Today's inauguration of President Barack Obama is historic in almost every respect. It was estimated that 67 percent of the U.S. population planned to watch Obama's first moments as president (that's about 203 million Americans, for those of you who are inconveniently distant from a calculator). The millions of people who gathered in Washington, D.C. and clustered around televisions in homes and churches, dorms and campus centers around the country are a testament to the hope President Obama now embodies.
Beyond the borders of the United States, numerous people from countries as varied as Germany, Kenya and Indonesia also followed the inauguration. While this enormous world interest in the new president speaks volumes about his ability to inspire and uplift, it also tells us something else: President Obama has the hopes and, more importantly, the expectations, not only of 300 million Americans, but of millions (if not billions) of people worldwide riding on his shoulders. And it is nearly impossible for everyone to get what they want.
After the blunders of the Bush administration, it's not hard to understand why the world at large is rejoicing at the former president's departure. Indeed, Obama's marked efforts to demonstrate that his administration will work for peace, mutual understanding, fairness and stability have made him popular in all corners of the world.
Millions of Americans are depending on Obama to steer the country out of the increasingly grim economic crisis, create a plethora of new jobs and reform health care and education. But people in Africa, and especially his father's home country of Kenya, hope that President Obama will make the impoverished continent a priority. Many Muslims hope that Obama's experience living in Indonesia will make him more sensitive to the Muslim world. And everyone everywhere seems to expect that Obama will begin the process of making the world a safer, more peaceful place.
But the reality is President Obama is going to have to prioritize. Despite his inspiring rhetoric and his promise of change, he is still one man working in the American government (which does not always have a reputation of getting things done quickly and/or easily). He still has to worry about stabilizing his own country's plummeting economy before almost anything else, and his first duty is to the American people who elected him. Unfortunately, gratifying one group of people often means disappointing another. While we can certainly hope that those decisions will be made wisely, it nonetheless means that not everyone can win.
Obama's immense popularity means that, for the first time in nearly a decade, the world has faith in the leadership of the United States, something that gives him an unprecedented ability to make big decisions. However, everyone, American or not, needs to understand that President Obama will do what he can, but he may not be able to do everything.
