Long Live the King! errr, ummm...I mean, congratulations and best wishes, President-Elect Obama! May you lead wisely, govern capably, and promote justice and peace in the land.
Thoughts from the post-election sandy-eyed dreary blur:
-I haven't successfully slept more than four hours on a presidential election night since H. W. was in office. I am and always will be incurably a political animal. I "just stopped by" the campus centre for a few minutes between working out and getting to be on time for work this morning, and started talking...and got to be at around one-ish.
-I earnestly feel bad for my most earnestly liberal friends: nothing crushes revolutionary high hopes like winning the revolution. I mean, we had a Republican Revolution and all we got was a couple of messy wars, the death of compassionate conservatism, deficit spending, government intrusion into the financial sector and the serious erosion of civil liberties. The only thing more frustrating than being powerless is being in charge when your high aspirations and messianic dreams meet the harsh limitations of reality.
-Hoooray for America! 225+ years of violence-free elections. Three cheers for the rule of law! And good for us, the land of equal opportunity, where Austrian bodybuilders can call themselves the REAL Americans and a Harvard educated, extremely articulate, very-palatable-to-white-culture son of a white woman can be hailed as the first black president. What exactly are the qualifications for being the first "black" president? Could he have been the first black president if only his grandfather, instead of his father, was black? Great-grandfather? (Is there some sort of black-ness test, involving ability to dance, general sense of "cool"...was it that fist-bump thing?) Is Obama really African-American, considering that his father was a bona-fide African, and his mother was a white American, so neither of his parents were actually African American. And was that really bona-fide country music I heard blaring at his victory party in that Chicago baseball field? What is the significance of Michelle Obama's hairstyle? At any rate, let's take a deep breath and be proud of our country, where President-Elect Barack Obama can be judged by the content of his character. As Mike said, "there is no question that I am proud of America for accepting the leadership of someone who 50 years ago wouldn't have been allowed to ride the same bus with his Vice President(-elect)."
-'Kay, time for a question--I know what Obama's opponents thought he would do as president. What do you, my friends who voted blue, think his first hundred days will look like?
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2 comments:
First 100 days? Probably attempting to continue whatever financial reforms are put in place after this Nov. 15 meeting, re-regulating parts of the financial industry (like credit default swaps), and maybe (MAYBE) starting healthcare reform. Since Iraqi-American negotiations about security forces has recently already been pointing towards Iraq wanting a scale-back of forces, I think that will continue, and he will step up troop presence on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. I think he will attempt to pass through a tax hike on the rich, and I think it will fail.
I don't think he's going to touch social security until his second term, if then. It was way down on his priority list. I don't think he'll touch education reform, either. I suspect he might try to push through some lobbyist-reform (to help with the healthcare reform later), but who knows. I think a lot of what he tries might fail, since we are now projected at nearly a $1 trillion deficit for this fiscal year. Absolute absurdity. Maybe he'll have to hike taxes AND cut programs just to remain solvent.
I like your comments about the worst thing that can happen to a 'revolution' is to win. I think this is a historic election, but not because it will change our government or politics forever. I don't think Obama is any great messiah, or that chants of "Yes we can" will last past Jan/Feb 2009.
Obama has a special skill to inspire people, which may in fact make people more involved in government, may inspire a selfless-ness and desire to serve others that would be impressive in Americans, but for the most part, he's going to be another American president. What I appreciate most, I think, is that he (by appearances, at least) respects his place as a servant of the people, in addition to being a leader. Sometimes I think that was lost on President Bush. All that being said, though, I don't think he's going to change America into an amazing new place. I DO think he might be able to help repair some of the damaged international and domestic relationships of our current government, which seemed to disregard any dissenting opinions.
And I am very, very nervous for Obama's safety. Because all it takes is one psychotic/racist/neo-Nazi to pull a trigger, and we know there's at least some of them who wouldn't mind doing it (evidenced by the arrests in Tennessee last week).
OK, I gotta get back to work.
I don't know much about economics, but I know he'll be working heavily in that arena and I think he will have to be paying a heck of a lot of attention to creating new jobs. I do think he'll make some sort of step towards improving healthcare because i think he believes (as i believe) that the fate of peoples economic futures is too often tied into their (lack of) reasonable healthcare. Depending on how much of his time and effort the economy takes, I think he wants to start discussions (imagine, a president who puts a stake into the importance of diplomacy!) with other world leaders, including those many world leaders who hate us.
And honestly, although I guess I don't see myself as strongly liberal, I don't feel like we've "won" any revolution. I just feel like maybe we didn't lose and maybe now we have a chance to see some good things happen. Like healthcare access. And the offer to many many people that they can access things they didn't think they ever could. But I don't think Obama is going to save America and I know that there is the strong possibility that he won't succeed in the things I am so hoping he will succeed at. But I think that if McCain had won, I would have felt that we had already lost.
-tskd
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