Hope.

That has been the word for all of 2008 and the mantra going into 2009.

We’re hoping that the US economy rights itself and doesn’t continue to tank. We’re hoping we don’t lose our jobs. We’re hoping if we have lost our jobs that we’ll find another one. And most of all we’re hoping that the man, President-elect Barack Obama, will live up to all the the expectations and the blind faith many have placed in him.

The problem, however, with the hope and blind faith is that it is only god for religion, not everyday life. Also, when you so completely believe in someone or something then you tend be willfully blind to anything that goes against what you’re hoping and believing to be so.

While I don’t doubt Obama’s competence or intelligence and I’m as happy as the next person that the US has finally managed to elect a man of color to office, I’m not a fan of his policy. He has yet to show that he plans to live up to the ‘change’ he promised, the other buzzword form 2008.

His cabinet choices have made me cringe. How do you claim to offer change and a new way of doing business when you have the same faces form administrations past and many of the very ones responsible for the economic mess we’re in now.

How can you promise change when your idea of an economic policy doesn’t include real reform of a financial industry whose out of control greed has ushered in what could very well be the next Great Depression?

To really fulfill his promise to the American people I really need less of his hops and more of his change. Real change before I so willingly put my faith into him.