Aren't We Getting a Little Ahead of Ourselves?

It seems I had no sooner finished my piece about Supreme Court Justice David Souter's retirement and Barack Obama's task of nominating someone to take his place than I was directed to an item from MSNBC.

And there I found the following:

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"Had Clinton been president and Obama been in the Senate, would he be the favorite to fill the first SCOTUS opening? How about Clinton? Had she not been tapped for Secretary of State, would she be our focus right now? Who will be the first columnist to write: Could Barack Obama's post–presidential career be on the Supreme Court?"

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Really, this seems a bit much to me.

In January, when Obama had barely taken the oath of office, I was seeing posts asserting that he had shown "hints of greatness" — when all he had done was give his inaugural address. It seemed premature — to me, anyway.

Then, in recent weeks, as we approached the 100–day mark of his administration, I endured a barrage of articles, blog posts and cable commentaries about how great Obama is. Well, I suppose, to a nation coming off the experience of having George W. Bush run the show for eight years, damn near anyone would come across like a breath of fresh air, but it seemed people were getting a little carried away — to me, anyway.

Especially when I got an e–mail the other day from the online company for which I do some freelance writing encouraging me to write an article about how I was — in my own life — seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

I've been writing for a long time, but, after looking unsuccessfully for work for eight months, I can't write about evidence of a recovery that I can't see and don't feel. So, while pointing out that I understand policies need to be given time to work, I asked in my blog for a little proof of their effect. Just a little evidence, I said — in effect, a crumb that would indicate that the stimulus package was starting to show some positive results.

With so many people protesting the stimulus' enormous price tag, I thought the tiniest bit of tangible justification might help — not to mention the boost it could give the millions who are unemployed.

And a fellow blogger (one who wrote about Obama's "hints of greatness" when newscasts were still falling all over themselves to show clips from his inaugural address) admonished me that it was unrealistic to expect things to turn around this quickly (hello? didn't I go over this?).

The Democrats' cheerleading for Obama strikes me as being indistinguishable from the Republican cheerleading for George W. Bush as well as reminiscent of first–graders' essays about any incumbent president — i.e., "_______ is my favorite president. _______ is a great man because _______ does a lot of things ..."

Well, today it seems a tad bit early to be thinking that Obama, like William Howard Taft, will follow his presidential career with one on the Supreme Court bench. Presumably, a president who possesses all the virtues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts and John F. Kennedy — and no vices — will not be denied a second term, like Taft was, so we'll have to allow at least eight years.

Please, let's don't start measuring him for judicial robes just yet.