Obama + Leadership

Bare with me: This is a first draft.

Leadership does not come from simply winning. A large part in leadership comes from setting the bar ahead of where it has been, and challenging people to follow you there. To put is simply, it is guidance. It is what is happening now with Obama.

The times we are in certainly must be confronted with a vigorous new approach. The tasks we have before us are many, and the margins for failure ever smaller. The solutions require a sense of humility, and must be novel. This is a new direction forward.

Obama is benchmarking a new vision for this country. The same vision that swept him into office. He is challenging the root wisdom of many in his own party, as well as that of the opposition. He is asking the citizens of this [and other] nation(s) to move into a new dialogue, that pushes through the old arguments that have kept our policies for the most-part stagnant domestically and internationally.

This is an approach that has been met by many with scorn and admonishment. It is an approach that many feel is too moderate. But, it is just the approach that we need.

President Obama has pushed his agenda further in the first three months than any President in recent memory. As citizens, we are responsible to keep up with these changes. To educate ourselves, to form opinions, and to ask more of our government and ourselves. To demand that our voices and ideas be represented. To actively participate in our democracy.

Such sweeping policy reform is not always clear or easy to follow — but it is consistent in it's call: To grow this nation's potential will require hard work. Vision. Participation. Courage. Trust.

As a country, we can no longer just claim greatness. We must become the greatness we expect from our collective selves.

Obama's push forward requires this. Agree or disagree with the policy, he is actively guiding our nation, requiring us to dictate the directions that we now take. That is why what we are witnessing is true leadership.