Barack Hussein Obama will become our 44th President today at noon. I’m awfully happy about that. Only time will tell if he’ll be a great or even a good President, but I like our chances.
I used his middle name today –normally a mainstay of conservatives trying to emphasize his differentness — to remind myself of my initial feeling that my fellow Americans were so superficial in their approach to politics that they would vote against a guy simply because he had a foreign sounding name. I did them a disservice by underestimating those fellow Americans. 69,456,000 people cast a vote for Barack Hussein Obama — about 9 million more people than cast a vote for the quintessentially American name of John McCain. So, I’m very happy to have been wrong on this score.
Speaking of Obama and McCain, I am pleased to live in a country where, after a fierce political battle, on the day before the power transition, Obama and McCain had dinner together. This, of course, was a good gesture on Obama’s part. But, in my mind, it was an even better gesture on McCain’s part to accept. It’s easy to be magnanimous in victory. It’s a bit harder to accept such magnanimity in defeat. That McCain was willing to be part of such a gesture speaks of his love for this country and his understanding that our peaceful transitions of power are not common in this world and not to be taken for granted.
I was clearly an Obama supporter in the fall election.
That being said, McCain IS a class act. He is a great American. We are lucky to have him on our side.
I also beleive that he will be willing to be a voice in the Senate that questions the administration- and I think that is good. Questioning the President generally results in better policy for all!
This is truly going to be a historic event for our country and for the world. Obama has every opportunity to become one of the greatest presidents in history. Aside from the fact that he will go down in the history books as the first “African American” president, Obama will walk into office facing some of, if not the greatest challenges to date for the US and global economy. While, also he will face a restructuring that will need to take place with many of the fundamentals that this country needs for long term sustainability and growth. President Obama…….I take my hat off to you for your ability to walk into this with your head held high and smiling as if to say everything is going to be ok. Our new president, our nation as a whole, and the world must come together during this time of catastrophic failures and rebuild a foundation that our grandchildren can look back at and be proud.
Justin Blue
http://www.miiyachts.com
I didn’t need this to show me McCain’s classier than his campaign was. On election night, he conceded with grace and encouraged his base to be magnanimous. This only confirms it.
I’d say Kevin is right – McCain could very well be a boon for all of us. Humility added to the experience he touted the whole time is a powerful combination.
And yes, I’ve already noted how the superficialities you noted disappeared by election night, and how silly they seem now.
Did Chief Justice Roberts purposely try to get Obama to mess up the oath of office? He fed him way too many words too quickly on such a momentous day.
At weddings I purposely give the bride and groom no more than four words at a time and “feed” them to them slowly.
I think Roberts screwed up the oath — I’m pretty sure it’s written as “faithfully execute” and Roberts said “execute . . . . . , faithfully.”
Eh, he just messed it up because he was as nervous as anyone ought to be. Besides, he was nervous because he was in the presence of Barack Hussein freakin’ Obama. Wouldn’t you be?
Do you suppose the nutjobs have filed a lawsuit yet, claiming Obama can’t be President because of irregularities with the oath?
From what I’ve heard, the Freepers have already started. Anyway, if anyone’s going to do it, it’ll be Crazy-Man Alan Keyes, because he’s still stinging from how badly Obama beat him in the Senate race in Illinois.
Or one of the “mainstream” nut groups, I’m not sure.
I wonder if the outgoing staffers kept with modern tradition and popped all the “O”s out of the keyboards in the White House?
When the incoming Bush administration started lying about the missing Ws and the “trashed” Air Force One, we probably should have known we were in for trouble.
Yeah, the taxpayers had to pay for an investigation that ended up showing that only normal to-be-expected moving damage had occurred.
The Right loves its investigations.
Too bad we can’t have an investigation into our torture practices.
1) The man is as genuine in person as he is on TV — got to meet the new President before he spoke at the Lafayette Jeff rally.
2) Maybe Gary Welsh will file the lawsuit.. he seems to have a law degree and soooo much vitriol towards Obama.
3) I will assume that Rush, O’Reilly, Welsh and other whack jobs will spend the next 4 years making tons of money.. like Olberman and Madow did during the Bush years.
Hoosier 1: El Rushbo might not – he pissed his fanbase off with his “I hope (Obama) fails” statement, and they’re calling him on it.
By the way, what will Gary rail against now that Obama retook the Oath — just to make the whackos happy?
Hoosier 1,
Obama’s still black and a Democrat, so that’s enough for Advance Indiana and its readership to extrapolate all kinds of corruption and conspiracy theories.
I bet Eli Lilly could have made a killing off advertizing Zyprexa over there…;)
Blue fielder,
More detail on the Rush fanbase calling him on hoping Obama fails, please. I am always surprised when I discover yet another person I know who listen to him.