Tuesday night's speech..

I felt almost a sense of guilt for having become so unsettled by Tuesday's speech; it seems as if the majority of pundits found it to be uplifting and mostly spot on in tone. I wonder if perhaps I've become too emotionally entwined with Obama's every movement. I call this 'joe louis' syndrome, how blacks in the '40s so closely identified with the boxer joe louis that when he lost to the german max schmelling many felt as if the entire black race had been let down. But I think I've put my finger now on the essence of my concern: I feel in my gut that Obama, while cracker jack smart and surrounded by ppl of great faculty, is doubling down on fiscal risk from a place of idealism, rather than accumulated wisdom. in other words, I think he knows he doesn't know wtf he's doing exactly but feels that he'll figure it out as he goes along, knowing he's smart and agile enough to responded adroitly to new information. However, I worry once he fills his plate at the buffet his hands may be too full to catch items falling by the wayside - - indeed that seems to be his very strategy: fill the plate to the brim and accept that not everything will make it from buffet to table. What important priorities won't make it whole? Wouldn't it be better to do a few things really well -- -and fund them well -- then try and do everything and poorly fund everything? And he's surrounded himself with banking insiders who seem loathe to inflict pain upon shareholders and bank management. Perhaps someone can explain to me what his larger strategy on the banks is , I cannot fathom it. Politics is all about choosing but I fear my man has accepted slapping some paint on the dilapidated american house and rebuilding upon its shaky foundation rather than ensuring the foundation is strong and can accept the weight of his proposed social engineering. Perhaps he feels he has no choice, I dunno. They're all waaay smarter than me so I just got to trust but verify, I guess. Geithner was in japan in the 90s, right? it seems like he knows his history and is therefore doomed to repeat it...I just don't understand...

it's still so jarring to see a black man - and black first lady - - in all the various presidential scenarios. It's all so fresh still. Furthermore, its not easy a'tall for my mind to accept the same political double speak, knocking down of straw men, and moral certitude that I've grown accustomed to seeing white presidents spew 24-7 coming from a black man. indeed I've certainly grown to expect duplicity from the american president, comes with the job. I mean, for most ppl of color, whether the president is democrat or republican he still is and/or represents 'the man'. And yet now a black man, and not just any black man, but barack obama, a man with seemingly an endless trove of once-in-a-lifetime skills and gifts, is 'the man'. and I expect him to REALLY shoot straight with me. not the wink-wink, stay on message realpolitik posturing that has become the preferred language of choice for our national leaders. probably asking too much, cause lawd knows he's better than ANY of these mostly sorry cats we had in there in my lifetime...