Building back confidence one day at a time......

Don't know about you, but I'm feeling more confident everyday. I look forward to hearing from President-elect Obama. Let me tell you why:

• Consistency in tone. He consistenly sounds the same. Same tone. Same unpanicked demeanor. Same balance between a sober tone and an optimistic one.
  

• Consistency in message. He sounds like candidate Obama and that's good. Priorities then are priorities now. Jobs, jobs jobs and people first. Tweaking here and there as details emerge through the transition sharing of information; but the objectives remain the same.

• Consistency in approach. He's practical. He's people oriented. He's solving problems. He actually said today that the American people are not interested in ideology; they want solutions. Well, I for one am not interested in ideology, and I for one want solutions. All these ideologies need review since none of them seem to be working (or we would not be in this global mess). So, while people philosophize, let's look at the real problems and come up with real solutions. Who knows, we may even invent a new ideology in the process.

• Consistency in personality. This one requires some explanation. Over time, I watched him speak at events and he has the ability to "feel the pulse of the people". That is a rare gift that manifests itself in many ways. For example, on the campaign trail, it is the gift that allowed him to go off script, and connect with people while being himself. President-elect Obama is showing that consistency in personality in his appointments. He's "reading the pulse of the people". For reasons too numerous to mention here, the selection of the economic team and, more importantly, the positions for which they were selected speaks volume - to me personally - of a deep understanding of multiple issues beyond confirmation hearings.

Confidence is a key - not the only key, but a key - factor to recovery. Recovery won't happen overnight; but it won't happen ever without confidence.

So far, I'm getting the impression the President-elect knows what he's doing: he's got a vision for a plan to get things done, and he's got a team whose mandate is to get those details for the plan to achieve that vision...to get things done. Things for the people. Things to solve problems. And that's making me pretty confident.