Turning on a dime

Neo-Neocon writes,

I know that this is the traditional honeymoon period for a president-elect. But whatever honeymoon aspects this has—and it most definitely has some—are further enhanced by the fact that this was a honeymoon that was unexpected and unplanned by most people. It’s as though we expected to spend some time in the hospital having a colonoscopy, and after doing all the nasty prep and getting to the point of lying in the hospital room with the IV about to be inserted, instead a brass band came into the room and the drum majorette announces that we need to get up, because instead we’ve won a free trip to a luxury resort in Hawaii.

Now, that resort might be a bit tawdry. It may not be the exactly perfect hotel we would have chosen it we’d had our druthers. But hey, it’s a whole lot better than that colonoscopy.

It may be a silly dream, and it may soon be time to wake up. But the relief and tentatively burgeoning hope so many people are willing and eager to experience underscores what stress both sides have been under, perhaps without fully realizing it, not just for the Obama years but for the Bush years as well. Maybe, just maybe, this improbable, unusual, weirdly-coiffed and spray-tanned reality show president is here to tell us to lay down that weary load, if only for a moment, and enjoy a feeling of national wonderment that we’ve arrived at such an odd place, and to hope that America’s good luck might just be holding out after all when most of us least expected it.

[NOTE: I don’t know exactly where the following item goes, so I may as well put it here. I was watching Fox News last night, and I saw a clip of a recent interview with Trump (I think it came from a forthcoming “60 Minutes,” but I’m not sure). Trump was being asked about the phone call he got from Hillary when she conceded, and he said something that seemed astute, telling, respectful, and even perhaps (dare I say it?) empathetic. He said the call was very hard for Hillary to make—“harder for her than it would have been for me, and it would have been very hard for me,” and then went on to say a few nice things about her.

The guy can turn on a dime, from Hillary-love to Hillary-hate to Hillary-understanding. But of course, we already knew that. But right now I’ll take it, because showing a little graciousness to the other side now that he’s finally won can only help us all in the end.]

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