it will be amusing to watch their painful climbdown over the next four years. But at the moment, it's just getting dull.

It's telling that the Obamapologists can find nothing good to say about his post-election policy statements or appointments. None will dare to speculate that his huge stimulus plan is sound policy or will work; that he has a sound bail-out scheme for the auto industry; that he is wise to sign onto the Paulson-Bernanke Wall Street bailout bonanza (or has any positive change to make to that policy); that he will make any positive change regarding our foreign policy or foreign wars. They don't dare because they don't believe. Because frankly there is no reason to believe. They just repeat over and over, "you had no right to expect ... he never promised ... wait and see ..."

Y'all been punked.

Obama's position's are indistinguishable from Hillary's & Reid's & Pelosi's. And, remember, he campaigned for Joe Lieberman against Ned Lamont & has now let Joe keep his committee chairmanship.

I have low expectations for him, what with Rubin & Summers, et al, leading his financial team.

Remember, an optimist can never be pleasantly surprised.

Your suggestion that Sarah Palin will be back and stronger will doom the Repubs to permanent losses as long as she is in the mix. The lady was attractive to some elements of the repub base but she has no cross-over appeal to moderates or independents. I think this was borne out in October when people made up their minds. McCain should have picked Rommney who is one of the few people out there who has spoken intelligently on the auto bailout issue and actually has some useful insights. Sarah Palin has no clue other than something folksy like "the bad boys on Wall Street really made a mess of things and the maverick from the Senate will fix it". If she were elected president someday, the market would crash immediately.

She simply is not qualified to lead this nation and McCain paid the price for selecting her. I don't know how someone magically becomes qualified in the next 4-8 years without significant international experience, high level cabinet position, running a big state like CA or NY, etc. None of these things are going to happen in this interval so she needs to stop dreaming.

Trust is earned. Progressives don't need to be patient because of the economic crisis, as Sean Penn suggested on Charlie Rose last night, but, for that very reason, and many others, to keep pressure on, given that he has appointed "free-market" "free-trader" advocates, Rubin's "spawn" ;-), en masse.

Who is in Congress? Washington insiders.

Who's on the important congressional committees? Long time Washington insiders

Who's in high level management positions at all the Departments (State, Defense, Energy,etc)?

Washington insiders

Who will Obama have to work with to get anything done? Washington insiders.

How far will he get if he has an administration exclusively based on outsiders and they express their collective disdain for the insiders?

NOT VERY FAR!

I voted for Obama because I saw an intelligent man with some awareness of his shortcomings. In picking people who know how to work the levers of power, he's showing me that I'm not yet mistaken.

Why did we elect Barack Obama to be the next President? Of course it was a backlash against President Bush and everything for which he stood. But many also voted for him because of his superior intelligence and because they trust his judgment. And now we have to trust his judgment. We also have to hope that he will be able to influence if not control those whom he picks for key positions.

Many of his programs will go very much against established interests, from banking to the Military Industrial Complex to the Israel Lobby. Certified Liberals would find it more difficult to succeed in making these changes than people with solid conservative credentials. Like Hilary Clinton as SecState. OK, so she is not exactly a Conservative, but she fully supported Bush's foreign policy. Examples come to mind like De Gaulle's ending the Algerian civil war. Only he, not a Socialist would have gotten away with it. Or look at Clinton's opening to China. Had Carter done it, he would have been torn to pieces over such a decision.

For now we have to trust Barack Obama that he will do the right thing. If not, there is always 2012.