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Please Kill Our Hopes 'Gently,' Obama

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 8, 2008 7:40 PM CST

(Newser) – People the world over are investing their hopes in Barack Obama's warm, intelligent persona, but the president-elect is destined to disappoint, Matthew Parris writes in the London Times. Like any pop star or religious icon, he represents more myth than reality. The turning point will come when "Yes we can" meets the "No you can't" of global politics, a moment when Parris hopes Obama "will let us down gently.”

“Why, when we've been disappointed so often,” Parris writes, “do we fall for it every time with leaders?” Obama’s charm and message of hope could make the international letdown even worse than usual: "A politician who has subtly insinuated himself into the imaginations of millions as a secret friend may find their disappointment the more bitter in the end."

[Images (6)]

[Quotes (1)]

Thousands of hand-written messages to President-elect Barack Obama fill a 24-foot wide wall between the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool in Washington. (AP Photo)

President-elect Barack Obama, daughters, Sasha, 7, Malia, 10, and wife Michelle Obama. (AP Photo)

A Italian man with his face colored with brown make-up, holds a placard referring to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's comment on president-elect Barack Obama. (AP Photo)

A man walks pasts a billboard showing U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, in Belgrade, Serbia. (AP Photo)

President-elect Obama and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm laugh during a news conference in Chicago, Friday, Nov. 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

An opposition supporter holds a poster showing a portrait of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, reading "America We Believe In" at a protest rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, Friday, Nov. 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

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In politics it is not enough to be the earnest expression of a wish, however eloquent. You also need a plan for granting it. Does he? If not, and this was just another election, then I wonder how he'll break our hearts. - Matthew Parris

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