Philip Gutis, over at the Huffington Post:
I heard last night from an influential environmentalist and NRDC trustee. She wondered if NRDC is truly pleased with the environment and energy officials chosen by President-elect Barack Obama and said: “I just don’t feel the urgency from this group….where is the fire?”
A very valid question and one that should give us great pause. The Blogojevich pay for play investigation, the continuing fallout of the various financial scandals and the bailouts are dominating the news.
But we also haven’t heard much inspiration from Obama lately.
Now to be fair, this is a time for putting together a team, for the endless news conferences with soon-to-be government officials who tend to — appropriately? — seem rather scared and sober about the responsibilities they are soon to take on. And as Obama himself has noted, we only have one President at a time.
But I wonder — worry? — if governing will strip Obama of his ability to inspire. I know I could use a good Obama speech right about now, one like he delivered election night. One like he gave at the Democratic convention. Hell, I’ll even take a version of his standard stump speech.
You know what’s good for moments like that? The Barack Obama Commemorative Plate. You just look over and you see his “confident smile and kind eyes,” which “are an inspiration to us all.”