Trusting Obama

What a difference two days make. For all the fringe right sniping about the Obamessiah, nothing about the man speaks of ego. I don't recall a president in my lifetime saying this:

Speaking to his senior staff, Obama said, "However long we are keepers of the public trust, we should never forget that we are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege. It's not about advantaging yourself. It's not about advancing your friends or your corporate clients. It's not about advancing an ideological agenda or the special interests of any organization. Public service is, simply and absolutely, about advancing the interests of Americans."

Get that? He thinks of himself as a public servant and he expects the rest of the Beltway to take that notion to heart. I, for one, am finding this kind of language very heartening.

To put in context, he was also unveiling new rules to lock the revolving door between K Street and the halls of power. Yesterday Barack announced that government officials would "not be able to work on matters you lobbied on or White House agencies you lobbied during the last two years." Today he announced that "His aides are barred from lobbying any executive agency for the life of the Obama administration. That means an appointee who leaves the White House in, say, 2010 would be barred from lobbying the executive branch until 2017 if Obama were to serve two terms."

I know he's likely to disappoint me eventually but so far, all I'm feeling is awe and relief. It's like I woke up from a really scary nightmare and found myself safe in familiar surroundings again.

Update: Joe Gandelman describes it as a return to normalcy.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News.]