A freshman senator from Illinois has been supersized into occupying the highest office in the land and where he will sit on the most powerful seat in the world.

For what is adding up to be the giddiest ride into the White House, leaving most gasping from constricted tension and near-fatal fatigue, the president-elect won’t have the luxury of running out of steam as “the Obama express” reaches the terminal inside the West Wing.

On the run, taking only that rare, ragged breath—the President-elect cannot afford to slow down entirely to savor his victory, but merely enjoy that slow IV drip of satisfaction and maybe consider his triumph a rather rude awakening for those disgruntled over the outcome of the election. Anyway, so far, so good, if a little different. But not for long. Cynical demagogues and conservative journalists, no doubt, are sharpening their knives as President-elect Obama prepares to run the gantlet of low insults and high expectations, engrained racism on the part of some whose degrading disbelief says this country is not that free...not yet.

Why, the world may ask.

The answer is tradition.

Meanwhile, the loyal opposition will be poised to pounce, as one might expect, when substance begins to assume position over style in preparing for an Obama Administration.

Political party affiliation notwithstanding, the taste for “pork” is the growing realization in this suppressed economy that the only (real) reason for the federal government is so elected officials can bring home the bacon, which means any political junkie, pundit or pol could write the potential scenario of the first 100 days in the Obama White House.

For starters, when there’s little to distinguish one party from the other on issues of pork-barrel spending and the influence of lobbyists (None of this stuff is going to go away.) might the Obama presidency suggests otherwise?

Naked ambition and political magnetism offer no substitute for experience, should the “quantum” stand at zero and offer next to no solace for the soon-to-be president. But, remember, Barack Obama stood at the helm of the vanguard of a social movement and an innovative form of political organization, gave the American people an honest sense of excitement, and rode the rails that will bring him into the Oval Office. He did all this by anticipating openings he could exploit, taking advantage of opportunities that others didn’t see, and creating possibilities that weren’t there. And should all else fail, he certainly can rely upon his elegance.

By Frederick Louis Richardson

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frederick@dreamerchant.com