Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader heard from a minion (or two) who wondered if he (that is your Maximum Leader) was going all soft and squishy on President Obama. They indicated that the recent post about Obama and Nixon’s ghost was awfully kind to both men. Then yesterday your Maximum Leader wished President Obama success.

Well… Before you all clamor to revoke your Maximum Leader’s conservative credentials (such as they are) let him state a few things. Any patriot should wish President Obama success. Love of country should outweigh partisan considerations - especially when Obama hasn’t done anything yet. Think about it, he hasn’t been in office for a day. There is nothing substantive to be critical of right now. Surely no one wants Americans to suffer simply because of partisan considerations.

That said, my idea of what will be successful and President Obama’s are not likely the same. Your Maximum Leader has been pleasantly surprised by many of President Obama’s cabinet appointments. The President seems to be reaching out and soliciting the input of all. Indeed, if your Maximum Leader may be frank, he believes that President Obama will have more trouble keeping hold of the reins on his own party in Congress than he will from Republicans.

So… Although your Maximum Leader wishes President Obama the best, it doesn’t mean that everyone should just roll over and do whatever the President wants. We didn’t all pledge to serve him. Questioning the President and encouraging debate should be the job of the press, thoughtful members of his own party, and Republicans. Your Maximum Leader was pleased to read Juan Williams’ piece today in the Wall Street Journal. Williams asks us all to judge Obama by his performance. The juicy part of Williams’ piece:

The importance of a proud, adversarial press speaking truth about a powerful politician and offering impartial accounts of his actions was frequently and embarrassingly lost. When Mr. Obama’s opponents, such as the Clintons, challenged his lack of experience, or pointed out that he was not in the U.S. Senate when he expressed early opposition to the war in Iraq, they were depicted as petty.

Bill Clinton got hit hard when he called Mr. Obama’s claims to be a long-standing opponent of the Iraq war “the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.” The former president accurately said that there was no difference in actual Senate votes on the war between his wife and Mr. Obama. But his comments were not treated by the press as legitimate, hard-ball political fighting. They were cast as possibly racist.

This led to Saturday Night Live’s mocking skit — where the debate moderator was busy hammering the other Democratic nominees with tough questions while inquiring if Mr. Obama was comfortable and needed more water.

When fellow Democrats contending for the nomination rightly pointed to Mr. Obama’s thin proposals for dealing with terrorism and extricating the U.S. from Iraq, they were drowned out by loud if often vacuous shouts for change. Yet in the general election campaign and during the transition period, Mr. Obama steadily moved to his former opponents’ positions. In fact, he approached Bush-Cheney stands on immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperate in warrantless surveillance.

There is a dangerous trap being set here. The same media people invested in boosting a black man to the White House as a matter of history have set very high expectations for him. When he disappoints, as presidents and other human beings inevitably do, the backlash may be extreme.

Several seasons ago, when Philadelphia Eagle’s black quarterback Donovan McNabb was struggling, radio commentator Rush Limbaugh said the media wanted a black quarterback to do well and gave Mr. McNabb “a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve.” Mr. Limbaugh’s sin was saying out loud what others had said privately.

There is a lot more at stake now, and to allow criticism of Mr. Obama only behind closed doors does no honor to the dreams and prayers of generations past: that race be put aside, and all people be judged honestly, openly, and on the basis of their performance.

Your Maximum Leader believes that Mr. Obama will start (soon one hopes) to be judged on the basis of performance. Your Maximum Leader still believes that the bar has been set so high with all of Obama’s campaign talk of hope and change that as the President has to make tough calls and be political he will start to crush the hopes and dreams that many of his supporters ascribed to his presidency.

Let us see what Obama does now that he has the job. Then we can critique or laud him - as appropriate.

Carry on.