Hussein made me do it

I know that when Barack Obama becomes president he will disappoint us. That's what politicians do: the best ones try their best to live up to their promises and our expectations, but the one thing we can say about every leader is that he or she has disappointed us at one time or another. Obama is not even president yet and already I'm disappointed that he has joined his party's capitulation over telecom immunity in the FISA bill. And don't get me started on his worse-than-McCain corn-heavy energy policy.

What Obama does that is rare is inspire people. There are skeptics, as there should be, about a man whose greatest talent may simply be saying the things that motivate others, but would it be so bad to have a president who brought out the best in the people? What other leader have we ever been able to say that about?

Some of the Obama-inspired undertakings are just for fun: posters, online videos, and so on. But does anyone know of an instance where someone was inspired to creativity or commitment by John McCain? I mean besides It's Raining McCain.

Tomorrow's New York Times has an article by Jodi Kantor entitled 'Obama Supporters Take His Middle Name as Their Own'. Apparently there are a lot more of us out there all with the same idea. Next up: let's all do the terrorist fist jab.

I have not seen anything like this before, so I don't know whether all this inspiration will amount to a renewal of the republic whereby people all over the country from sea to shining sea start to care about things like the rule of law and civil discourse again. The worst that could happen is that people around the world will sharpen their digital video editing skills. The best that could happen? It is a very healthy thing when that is the question we find ourselves asking.