Ninguém segura esse crioulo

EU ODEIO ser otimista, e todas as vezes em que fui otimista o curso dos fatos me provou errado. Mas é difícil não achar que o mundo amanheceu um pouquinho melhor hoje, no primeiro dia de trabalho do Presidente do Mundo no Salão Oval - aquele mesmo Salão Oval que já foi manchado pela porra presidencial no affair Chupinsky e depois conspurcado por oito anos das botinas de George W. sobre seus tapetes.

Repare bem muito em trechos do discurso inaugural de Barack Negão Obama e diga se não há razões para um pouquinho (só um pouquinho, que seja) de otimismo:

"Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet."

"The state of our economy calls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. "

We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality..."

"We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.
All this we can do. All this we will do."

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
[nesse momento a câmera da BBC apontou para Bush na platéia, sorrindo amarelo. Priceless.]

"Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.
They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint."

"With old friends and former foes, we'll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense."

"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.
We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers."

"And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it."