I think I’ll get a haircut first.

A curiosity of this curious presidential transition is that so many folks invest affection amounting to adoration in Mr. Obama, and dislike amounting to hatred in Mr. Trump. The President of the United States is, after all, just a guy we hire to do things, not a term limited demigod, nor even an elected monarch. Obsessive focus on the president magnifies the importance of the job. Seems unwise.

Mr. Trump’s public persona (don’t know the fella, so I really can’t say more) appears to be vain, irritable, vindictive, and oddly ignorant. He’s easy to dislike. I didn’t vote for him, and  have low hopes for his presidency, though I do find some of his appointments diverting. There’s a great deal wrong; even a “successful” Trump administration can only make a start in undoing damage.

Most curious of all is the inability of the American Left to respond to Mrs. Clinton’s defeat with anything other than vicious invective. A prominent Hollywoody became notorious the other day for wishing a horrible though improbable death upon the Speaker of the House, probably over health care. Of course, it’s unseemly for a man who will probably never be concerned for his own health care, and who hasn’t struggled with the exchanges.  “Keep your

Man trying to enroll  children

doctor”?  Well, no, not in the case I’ve been struggling with the last month or so. Far from it.  to speak thus about someone who has to attempt to fix an unworkable mess: but it’s typical of the heightened rhetoric that passes for normal. But it all poisons the waters of discourse.

So farewell to Mr. Obama. May Mr. Trump be a better president than I think he will be.