Yesterday I heard some radio DJs wondering out-loud and with their call-in audience about what Obama’s gonna do as president, everything from his policy priorities to his cabinet appointments. Just before I got in the car I had been directed to the site, change.gov, where everything you ever wanted to know about the direction of this new administration is laid out in plain language. No half-assed double-talk. Just policy. Real change. And so I listened to that radio show realizing why we’ve ever needed to tune into these shows in the first place. It’s because Americans are used to being lied to. We’re used to having to parse words and guess meanings. We’re used to seeing two sides to everything. This time people should get ready to put all of that aside and realize there is only one side: we the people, truth in ear. We should get ready to help Obama govern that way. Because old habits die hard, but he’s not kidding around.

Obama’s rise to leadership was relatively quick, but it was no mistake. His career has been driven almost solely on his desire to end poverty–his decision to run for president guided only by his dismay at his inability to make a dent in any lower wrung.

This election wasn’t a horse race. McCain could have easily been “our guy”, if only he hadn’t let himself be “handled”–to win at all costs, even if it meant stirring up fear and hate to gain ground. Obama stood out on the podium Tuesday night alone. Just him and his ideals. McCain eloquently asked his crowd to welcome their new president; to recognize the gravity of the moment. There was a time when people proudly looked upon their president as EVERYONE’s president. Not the president of special interests of any kind. Not the president of rich white men and fortune 500 corporations. I hope everyone comes to see our country as one nation again. Hell, I don’t even mind if they say “under god”.

Obama showed us during his campaign how the old rove machine couldn’t win against a populace filled with hope. The status-quo government isn’t malignantly detached or corrupt; we DID elect George W. Bush and congress; the Supreme Court and every last beurocrat or special interest that surrounds the machine. We all did it slowly and through drawn-out apathy. And it is so that we will let this last masthead for our own corruption and greed go quietly into history. We will not punish or rage. Idealism will rule the day. Hate and fear have no use in this new future.