When I gave a talk for Obama in a Pentecostal church in central Pennsylvania and was warmly received, I knew the Keystone State would be OK. My home state, we had hoped to carry it by 7 or 8 percent, but carried it by 11 percent. I noticed, after the election, a kind of "reverse Bradley effect." Some people who did not want to talk too openly about voting for Obama planned to and did vote for him.
We are in for a roller coaster ride now. Rarely if ever has a president come in with such huge hopes and expectations, and rarely with as many pressing issues to confront. He is bound to slip here and there, and to annoy some supporters (as he already has). But I hope the press -- and the rest of us -- cut him a little slack for a while.
An interesting thought: What if Barack Obama really is a Muslim? How much difference should that make?
--Harvey Cox is the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School.
