"I am sorry, who is calling?...Barack...who?"

Jesus Christ was not an idiot. When he was speaking Arameic to his followers, they were awed by his words. He inspired masses of people and He was good and kind.

In the run-up to the 2004 elections, I listened to an interview on a Cajun radio station. The interviewer in his lovely Cajun draw asked a woman with a standard Southern accent why she was voting for George W. Bush? Her response was that it was "like having Jesus Christ in the White House."

Well, for those of us who knew he was idiot when his father's Supreme Court selected W. over Al Gore, I am sure today that even that dumbass woman has reconsidered that statement. Jesus Christ was good and articulate (I imagine) and W. is completely inarticulate and really just plain stupid! I even believe that he and Dick are evil people.

That leads me to the following: Barack Obama is so articulate and his words are so inspiring that I actually fear the backlash of his gift.

Barack Obama is only a man. 6 years ago, he was just like most of us except that he was in the Illinois State Senate and not working in a typical 7 to 4 job. Barack Obama up until very recently was taking out the garbage, balancing a check book, stopping at the 7/11 to get a 16-ounce coffee and a NYTimes.

While driving to work, with the paper in the seat next to him and his coffee sitting snugly in the cup-holder, he was thinking, quesitoning, preparing for how he could influence events in America so as to make it truly a better place; how he could return it to its place of stature should he be given a chance. The Bush people, it seems when you live out of America as I do, hated our country. They tore our nation, it's reputation, it's wealth apart brick by brick.

Mr. Obama, while sitting in traffic in Chicago, imagined what he would do and how he would make changes to get us back on track. He daydreamed like we have done and do. He may have imagined becoming the President but like we all have imagined, he also knew that this was a very, very long shot in the America being dismantled by Bush and Cheney and the fat, dumb and pre-dominately Southern religious right.

Barack Obama has so quickly become not the man who was just in the 7/11, picking up the Times and a Slurpee for his daughters. He is now a rock star. He is now looks like the greatest President in the history of our nation and he only became the President-Elect 10 days ago.

Barack Obama is only human and such pure and unmitigated adulation cannot be healthy for anyone alive. He has gone from being cut in line at the movies while he chatted with his wife to being the Great Black Hope for the entire civilized world! Every nation, except Russia (the Russian government is too envious of our participatory style of government and our ability to correct our mistakes to admit they like Obama) is going crazy. It is like VE Day in Europe.

What is amazing is the extent to which people hated W and the just how much America is needed by the civilized world still, despite our failiing economic way--the fact that the world still "wants/needs to have a good America" is another reason the Russia government is so envious.

Also amazing, is how quickly Mr. Obama can fall from grace if he doesn't live up to half of what the myth coalescing around his image determines him to be. Then, he could go from having so much potential influence to truly make our lives better to suffering the animosity of people who suddenly feel "used" or "foolish" for having believed in this new "god."

I am an estatic supporter of Obama despite my initial desire to have seen Hillary Clinton elected president. I hope he accomplishes all he has set out to do. However, I think it is time we all take a deep breath and remember that 8 years ago, this guy may have been sitting at a stop light and not moved as quickly as you felt he should have. So, when the light turned green, in your hurry and frustration you shouted, "asshole" as you tore past. In other words, Mr. Obama is a human being and that is all and now he has the hardest and least enviable job in the world. Let's truly make t easier on him and let's cut him a break.

In addition, in the haze of victory and expectation, will we even know that President Obama has made a mistake? Making history as the first black president is great, but,the standards by which we will judge his work (and which were denied us over the past 8 years) must be renewed and the scales for balancing our nation's powers must be recalibrated.

Let's all take a step back, take a deep breath and let's do what we can to make his job easier and not expect miracles.