Being president is not the same as being a candidate for the office or serving as a senator. In those cases words often suffice. As the President, Obama has no choice but to take action and deal with reality.

The good news is that he is a great politician and that can often translate to effective policy making/coalition building.

No one like the bailouts but I don’t know anyone outside some of the GOP leaders in the South who doesn’t believe it’s necessary. Plenty of mistakes led to this debacle, many of them by political leaders from both sides of the aisle who not only knowingly let the kids spike the punch (reckless deregulation) but provided the booze to do it with in the form of opening Fannie and Freddie to subprime packages and other garbage, plus passing benighted legislation like Sarbanes-Ox.

The war in Afghanistan is necessary, alas, recall that the fomenters of hate there did cause the greatest catastrophe in American history and will do so again if given the chance. We simply cannot live in isolation anymore. Yes, it would be better to have the world at large assuming this role and, yes, Bush did obligate the US as a seemingly one-man Batman show ready to swoop in and solve all of the world’s many security issues; but these decisions cannot be reversed overnight. Hopefully we’ll see a larger and more diverse world police force begin to emerge over the next 8 years.

Obama has lots of bridges to rebuild in stitching a fractured country and world back together, only an optimist would have the strength and energy even to begin to tackle these problems. We should all support him and be thankful that someone as talented as Obama is optimistic enough to fight this good fight for us. He could just as easily be in a coffee shop somewhere writing the doomsday epithets about crackpot optimism surrounded by the throws of a comfortable life. Instead, he’s elected to challenge such prognostications with vigor and, again, because it cannot be said enough, thankfully we have him and his talent and willingness to succeed when many wouldn’t dare to try.

I believe people show themselves not by their words, but by their actions. I know this is Unamerican, but I have seen too many smiling faces that don’t have my interests at heart.

This is a perilous time and Obama can quickly lose his credibility. The Geithner situation is a test of how much Obama values forthrightness and probity in those who he appoints to work for us. I presume you support Obama because you expect more honesty and intelligence than the last eight years. In this email you have implicitly supported a tarnished treasury secretary, an ill-considered bailout that is giving our precious tax dollars with nearly no strings attached to those that have destroyed our financial system and the lives of many Americans, and doubling down on a failed war.

If you are not concerned at how quickly (even before he needs to) he has been been taking ownership of Bush’s mistakes, then I congratulate you on your optimism.