Jesus told a story of two sons. Each was given a job by their father. One said right away, “I will not” (very unimpressive), but afterward he did. The other said, “I go” (very impressive), but he did not go (Matthew 21:28-32).

The parable came to mind as I was listening to post-election radio programs. Not 48 hours had elapsed since Barack Obama was elected in a giddy love fest, and the media, nursing a collective hangover, was full of sober reckoning and tamping down of irrational exuberance. In other words, they were saying the things no one wanted to say during the campaign. What is interesting is that this concerted downsizing of popular hopes may have been part of the Plan all along.

Tim Reid, the Washington correspondent for The Times of London, wrote on October 31:

Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harbouring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.

The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.

It may not necessarily be Obama’s fault that there are people out there who think he’s going to pay their mortgage. They might have just heard wrong. But when the public sounds one makes whip up euphoria in gullible people, one is probably as much to blame as when a buxom woman wearing a plunging neckline whips up lust. Obama, facing a world on the skids, spake as a god and said “I can”; “I will.” Very impressive.

Let us see what the favorite son does now.