At the risk of demeaning the august and historic nature of this week’s presidential inauguration, one of the images that comes to mind for me is tag-team professional wrestling.
The analogy breaks down even before I can get started, but I’ll plow ahead anyway. It’s like this: One wrestler, a member of a two-man tag team, is in the ring. He started out the round OK, but now he’s getting the snot beaten out of him by his opponent. Maybe even both members of the opposing tag team are in the ring, beating on him, even though that’s not allowed. But the referee does nothing to stop it.
Meanwhile, the victim’s tag-team partner is standing on the ropes in their corner with his arm stretched out, straining to make the tag with his downed colleague. He plays by the rules and won’t go in to the ring to relieve his partner until the tag is made. The fans are straining along with him. They want to replace the other battered wrestler yesterday.
Somehow the tag is made, and finally, the victim’s team member comes to the rescue, using all his pent-up energy to reverse the team’s fortunes. He delivers a flurry of punches, drop-kicks and body slams in quick succession, stunning his opponents. For the audience, it’s a tremendous feeling of exhilaration. But can he keep up the momentum and win the match?
The way these bouts are scripted, the wrestler to the rescue rarely scores a quick victory, in spite of an impressive start – and his team may not even win in the end.
We can hardly wait to see what Barack Obama is going to do on his first day in office – which unpopular Bush policy will get the first boot. But this country’s problems are not going to fall like dominoes -- many of them took a lot longer to create than eight years, and some may not be solved in the next eight.
It’s not just about whether Mr. Obama has the right stuff. It’s really about whether we have the patience to let the necessary changes be made.
There, now I’ve said it.
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