A charitable hope for a President trying faith

Catching James Fallows by accident on NPR on Saturday, I sent him a note to say I shared his bemusement that Obama, announcing the budget deal, would positively boast about "the largest spending cuts in history." Fallows' response nicely captures my own faith-watered-to-hope:

This is a rough  time. We will hope that the qualities we admire in Obama outweigh the ones that make us nervous.

Come to think of it, if a leader is not a monster, fool, or knave, isn't this a wish for all seasons?