Barack Obama Prez Rickard

Prez Rickard is a DC comic character who fixed the town clocks so they ran on time as a youth, eventually became President of the United States at age 18 in gloomy times, and became the greatest and most beloved president ever. I know Prez Rickard from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, not the original series.

The adulation and expectations of President Obama remind me of the Prez Rickard story. Turns out I'm not the first comic fan to make the connection.

President Obama's inaugural address offered something to everyone, out-Bushing Bush in areas, while also saying we would have to make difficult choices. The only meaningful takeaway from the speech for me is that his administration will examine everything, end non-working programs and policies, and pursue new ways to prepare our nation to be competitive into the 21st century. I don't know what that means in detail and it is an indefinite pledge, but necessarily so at this early point. Under Bush, evolutionary change for the military was already put in motion. Hopefully, that process will continue while everything else is re-examined.

Eric