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OK, I recently confessed to a friend. Maybe I AM just a tad cranky these days. But it’s only because I haven’t slept a full night in more than five years. Sleep aids, home remedies and even new mattresses have failed to do the trick.

This friend who knows me – and my politics – well insists the culprit is none other than my deep-rooted ancient Scottish sense of patriotism, which, he only half-jokingly suggests, may at last be assuaged once a new president takes office Jan. 20. Here’s why I’m beginning to believe he may be right.

Much as a new year heralds a fresh start, a chance to right whatever wrongs may be occurring in one’s life, such is the promise afforded by the inauguration of a new president. But rarely before in America’s history have our collective dreams, hopes and expectations been as high as they are today, as we usher into office our nation’s 44th president.

Many have found comfort in years past with the quaint notion that any president, faced with a serious crisis, generally tends to “rise to the occasion”. But these are not normal times, and the mounting crises that Barack Obama, Joe Biden and team soon will be asked to resolve are anything but normal – indeed they seem to loom ever more ominously almost by the day.

• Economic pundits are pondering once unimaginable financial prospects ahead for millions of American households – some even suggesting we may be heading into a years-long deep recession or, worse yet, teetering on the edge of a global 21st-century Great Depression.
• National security experts have indicated that our misguided Middle East policies of recent years have magnified existing tensions and effectively served to recruit many thousands – and potentially tens of thousands – of new would-be martyrs who, given the chance, would gladly inflict mass harm on the American homeland.
• The dean of Russia’s diplomatic academy now is openly predicting the “disintegration” of the United States by the year 2010.

But we as a people are not prone to living in fear. Rather, we are inherently above anything else a nation of hope. The promise of a better tomorrow is never farther away than the end of whatever dire 24-hour news cycle in which we find ourselves. Faced with a threat, we tend to gather our collective wits and respond accordingly. In short, it is we the American people who rise to the occasion.

Timing determines whether our efforts are fruitful. The can-do American spirit may be stymied in our hour of need if fate provides us a commander-in-chief whose steadfast ideology and actions (or inactions) only throw more fuel on the burning fire. But if we’re lucky – really lucky – we have a wise president in office at the time who serves both as consensus builder and pragmatic enabler – guiding us along a more effective path toward resolving our malady.

I earnestly believe that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden are exactly such leaders – capable of bringing out the full promise of America’s tomorrow by bridging our handicapping divisions and enabling us to find our way out of this current dizzying maze of crises in which we have lost ourselves.

Simple changes these times do not demand. Rather, sea changes in attitudes and our sense of self in relation to others – not just abroad but also domestically – will be needed.

Finally, no one should underestimate the value of finally having a president again who genuinely wants to represent ALL Americans – not just those individuals and special interests who elected him. As of today, we once again have a president who treats our nation’s other main political party not as adversaries but as full, receptive partners in governance. After all, isn’t that really the essence of governing?

Today’s inauguration should mean a better night’s sleep for any American who harbors doubts or concerns about the future of their family, our country and, to some extent, even our shared planet. For me personally, these long overdue restful nights will be the most welcome change of all.

Make no mistake: tonight will be one of hardy celebration. But who knows?  If this inaugural insomnia cure actually works Wednesday night, the next morning I may even fire up the ol’ bagpipes and do a jig.