This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, November 5th, 2008.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency is, according to Cato Institute Vice President

Gene Healy, a confirmation of the

cult of the presidency. The charismatic figure who was expected to fix the economy

heal the sick and turn good ideas into good policy.

But when Obama fails to do these things, he will then represent the best hope Americans

have for return to limited government conservatism.

Hely spoke last night at the Cato Institute as the election

returns rolled in.

What could possibly make us optimistic about the election of Barack Obama? It's not that I expected to implement good policies,

I'm not that one. In fact, I think Barack Obama is going to be a terrible president, and that's precisely why he's going to be great.

Here's my prediction.

Barack Obama is going to be one of the least effective, least popular presidents in the modern

hour.

And his administration represents the best chance in over a decade for a resurgence of

limited government conservatism and it also represents

an unprecedented opportunity to undermine the cult of the presidency.

It's true that too many Americans are presidential cultists, but what's easy to miss is that, on the

whole we're a lot less cultish than we used to be.

When political scientists first started tracking trust in government,

which is the most important, the decline in the trusting government is the most important

...