Fragile Trust

Trust is a hard won emotion.  It's a thing that can't be trifled with, can't be played fast and loose.

President Obama won the trust of most of the people, through his dignified and historic campaign, and through the carefully measured moves he made during his transition to office.

Now he risks losing it.

The trust given the President was given to a passionate, yes, but above all calm, thoughtful, and steady leader. The people longed to lay the burden at the feet of someone clearly competent who also wouldn't panic, or at least not show panic publicly.  We wanted to relax and get a good night's sleep.

Lately, however, President Obama has begun to show he may not really understand the bargain that was made. He may not know he was meant to be our confident and reassuring leader. He seems to be reverting to politicking without regard to impact on the public.

Take his recent statements about the stimulus package in the Senate, that it must be passed now or else risk a downward spiraling catastrophe which we might not be able to correct. It's clear to acute observers that this was aimed at Republicans and recalcitrant Democrats who threatened the legislation's passage, but what about the rest of us not-so-acute, not-so-political, observers?

It scared us, that's what!

In telling us that this bill may be our last chance to stay off the streets, the President triggered visions of bread lines and tent cities and all that other old depression era newsreel-depicted badness. What if the stimulus failed to pass?

By telling us that doom was near, the President painted himself into a corner should the bill have failed to clear the Senate. Would he have then turned around and said he didn't really mean it, that we can still fix this, that we still have hope?

President Franklin Roosevelt said 'We have nothing to fear, but fear itself'. It would be a good idea for President Obama to take this to heart and act on it.

Otherwise he risks losing that public trust in his leadership we all so dearly need him to keep.