Tuesday, November 18, 2008

A Willingness to Try Things

Someday I'll learn digital video editing but the best I can do is post this chunk of President-Elect Obama's interview on 60 Minutes that includes several sections I found especially important. It picks up as he finishes talking about the financial crisis, then about executive orders, Iraq, Osama bin Laden, and then with a mention of a book on FDR, into the heart of his approach to what he's going to do, especially on the economy. He believes the American people want him to act, with "a willingness to try things," and the test isn't where ideas come from, or who proposed them or what ideology supports them, but whether they work.

It reminds me of something Will Rogers said as FDR was being inaugurated: "If he burned down the Capitol, we would cheer and say, 'Well, we at least got a fire started somehow.'" Things aren't anywhere near as bad as they were in 1932, but Obama understands that he was elected to do something--and precisely what he does matters less than the scale of it. He promised change. That's what he was elected to bring.

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