Change we can believe in

A reader at TPM writes:

Well, here's one pre-inauguration take.

It's all about hope, on a lot of different levels. I'm a policy wonk, and one of my deepest hopes is that Obama will be able to get Americans to believe again in the basic project of American government -- the idea that competent public servants, pursuing progressive policies, can actually advance the common good and make all of our lives better. It's such a momentous moment: for the first time, a Democratic president has a _progressive_ Democratic majority in Congress (as opposed to a posse of Dems interlaced with Southern ex-Segregationists, which was unfortunately the best we could do over the past half century). It's an unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime, maybe once-in-a-century opportunity to make good policy so that Americans can _see_ the change, and believe in it.

I see in Barack Obama all the best that America has to offer. I trust him more than I would trust anyone to nimbly navigate the daunting political and policy challenges ahead. It's not just that he is a brilliantly competent political thinker and leader. His is the particular kind of brilliance that involves a lot of listening and questioning -- a flexible kind of brilliance that requires humility as well as confidence. Obama the law professor, the community organizer, the son of a Kenyan as well as a Kansan, is exactly what America and the world need right now. The question is whether even he will be able to dig us out of the mess we're in, and do it quickly enough and forcefully enough that people start to believe in the progressive project once again.