Congratulations, Barack Hussein Obama.
And now comes the hard part. Best of luck, to you and to all of us.
13 thoughts on “Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution”
Comments are closed.
Congratulations, Barack Hussein Obama.
And now comes the hard part. Best of luck, to you and to all of us.
Comments are closed.
I couldn’t agree more. This day is a historic one, not because he is black, not because he is mixed, or for any other reason short of this is a declaratio that what we as Americans stand for. We elected someone, good bad or otherwise, without a civil war, or mass killings or intimidation. Those things are common in other countries.
I am not a religous peron, although I am spiritual in my own way and I say I pray for President Obama, and our country. We need all the prayers and help we can get.
Kismet: I couldn’t agree more. People say that this is the first time they’ve “been proud of America” in some time, and I don’t understand why … America is more than the guy sitting in one specific chair in one specific building. I’m sorry it took those people this long to realize they can make the America they can be proud of without having to be told by one particular person.
Good luck to the man, he needs all the help and support he can get … but that’s been the case for everyone in the office before him.
I’m glad that Obama sounded the note of responsibility in his inaugural. He’s taking on a lot of it, but I think that he recognizes clearly that government is only a part of the solution.
And just think, the final prayer was delivered by a Huntsville-born and -educated minister (mostly–he finished high school there)! It was a truly emotional time for me.
Yesterday was indeed a day of change. Not because of the man himself, but instead because the voice of the nation as a whole has changed.
The office of the President of the United States is merely an elected official. Previous to this election the voice of America was that we were not ready to accept a non-white man into the office.
This election cycle broke most of the established rules in that both candidates for the Democratic Party were not white men. Democrats chose between a woman and a black man.
Brian…I have to disagree with you a bit. President Obama is faced with challenges that no president in our lifetimes has been faced with. He is dealing simultaneously with a crumbling banking infrastructure, two seperate unpopular military actions, rising jobless claims, freefalling educational standards, the erosion of faith in the system as a whole and most importantly a systemic failure of the Government as a whole to actually watch out for the best interests of the public.
President Obama will need nothing short of a miracle to survive the pitfalls that are awaiting him over the next 4 years and it will take a revisionist attitude on both Capitol Hill and in the White House to undo the events of the last 8 years.
People may not want “big government” but in order to ensure that the United States that we leave our children is as good or better than the one that we inherited it is going to take exactly that.
I wish President Obama, Vice-President Biden, and the rest of the Obama administration nothing but the absolute best. I hope that the Democratic Senate will support his programs while at the same time stay strong in opposition if they feel that he has gone a step too far. I pray that the House will work in bipartisanship to enact needed legislation before it is too late. And most importantly…I hope the media and other world leaders give President Obama the time he needs to get started before they begin passing judgement on his Presidency.
To disagree with Jody a bit: every President comes in with a unique set of circumstances. Bush entered the office to a post-dot-com boom economy, in an official Washington that was about gotcha politics. Bush promised to change all that, and if he did, I think that he did so for the worse, unfortunately. [I say this as someone who voted for him—twice.] Each President must pick up the thread of the Presidency from where the previous officeholder left off, and capitalizing on already-shifting institutional momentum really seems to be the only way to true change, which seems to happen once in a generation or so [Reagan, Kennedy, FDR], at least in current history.
If Obama has promise—and I certainly believe that he does—it is that he is not only a skilled leader and orator, but that he brings those skills to the table precisely at the point at which we greatly need them in this country. He will make mistakes, as we all do. He can do much to change this country—but we have a responsibility to make a change in our communities. After all, no one elected any of the folks who made the most positive changes in the civil rights movement that made yesterday possible: they were citizens like the rest of us, imbued with a duty and responsibility to make their community and country into a better place. The elected folks in that era largely resisted the changes being made. Those who did make changes from elected office merely marshaled forces already present.
Change begins at home.
Geof,
I agree with you that each president has to pick up the thread from his predecessor. However, since when has an incoming president ever faced the sheer number of overwhelming issues that President Obama has.
I believe wholeheartedly in President Obama…I voted for him. It will take a person of extreme character and substance to lead us through these troubled times. He will be faced with monumental decisions on a day to day basis…and he does realize that “big government” is going to have to take over for a while.
I am a lifelong democrat…and I always will be. However, there are times when you must balance idealogical philosophy against the needs of the country…and this is one of them.
I guess I should try to explain why the comment that I feel proud to be an American again. I have been voting since the year I turned 18. I have been a strongly politically minded person since I was young. My family has always been big on the discussion of politics and it’s meaning and ramifications.
For many years I have felt that the person who was our leader has not represented the way I feel about things. I am a registered Independent, a liberal one, but Independent none the less. I felt the exclusionist policies of the last 8 years has been a harmful path to follow in our dealings with the world. Also being from a mixed ethnicity family, it made me feel proud . As I said I feel proud to be an American again, and look forward to giving our new President the room to move to make things better. I hope truely he does, but I remind myself that he is just a man and can and will make mistakes. I don’t think he’s a Saint, but do look forward to the changes.
Jody: Well, that’s partly my point. But since you asked:
Johnson, taking over a nation roiling in the Civil Rights movement. Could’ve lost the nation real easily then.
Truman, taking over WWII in mid-stream.
Roosevelt, facing an economic crisis far worse than our own and set up by bumbling economic direction post-Reconstruction.
Johnson, after Lincoln was assassinated.
Lincoln, taking over a country literally about to rip itself apart.
Sure, Obama gets the war thing and the economy thing and the we-let-the-VP-shit-on-the-Constitution thing, but those problems can all be met. Of that I’m confident.
And above all we have the right to discuss this like we do. Just wanted to say thanks guys for being so open minded to be able to talk about politics without resorting to name calling and petty BS like I have seen on so many boards. You all are truely awesome to know…even those of you I don’t actually know………so there 😛
Yeah, I definitely appreciate y’all having a civil and substantive conversation about this. Meanwhile I’m in the other thread making comments about the model on the D&D Player’s Handbook.