For a nation so badly managed the very sight of a semblance of competence and principled governance yields a significant measure of relief.

It is extremely unwise and irresponsible to ascribe messianic powers and virtues to President Obama, simply because its neither true nor realistic and it can certainly bring much disappointment. 

The President must perform though and urgently so. He has no option but to squarely meet the formidable challenges ahead, especially those stemming from poor governance or lack thereof.   Until just a week ago respect for Human Rights, Due Process and the Rule of Law were mocked beyond belief.

Now at the very start of the critical initial 100 days of government we already see the righting of gross wrongs: Guantanamo and other secret prisons and detention camps ordered to close within one year, torture practices banned, and the former administration’s executive orders suspended.    The latter constituted the brutal rewording of constitutional principles with deliberate intent to distort the very tenets and ideals of America’s “founding documents”.

For all of the above a nation enthusiastically welcomes the promise “to restore the vital trust between a people and their government” in words of America’s 44th President Obama.

And then there is also the issue of immigration.  This challenge was also met with a promise in President Obama’s address: “that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness”, that we owe the duty of “reaffirming the greatness of our nation” by means of acknowledging those that “packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life”.

The federal justice system has been choked with absurd and menial immigration cases as if they were of greater gravity than organized crime and drugs and firearms trafficking.   Billions of dollars have been squandered in criminalizing the desperate and destitute that integrate the greater number of immigrants around the world.

Immigration reform will meet the staunch opposition of those breathing bigotry while entrenched in Congress and in the media.  If true to his promise, Obama nevertheless can utilize the same tool wielded to restore the Rule of Law and Due Process, by reversing interpretations of the law and statute deliberately used to persecute immigrants.

A semblance of competent and principled governance is ephemeral by nature; only fulfilled promises will outlast our good intentions and that of our leaders.