Deborah Leavy: Sabotaging the honeymoon

IT'S everything many of us wished for: W. is whacking brush at his ranch in Texas, and Barack Obama is president of the United States.

Millions massed on the Mall in Washington and hundreds of millions more watched on TV around the world as Obama was sworn in and Bush helicoptered out of any responsibility for the mess he left for the new president to clean up. Is it really just four weeks since then?

Only Hollywood marriages have shorter honeymoons than many people, including the press, have given President Obama. What's happened to hope and change?

C'mon! Give the guy a chance!

He said it wouldn't be easy - and it hasn't been. He said he'd make mistakes - and he has, and owned up to them (unlike some presidents we know).

He also said that we need to get beyond partisan politics and work together to solve our problems. But the number of Republicans in the House who voted for the stimulus package was . . . zero. And the number of Republican senators? Three. I can't remember such a lopsided lack of support for any previous measure.

It looks like many Republicans are lining up behind Rush Limbaugh's cry of "I hope he fails."

How can anyone hope that Obama fails to get the economy back on its feet? Fails to create new jobs for the millions who have lost their livelihoods? Fails to invest in education to ready our young people for the 21st century? Fails to win back the respect that our country has enjoyed from other nations around the world?

Who are the people plotting Obama's failure? The people who benefit from the system as it is. Who don't want to give up their power and privilege.

People like Limbaugh and others who are already planning a comeback for business as usual - the same business as usual that drove our economy off a cliff, left us with a war we shouldn't be fighting and all the rest that made people want change.

They can't get back the power they lost in this past election unless Obama fails.

They've begun a whispering campaign, murmuring to the press and pundits, who repeat it: No he can't. He can't govern. Can't change things. Can't succeed. He doesn't have enough experience.

Sound familiar? It is.

Since Obama declared his candidacy two years ago, he has consistently been misunderestimated, as the previous president might have put it.

People who liked what Obama had to say wouldn't support him because, they said, "He can't win. Too many white people just won't vote for him," and "Americans will never elect a guy named Barack Hussein Obama."

But they did, overwhelmingly, and now Obama's success is critical to our nation. He may not have won the majority of white male voters, but many of them are out of work. They need him to succeed. So do the people whose retirement savings are down 40 percent in the last year, and the people who can't afford to send their kids to college, and the people whose kids are in failing schools, or dropping out.

So do those who don't have health insurance, or whose insurance is so inadequate they can't afford their medicine. And those whose lives have been torn apart - by death, injury, failed marriages - because of a war we never should have fought. People who breathe polluted air, drink water laced with poison, eat tainted peanut butter.

That's just about all of us, including those who seek to undermine Obama's presidency.

It wasn't just Democrats who voted for him. It was Republicans and independents and many who'd never voted before.

And it wasn't just those who voted for Obama who stood freezing in front of the Capitol or stopped what they were doing to watch on TV or a computer screen as he took the oath of office.

BECAUSE we all have a stake in the success of this president. He told us it was our campaign for hope and change, not just his. And now it's our presidency, not just his.

So criticize him when you think he's wrong, but tell him what you think he needs to do to get it right. Give him your support when he is under attack from those who value their own well-being above the rest of us.

We worked to elect him, many of us - yes we did.

The job is so much harder now, and for all of us - not just Democrats, not just Obama voters - our future is on the line. It's just stupid to hope Obama fails. We need to help him succeed. And yes, we can. *

Deborah Leavy is a regular contributor to the op-ed page. E-mail her at deborah.opinion@gmail.com.