Cool Hand Obama

It'll be great to have in the White House a president who can finish The New York Times puzzle. Our president-elect never would say, as did Dubya, "Is our children learning?"

Could be that the Harvard-educated Barack Obama doesn't waste his Ivy League sheepskin because his family, as most families do, scraped to send him to college. His college loans were paid off only after his first book became a best-seller.

No sign of sacrifice in the Yale-educated Bush World, though. Still no sign of intelligent life, either.

Unlike Dubya, our 44th president wouldn't give the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, an inappropriate shoulder rub in a business meeting. He'll be a leader who won't make goo-goo eyes with Vladimir Putin. Dubya said he looked into Putin's eyes, saw his soul, and declared him a decent fellow, despite scary evidence to the contrary then and now.

What's with some Republicans and souls? "Soul mate" is what John McCain called Sarah Palin when he introduced her to the country. 'Nuf said.

Unlike Dubya, a President Obama actually will be capable of carrying on serious and intelligent conversations with world leaders, friends and foes.

Fellow Americans, we certainly must celebrate the first African-American elected president of a great nation, but a nation with a history of slavery, Jim Crow and other racial injustice. Race aside, this election also marks the return to common sense, decency and intelligence in the Oval Office. It's been a while.

Dubya should have been impeached long ago. Because that's not likely to happen, it's some consolation knowing that in January, the movers will take all the loyal Bushies back to wherever they were before they wrecked the country. Ticktock, ticktock!

During that post-primary tour of Iraq, Europe and the Middle East, Obama was embraced as presidential because he seemed confident — as opposed to cocky — and knowledgeable. He listened. For foreign leaders who have had eight years of Dubya's cowboy swagger and Cheney's bullying, "No Drama Obama" will be widely praised.

Indeed, the rest of the world has a dog in this fight, which is why our election was watched so closely and why the results were so universally acclaimed.

For nearly eight years, we've had someone in the Oval who has acted the part of president but has left running the country to Dick Cheney and others. Having no real power, Dubya compensated by creating a new post: The Decider.

True leaders are defined by their deeds, not by labels. Most significant about Barack Obama's victory speech at Chicago's Grant Park was what he didn't do. He did not pump the air with his fists. Cognizant of his place in history — and Grant Park's — he kept emotions in check. He didn't let out some rebel yell. He waved but barely smiled. He did not look weary, just resolute, like a man heading off to work.

Can you imagine the government response to Katrina had this president been in the White House when the levees broke? Obama doesn't walk on water, certainly, but he is competent and quick enough not to let one of America's great cities get submerged without doing something besides delegating and looking helpless.

The Obama campaign gets high praise as one of the more disciplined and organized operations people in politics have seen in a while, if ever. Thank goodness they used their powers for good, not evil.

After years of scorched-earth policies from the Bushies, Obama's leadership style is not only refreshing but also restorative for a nation where the politics of personal destruction have been the norm.

Under Dubya, the Justice Department became a partisan sect that rewarded converts and punished nonbelievers. We still are trying to sort out the Gonzales Eight mess.

At his postelection news conference, Obama demonstrated the same commitment to the economy he showed during the campaign. Job creation is at the top of his agenda. The day he met with the press, joblessness was at an all-time high, and economists weren't shy about calling this a recession worse than expected.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like deep thinkers. I prefer politicians who like to listen rather than to hear themselves speak. Give me the professor over the dimwit any day.

We tried the dimwit, and look what that got us.

Rhonda Chriss Lokeman (RCLCreators@kc.rr.com) is a contributing editor to The Kansas City Star. To find out more about Rhonda Chriss Lokeman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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