America needs to reboot and re-invent itself.
Internationally, Israel wants a smackdown on Iran. Medvedev and Putin want U.S. Missile Defense out of Europe. And others are lining up too.
Americans want prosperity and jobs. GM and Chryler want all the auto bailout they can get and the UAW wants a raise.
President-elect Obama, blissfully in the Hawaiian nirvana as we write, faces a long line of seekers looking for goodies this Christmas and next year.
Can he possibly deliver?
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From Thomas Friedman
The New York Times
We’ve indulged ourselves for too long with tax cuts that we can’t afford, bailouts of auto companies that have become giant wealth-destruction machines, energy prices that do not encourage investment in 21st-century renewable power systems or efficient cars, public schools with no national standards to prevent illiterates from graduating and immigration policies that have our colleges educating the world’s best scientists and engineers and then, when these foreigners graduate, instead of stapling green cards to their diplomas, we order them to go home and start companies to compete against ours.
….
America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society — in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage. China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites. Censorship restricts your people’s imaginations. That’s really, really dumb. And that’s why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs.
John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.
Read it all:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24
/opinion/24friedman.html?em
Art Below by Steve Broder in the New York Times
Peace and Freedom Global Future 
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