Psychologists have noted that we often have a hard time being honest about people who are really important to us. Thinking about our mothers, for example, we either tend to make them saints or villains. What is really hard to accept is that she was just another sinner like the rest of us. That, of course, makes it impossible for us to forgive her.
You have been loaded with virtues too refined to be envied, and accused of crimes too picturesque to be condemned.Unable to be honest about her faults, we never name them never mind forgive them.
Obama sold himself to us as a saviour, a transformational president who'd change the way politics is done. He wasn't that. The problem is that he wasn't a massive failure either. What he has been is a mediocrity. As a consequence, we have a whole lot of people acting as if Obama has a greatness woven of magical thread that only non-racists can see. No one can bring themselves to say what they know out loud because that would make them feel racist. (The irony, of course, is that it is racist not to evaluate the guy honestly.)
If he'd been an unmitigated disaster, it would be obvious and no one could deny it.
Unfortunately, mediocrity isn't harmless. A lot of important things that should have been done well have been done poorly or not at all. The potential for things to slide from badly managed to right out of control is very real. And neither of the two people nominated by major parties inspires much confidence.
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