I ended up watching a replay of the celebration at the Lincoln memorial last night.  It included a wide range of entertainers from Stevie Wonder to U2 to Garth Brooks. It was a wonderfully positive, non-partisan celebration of the on-going peaceful transition of power in a spectacularly successful democracy..

It was also appropriately a celebration of the time line of Lincoln to Dr. King to Obama and the next step in eliminating racial barriers to success for those of character and accomplishment.

Personally I am both hopeful and fearful of the cult of personality which surrounds this new President.

Hopeful that a new bi-partisan era may unfold.   Hopeful that many campaign promises will quickly be forgotten and that the new President will be able to control the extremes in his own party and will be able to quickly more forward to continue successes of the past (many) and to correct the failures.

Fearful that we will be entering (continuing) an unfolding of an era of big government and misplaced confidence in the power of government to solve individual and market problems.

Our biggest risk is that we’ll end up in an era where more people receive money and benefits from our government than pay into that government.   When the majority seen to benefit but not contribute then we truly enter a time of great peril.  We must never forget that those who truly contribute productively must not only be protected but supported unfettered in their entrepreneurship.

Ultimately I hope that we don’t forget Ronald Reagan:
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.: