Vexed Bermoothes

President Obama’s inaugural speech was superb.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

I know, I know, ole Ewart says I shouldn’t like Obama if I’m white.  Whatever.  Obama takes the high road:

We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve.

By the way, while our Very Important Premier was watching the inauguration “from a secure location”, was that Deputy Premier Paula Cox who flickered by our TV screens amongst the dignitaries?

The New York Times has an excellent editorial today called “The Politics of Cohesion” talking about what people actually hope for from Obama’s big agenda of “Hope and Change”.  It talks about how the necessary social upheavals of the 60s and 70s led to the hardening of identity politics and idealogy in the 80s and 90s.

Obama’s challenge will be to translate the social repair that has occurred over the past decades into political and governing repair … Look for him to emphasize the themes of responsibility, cohesion and unity.

Obama aims to realize the end-of-ideology politics … He sees himself as a pragmatist, an empiricist. Politics is not personal with him. He does not turn political disagreements into a status contest between one kind of person and another. He is convinced that most Americans practice their politics between the 40-yard lines.

America is crying out for that.  Incidentally, so is Bermuda.