With the results of the election, there’s been a buzz around BU’s campus. Everywhere you go—be it before a class, in the hallways, at the T stop, at parties—people are talking about how excited they are.

“Hope” and “Change” seem to be on everybody’s mind. It’s a historic election, the Democrats have taken Washington by storm. Obama won in a landslide 248 to 135 and in the senate the Democrats have control of 55 seats versus the Republicans 40 and 2 Independents.

People have been disillusioned by Republican control during the past 8 years, and now they’re ready for a breath of fresh air.

Obama will enter the Whitehouse in January with quite a high standard of expectations.

The thing to remember is that he has a lot to deal with. 8 years of destruction cannot be repaired in the first few months or even a year. Look at the current situation in Iraq. It’s a mess, and it’s not something that’s going to be solved immediately.

The topic that really seems to be on everyone’s mind is the current state of the economy. Obama has promised “hope” and “change,” but the state of the economy isn’t something that can just be fixed in a couple days. It’s going to take years, and quite a bit of support from congress and the American people.

I’m no political scientist. I don’t fancy myself to be an authority on the subject, but what I can say is that we are in bad shape, and it’s going to take a while to heal. My fear is that when people don’t see immediate results, Obama’s popularity is going to peter out, but we have to continue to give our support.

As much as people would like to believe that he’s the messiah, he’s not. He’s a human being just like the rest of us and it’s going to be a struggle. Again, the key is our support. I don’t want to sound like a fanatic, because quite frankly, I’m not. I was an Edwards man, but we all saw what happened to him.

We can’t have blind faith. We must continue to question the decisions of our government, because as insignificant as we may feel, it’s a democratic process. We can’t expect to sit back and let somebody else decide our future.

This article has been a bit all over the place, but what I want to reiterate is that we can expect change, but not right away. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and forget the fact that there’s a lot of work to be done in building the country back up. Though it’s possible that we can regain the strength and accountability that we once had, it’s not something that’s going to take time.

Patience is the key. Don’t jump ship in March when the economy hasn’t pulled a 180.