The man that is very quickly being pegged as the second coming of Jesus Christ has had a few days to settle down and should by now begin anointing his 12 or 200 disciples to do God's Good Work. Barack Obamas win, while greatly anticipated by any hopeful person during this election, now fills me with a certain growing concern - and not because I believe him at all inept as a leader. No ladies and gents, Barack is definitely THE MAN, and I say that in deference to my being a once-staunch Republican. Even though I may be conservative on the inside, I am also intelligent enough to know what the world needs and I see a great leader unfolding before my eyes right now. A historic leader, a man capable of overshadowing even the most prolific movers and shakers in recent years.

Being the first Black president is, in and of itself, a reason to celebrate and rejoice at the new-found common sense of the American People. Being also that Barack Obama was at least peripherally involved in a Muslim upbringing is another incredible feat of insight for the American voters. Hell let's be honest, just the fact that his middle name is Hussein and we still elected him, that alone shows the world we are not all rednecks, racists, or myopic retarded imperialists. This bodes incredibly well for America's image, of this I am certain. But my growing fear is that no matter what feats of geopolitical prowess Barack pulls from his proverbial black hat in the next 4 years, he will still fall short of the expectations, and here's why;

My worry, at least for now, remains whispy, ethereal, even hard to categorize without a good stiff shot of whiskey. None-the-less it is a worry that is forming into some sort of concrete concern every time I turn on the TV and see the varying forms of hero worship our President Elect has already garnered. This growing concern has everything to do with the first sentence of this article, really. Barack Obama is being billed as nothing short of the True Messiah of our time, and I dread that this will leave most of his good work left in the dust of everyone's expectations.

That would truly be sad for us all. Our propping him up to such a mythological level at such an early stage seems, well, it seems like we are creating a self fulfilling prophecy of doom. I'm starting to feel as if we are putting so much emphasis on what he can do as a God, and in such, ignoring that he will have a great deal of limitations ahead as a real life human being - either by partisan stalemating - or just simply from him needing the proper time to claw us out of a world that George Bush successfully sank into the 9th Circle of Hell.

My saving grace, my confidence in Barack Obama, well it lies in something I have always had a talent for - as auspicious as that may sound. Thing is, I am an excellent judge of character. I've always had an innate ability to know when someone is capable of greatness, and equally when someone is more likely to fall in a heap of bones and sewage. In Barack I have consistently seen a man that owns an epic charismatic world appeal and leadership quality that our world has not known for decades, perhaps centuries.

At or around the 2004 election, when the democrats strategically placed the political equivalent of a wet rag to be their choice for the next president, I quickly realized the time was fast approaching for Barack to lay down a full court press and let the world know whom he could be. Thankfully so did most Americans. Yes, Thank God we were right, (religious sub-text intended) Sincerely speaking, Barack owns the exact component requirements that the entire world needs, at just the right time. He has the right cables and he just needs to plug them into the right sockets in order to produce the electricity of change we all need. Of course it's not news for me to repeat that in the wake of a global economic/environmental/sociopolitical meltdown, something radical must happen, and FAST. It is useful to keep repeating that at least we've finally elected someone with the good sense to be that radical if it becomes necessary.

Having said that, herein becomes yet another materializing fear of mine for Barack's presidency. I just hope that the hype being manufactured by the mass media today will not transcend it's intended purpose and somehow come to manufacture a more cautious and careful leader than he need be. At this point in our history we do need caution, yet we dare not be overly cautious. We still need analysis, but not over-analysis. The change we all want from him can only come from actions that happen with a certain swift, yet well considered progress, and I hope he will not forget that when he puts on his Superman pajamas. Our time for watching failed energy policies line the pockets of our enemies is long gone, as is our time to believe we can forever suck the life from our planet without the planet sucking back. From what I see of his character however, the man genuinely seems ready to make the hard choices that may genuinely suck in the short term, and I am quite certain he's not in office to impress - but to do the good, long term work.

Concerns and paranoia aside, I am not a doomsayer and therefore I raise my glass on this, the single-most hopeful and awe inspiring time I can remember in my 41 years of life. Here's to hoping Barack can make a low slider look like a fastball every time he completes a task. Here's to hoping he can hire the same company that did the CG in Transformers - to pull virtual monkeys from his butt at news conferences whenever he raises our carbon footprint a few notches, so that we can be as cosmically impressed with him as we are right now. Whenever he raises the stock market 10 points, stops a war in the Congo, or gets a few more windmill power plants up and running in the mid-west, it is highly doubtful that such progress will look like the"hail Mary" pass we are all expecting him to throw. So here's to hoping he can do such mundane tasks with all the pinnache of The Batman and we will all fall asleep still belieiving the dream. The game is won 1 inch at a time, so here's to hoping that, once awake, we can still recognize that a first down can be as important as a touchdown when the entire game is at stake.

If I may be so bold as to forewarn; people, please don't expect this good man to magically swoop in 2009 and have everything fixed in time for the next season of American Idol. It took George W Knucklehead Bush 8 years to screw the pooch, I'm quite sure it's going to take a good bit of time to undo such debauchery. And yet having said that, I again raise my glass in the wish that I am dead wrong, and President Obama can magically wash us from the mud and filth George Bush soiled us with for the last decade, at least by the time Paula Abdul has another crying spell.

So President elect Obama, Godspeed my good man, my prayers and heart, like that of millions of others in the world, are with you now.