Obama Advisers Already Lowering Expectations for President-in-Training

Looks like the handlers for the affirmative action Messiah realize the guy is probably in over his head. In fact, has anyone even seen him the past week or so? Why not step up and show some leadership, Barry?

President-elect Barack Obama and his inner circle fear that some voters expect him to turn around the economy, wind down the war in Iraq and, perhaps, cure cancer -- all by the Fourth of July.

They know they must manage and lower those expectations, CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports.

A top economic advisor to Obama had a glum warning for the rest of us Thursday morning: Neither the job market nor the stock market will be turning around any time soon.

"This might be a long haul," said Robert Reich, who was President Bill Clinton's secretary of labor. "2009 is going to be a very hard year. Some economists say we won't be out of this for two years, others are saying it may be three, or four, maybe five years."

In other words, don't you dare go and blame anything on Obama the next four years. Of course you'll be called racist just for having the temerity to criticize him, but this just gives them a convenient excuse to blame all his anticipated failures on Bush.

The expectations wouldn't be so high, but after a two-year media lovefest, what else should people expect?

Update: A great take from Jonah Goldberg.

In an attempt to dial down expectations for his administration, President-elect Barack Obama’s supporters have dropped much of the “messiah” talk.

No more talk of him being The One (Oprah), or a Jedi Knight (George Lucas), or a “Lightworker” (the San Francisco Chronicle), or a “quantum leap in American consciousness” (Deepak Chopra). Instead we have more humble and circumspect conversation about the man. Now he’s merely Abraham Lincoln and FDR and Martin Luther King, combined.

It’s a step down from divine redeemer, but you have to start somewhere.

Via Instapundit.