Obama: A return to reality

By Jonas Pauliukonis

Firstly, congratulations are in order for President-elect Barack Obama and advisors David Plouffe and David Axelrod for a hard-fought and superbly orchestrated campaign.

With all the media appearances, speeches, travel and intense personal scrutiny, I can imagine no task more grueling than running for the presidency. Having become President-elect, Obama has demonstrated genuine dedication, perseverance and the realization of the opportunity that America holds for all of its citizens.

I was surprised by parts of Obama's acceptance speech. After the lofty rhetoric, it was a sobering return to reality. One sentence that caught my attention in particular was, "This victory alone is not the change we seek, it is only the chance for us to make that change." Just that quickly, the old mantra of "Change We Can Believe In" became "Chance For A Change."

I am not one to make judgments before I see results, but the idea that America's economic future is uncertain could have an adverse effect on the economy. With the fear of what Obama called "setbacks and false starts," Americans may feel they traded the known quantity of McCain for promises of change.

The net losses in the market, new job loss figures and the problems emerging out of the auto industry pose a great challenge for Obama, and illustrate that Americans need decisive action. Looking forward, I hope President-elect Obama and a Democratic Congress provide for the scaling back of government intervention. The Democratic Party has always been viewed as the defenders of the marginalized, but their strategy is narrowly focused on the short-run.

Obama firmly advocated the use of government agencies in supervising the actions of Wall Street. Given the economic crisis, a little oversight is a sound idea.

However, on other issues such as health care and social security, Democrats are quick to put people on the government tab, but are less successful in rehabilitating them to become independent, productive members of society.

The problem with a government safety net is that if it catches too many people, the net breaks and everyone falls.

It will be interesting to see who Obama chooses for his cabinet. His choice of Illinois Democrat Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff offers very few clues as to who else is on Obama's departmental vetting list.

Supposedly, Obama is not interested in surrounding himself with "yes men," but is looking to find those who would do the best job, regardless of partisanship.

I certainly hope he holds to this principle.

Jonas Pauliukonis is a marketing and political science double major. He is the president of SCU College Republicans.