Office of the President Elect

January 20th is when Barack Obama will be sworn in as President of the United States, but in a rather unprecedented move, he has been holding almost daily news briefings, standing behind a podium marked, "The Office of the President Elect". As far as any of us Americans can recall, no previous President Elect has done such a thing. But although he, as of yet, has absolutely no constitutional authority, none of us seem to be minding too much. There was an a definite power vacuum in the United States for the last 6 to 9 months; George Bush seemed unprepared for the quick collapse of the banking sector, to say the least. (And in my opinion, when he met with Barack a week after the election, Bush asked him to take a leadership role now rather than waiting.)

In Iceland, there also seems to be a definite power vacuum; the government that is in authority is not respected and has increasingly shown the failure of its policies and made itself the subject of ridicule, the longer it tries to maintain power.

I hereby propose that Icelanders take up the U.S. example, and simply decide to start listening to someone else. The government that is there now may officially have some power until the next election, but if everyone starts listening to ONE specific leader, no matter who that is, suddenly the current government will cease to be of any importance. Power is not taken, but given.

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