Why Barack Obama Can't Bring the Change He Promises

Barack Obama is the most inspirational politician of the generation. He's a "rock star" who can pull bigger crowds than most celebrities, he looks more presidential than the president and he's inspiring a flock of new voters to pay attention to politics. His supporters believe if he's elected, he'll change the world, starting with America, and all the problems from the economy, the huge deficit and the threats from other nations and terrorists will magically disappear. Many of his opponents criticize his inexperience, religion and positions on key issues but those aren't his biggest problems. It's that he's become larger than life.

Obama and his team have created an image with shoes too big for anybody to fill. Videos of him are filled with posters with his catchphrase "change you can believe in." After George W. Bush's disastrous presidency, people are desperate for hope and Obama stepped in to give it to them. He's telling them to vote for him and he'll change the way Washington works. Easier said than done. Countless politicians have made that exact same promise but Washington continues to chug along the same as it has always been.

I have no doubt that Obama means every word he says. He's obviously very intelligent and everyone can agree that he's much more charismatic than John McCain but Washington is a bureaucracy that's too big for any man to change drastically. One cog in the political machine, even if it's president, isn't gonna be able to make any drastic changes. Many people complain about how slow politicians move in D.C. but it isn't always their fault.

When the founding fathers debated among themselves over how the new government would work, their first priority wasn't the best way to help America's citizens. It was how to prevent the chance of a leader who would have too much power to abuse. After fighting to get away from King George, they didn't want to create a new one to take his place. So they created a system of checks and balances to stop any branch of government from getting too powerful. A side effect of this was that it forces any new ideas to go through a labyrinthine process of approval to be enacted. This keeps changes slow but not impossible.

If changes were able to happen quickly, that would be great when the politicians actually know how to solve a problem or someone has a good idea to help American citizens. The problem with this though is that many times politicians have no idea how to solve a problem. The slow process keeps any idea, no matter how well intentioned from radically changing anything. The country and the government can slowly see how things are changing and adjust their new laws and legislation's accordingly. That's how it's supposed to work anyway. Lately, Washington has become more partisan and divided then any time in recent memory.

The system also protects from mistakes made by voters. If a politician manages to trick America into electing him President, he won't be able to break any laws he wants. He may cause damage but no matter how evil or incompetent a president is, he can't destroy the country or break anything that can't be fixed eventually. This keeps the American system alive. It may take a long time to fix the damage done but the system survives and America keeps going. This was the top priority of the founding fathers and they've managed to make a system that is very durable.

The Obama marketing team has created a brand that is just too good to be true. It's like Bill Clinton said, Obama is a "fairy tale." He would have never made it to where he is if he wasn't a politician. it's like the old saying, "superheroes don't become president, Politicians do." His supporters are in for some disappointment if they don't real in their expectations.