Sadder, wiser, those of us gathered on the Washington Mall in the freezing morn of Mr Obama’s inauguration can see now that of all the brave, unsustainable hopes uttered by the new young president, the most unsustainable of all turned out to be his Biblical plea to “put away childish things”. He might as well have tried to legislate the word “dream” out of American public discourse. Dreams? Reality? It’s not even close, is it?

Whether fantasy will prevail over factuality, adolescent wishful thinking over maturity, will be the great political motif of the next few years. The omens are not auspicious....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Credit Markets • Currency Markets • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Budget • Social Security • The National Deficit • The United States Currency (Dollar etc) • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

1. TomRightmyer wrote: How insensitive of President Obama to vacation in Hawaii while much of the country suffers from the effects of the Christmas blizzard. December 28, 9:41 pm | [comment link]

2. kmh1 wrote: For an historian, Schama doesn’t show much insight. His enthusiasm for the left clouded his judgment. December 29, 2:56 am | [comment link]

3. A Senior Priest wrote: Interesting that a nonAmerican would write as if he were one. He nicely placed himself in the midst of the last Inauguration. Simon Schama has made a lucrative career in the UK out of dissing England, British/English traditional history and culture, and the English people. Now he’s applying the same formula to Americans, I see. December 29, 4:14 pm | [comment link]

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