While the friendly neighborhood harems flooded the battle field of McCormick Auditorium in Norris to grill local talking heads who seemed to show no sympathy for Northwestern’s ladies (and gentlemen) of the night, our nation’s president stood trial in the more virtual town hall of the United States. The caucuses shared a similar sentiment: feelings of abandonment by the people who are supposed to keep them safe.

Often, it’s as easy to fume at Obama as it is at needlessly abrasive Evanston officials. Indeed, the professional sweet talker’s caffeine crash over the past two years has been a particularly bitter disappointment for his college-aged supporters. For many of us, Obama was the first political hole we ever punched. Our vote for change marked our ascent into an adulthood that often appears rather grim, now that the fireworks of Obama’s inauguration have faded.

Sure, the Obama presidency has been far from perfect. This is partially the fault of some of his Republican opponents who would rather see him out of office than seek compromise in the interests of the American people. But much of it has been his own fault – for letting his aversion to conflict supersede his policy goals, for seeking consensus in a political climate as unruly as a Chicago winter.

It seems Obama-mania both got him into office and made it impossible for him to live up to our expectations. Maybe we have to take it as an appropriately grown-up lesson: If you’re gonna make a man a god, you have to be willing to face his mortality at some point.

But after watching the State of the Union, I can’t help but feel cautiously optimistic that, perhaps, it’s time to bust out the wrinkled iconic Obama shirts and rosy glasses and make way for a little Hope and Change 2.0. While it’s easy to be skeptical about the words that come from a snake-charming rhetoric machine like Obama, his concrete goals felt focused. The impressive laundry list addressed the short-term problem of unemployment with job opportunities that target our nation’s long-term concerns: innovation, science, education, green energy, transportation. Confident in spite of a less agreeable House of Representatives than he faced the previous year, Obama made no less than seven references to “winning the future.”

For many Americans, simply clearing our current economic hurdles feels daunting enough. The prospects of full recovery often appear as far away as an end to the Evanston/NU Civil War. But for now, through a combination of lukewarm financial policies and the healing power of time, the worst may finally be over. Forty-three percent of Americans think the country is on the right path, the highest number since 2007, when the nuclear fallout of an explosive financial industry first took its toll on our nation and our wallets. Consumer confidence and spending is up, private sector exports have grown by 8 percent.

So perhaps it’s not as hopeless as it often feels. If Obama either achieves some amount of consensus or decides to use his power as president to enact stronger laws that, though unpopular and divisive, are wise and forward thinking, perhaps a real recovery can be possible.

And for the time being, it’s hard not to feel optimistic when in two days, 500 angry college kids and one Morty Shapiro won a brighter future for “brothels” across the greater Evanston area.

Amanda Scherker is a Communication sophomore. She can be reached at [email protected].