New President, Old Dreams.

I would compare the victory of Obama to the victory of Lula when he first won the election for president in Brazil back in 2002. The least probable candidate for the office - the one who represents the large body of the society and yet the "less privileged" class. In both occasions the most heard comment was how each candidate would realize the dreams of thousands of citizens. Lula represents the lower income, working class. Obama the American black. Two candidates totally out of chart of the traditional candidates.

When Lula won for the first time, Brazil was swept during the election campaign with economical pressure from the dominant classes and ill informed assumptions. The dollar jumped from $1.73 to $3.76 in relation to the local currency - real -. The central and right wings were spreading this fear that if he won, the worse outcome for the economy would lead the country to a complete collapse. Lula was called a socialist, and the opposition was saying that after elected he would take everyone's possessions and redistribute among the homeless. Also, they said, as a "commy" he would eat the children - this one was simply hilarious. Anyway, Lula won. No body's possession was redistribute, no children was eaten - as far as we know-. The Brazilian's economy experienced surprisingly growth. In fact, after one year from the election, international media was recognizing the effectiveness of Lula's internal and external policies. Even more surprisingly was the head-line at Wall Street Journal around that same time,"Brazil made Wall Street learn to dance Samba", meaning that US investors were returning to invest in Brazil.

The only hope now is that Obama would do the same and contradict the pessimists and help to restore the troubled national economy. I, particularly hope that he does not keep many of his promises made during his campaign. Some groups estimates that if he keeps all his promises the actual national budget deficit would go from millions of dollars to trillions of the green stuff. It would be not good. However, would those pessimistic political prospections be based on solid facts? or it was, like in the Lula's example, just a panic wide spread during the election by the opponents to impinge some fears on those prone to vote on him. Only time will tell us. But contrary to Lula, Obama never denied that he is not a socialist, or that he does not have ties with extremists. And this is scary. So we might be better off hoping for the best...