44th President and 111th Congress (US Gov't 2009-2011)

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Shadow Minato

So, is today Obama Day in America? Perhaps, they should make it a national holiday or something. After all, Barack Obama had fulfilled the dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. becoming the first Black president of the United States.

not till he is dead

no living saints in the USofA

[klowny]

It sounds like a national holiday, maybe they are just happy that Bush is not president anymore. The speech was very long, i was expecting a 5 minute talking about what he was going to do as president but it was a lot more than that i'm not celebrating though, after all it's just a normal day for me

[Vexx]

Its been a long mostly painful eight years. Even if it fails, it'll be different.
People are excited... people with African ancestry are simply awestruck that a multi-racial person is now President in their lifetime (when more than a few remember the Jim Crow laws and the hideous treatment of blacks in the 20th Century).

[solomon]

Don't forget people in Western Europe and South America, they have been hanging on every news bullitten as well from what I could tell.

[Terrestrial Dream]

This is quite amazing, when I first came to America I would have never thought of black president in America, hell even three or four years ago I would have never imagined it. Well putting aside the historical moment I just hope that the public will be patient with him.

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Its been a long mostly painful eight years. Even if it fails, it'll be different.
People are excited... people with African ancestry are simply awestruck that a multi-racial person is now President in their lifetime (when more than a few remember the Jim Crow laws and the hideous treatment of blacks in the 20th Century).

Indeed, hell (as we know it) is over.
Time to set old scores aside, and 'dust ourselves and continue'.
On the forgieners front, less US bashing
On the American front, citizens too, the hope that everyone pulls together in their mindsets and actions to themselves and to the world.
- It's a new chapter, the world are a lil happier for it naturally. But i don't sense it as historic myself (until we look back through his presidency, i guess.)
Everyday, 'history' is being made, this is simply a new chapter down in America's book though.
I figure it's still honeymoon period, so the glitter dust has to settle, everyday life sinks in and then we'll see how things progress...

[Edgewalker]

Bush is not president anymore.

This.

When you look past all the claims and fluff Obama really isn't that much better then any other politician. Just like anyone else who has climbed the ladder that far he has plenty of skeletons in the closet.

However, unlike Bush, Obama is at the very least not a complete nincompoop. These past 8 years have been embarrassing for us Americans ( especially when we travel or talk to those from other countries ) because by saying "I am American" you would instantly get lumped as being under the leadership of a moron. With a new president in the white house, we don't have to be apologetic for Bush's countless mistakes anymore.

Hopefully Obama does a decent job so we can continue.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by mg1942

ok... I heard someone messed up; who is it???

Chief Justice John Roberts misremembered the Oath of Office. It took a moment for he and Obama to agree on what the President-elect was supposed to say.

The Oath isn't just some text that was legislated or has been handed down over the years. The specific text appears in Article II, Section I, of the Constitution itself. During the deliberations over the Constitution, the words "to the best of my Ability" replaced the phrase "to the best of my Judgement" because the Framers wanted to enforce the notion that the President is bound by law, not that he or she may use "Judgement" to decide what's best.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

After all the anticipation, I must say I'm slightly disappointed by Obama's inaugural speech as the 44th President of the United States — it felt too dry, too rehearsed, not as monumental nor as uplifting as his convention speech had been.

I thought it was a rather B+ speech. It lacked the soaring rhetoric of some of Obama's best performances (2004 Democratic Convention, 2008 Philadelphia), but it also conveyed the serious business that faces our nation and, indeed, the world. I thought one of the best parts of the speech was his warnings about America's willingness to resist coercion by foreign extremists. This section probably resounded well among people who cast votes for his opponent, not to mention the military over whom he is now Commander-in-Chief.

The other major strain in this speech was his implicit rejection of the Administration whose President sat just to Obama's left. What other conclusion can we draw from lines like, "But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."

Originally Posted by Narona

Random stuff: The song that was sung by Aretha Franklin reminded me God save the Queen.

That's because we stole the melody for "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" from the Brits. Our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was originally a British drinking song.

Originally Posted by Shadow Minato

Why are Americans so excited?

Originally Posted by klowny

It sounds like a national holiday, maybe they are just happy that Bush is not president anymore.

For those of us who can still remember dogs and firehoses being used to thwart efforts at racial integration in the 1950's and 1960's, the idea that we could be installing an African-American as President of the United States forty years or so after the Civil Rights Act is just mind-boggling. It's hard even for young Americans today, who live in a much less racially-polarized world than the one I grew up in, to understand what an enormous accomplishment this event represents. I'm not especially "patriotic" in the rah-rah sense, and I recognize that my country has a lot of faults, but it's hard not to be proud of America today.

I happily waved good-bye to George when the helicopter went up, too, but that's hardly the most important aspect of today's events. Oh, and Bush didn't end up issuing any last-minute pardons for his cronies either (though he commuted Libby's sentence). I give him credit for that.

[thermopyle]

lolo

Originally Posted by Shadow Minato

Why are Americans so excited? Hordes of people had to wake up (or possibly didn't even sleep) in the middle of the night, sneak through the security and fences into Washington's central place, gathered to wait several hours in the cold, shivering in a celebratory mood, while standing (though some people took a nap before the inauguration starts) because Obama will be having an 18-minute inauguratorial speech. WOW!!

Uh, because they wanted to? They wanted to celebrate a major stepping stone in race relations in America, (in the cold which sucks for them), seems pretty simple enough to me.

I thought the speech was pretty effective. Particularly liked the obvious snubs towards Bush. Ah, not much else to do now but start listening to the whinging and doomsayers. 'Damn that new socialist/muslimterrorist/antiamerican/radicalblack/racist/homoluvin' President is gonna ruin the country!'

[Zippicus]

I find it kind of amusing that so many people are pretty much gushing over Obama, and he hasn't even had the opportunity to do anything yet Talk is cheap, I'll reserve judgment until he actually does something.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Zippicus

I find it kind of amusing that so many people are pretty much gushing over Obama, and he hasn't even had the opportunity to do anything yet Talk is cheap, I'll reserve judgment until he actually does something.

I assume you'll be doing your part as well

[Irenicus]

I just have this really funny picture in my mind of a photoshopped Fox News frontpage website with Obama's picture juxtaposed with a headline saying, "It's the End of the World As We Know It!" in big, red letters.

And I need to catch up on the inauguration too. It's a freaking Presidential inauguration ceremony, they should have made this a national holiday, jeez.

Originally Posted by Vexx

I assume you'll be doing your part as well

You're having fun aren't you.

[mg1942]

Obama clone... in Manila!

[Zippicus]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I assume you'll be doing your part as well

That's contingent on what part I'm expected to play. If it's something I agree with, sure, if not then nope

I assume that was directed at my "talk is cheap" comment. All I meant by that was that politicians aren't exactly great at keeping their election promises. Whether he's a good president, bad president, or somewhere in between remains to be seen.

[typhonsentra]

I was grinning ear to ear the first time I heard Brian Williams say "Former President George W. Bush."

[Thingle]

No other country's road to power are nowhere near as long and pompous as the American one.

[Vexx]

yes, I was just having a bit of fun, sorry Zippicus ... people who keep setting the poor guy up as a Messiah are just destined to be disappointed. So are people who don't think some personal sacrifice might be in order to fix America's wagon.

Someone is going to have to pay for bridge repair, investing in the education of our youth and workforces, etc. The wealthy (the *real* wealthy) are going to have to share some of the cost of maintaining the environment in which they've profited. They've largely avoided that in the last couple of decades - leaving wealth to concentrate in a very small number of hands.
Some industries are not going to happy with alterations to the status quo (insurance, oil, etc). They're going to have to be creative or diversify to thrive. I expect them to stall and fight every step of the way.
If we're going to *share* the load for our healthcare, we're going to have to have real PE return to school, change our cities to encourage more healthy lifestyles, and some people may actually have to get off their asses and exercise/eatright as part of their medical treatment.

Obama is a politician, he's got to work with a spectrum of viewpoints - so a lot of stuff is going to be little baby steps or "less than perfect". There will be plenty of opportunity for corruption, greed, fraud -- but oversight controls that (oversight was simply tossed out for six of the last eight years).

I think the rather short couple of decades of sitting on our collective asses is one of the things Obama is aiming at.

[Shadow Kira01]

Originally Posted by thermopyle

I thought the speech was pretty effective. Particularly liked the obvious snubs towards Bush. Ah, not much else to do now but start listening to the whinging and doomsayers. 'Damn that new socialist/muslimterrorist/antiamerican/radicalblack/racist/homoluvin' President is gonna ruin the country!'

There were snubs at Bush Jr.? I missed that part..

It seems to me, as pointed out by others here that the reason why there was a huge crowd at the inauguration party, even though half of the people didn't even had tickets and needed to sneak in through the fences was that Bush Jr. is no longer their president. More over, Obama's speech was somewhat meaningful though I didn't hear all of it.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Obama is a politician, he's got to work with a spectrum of viewpoints - so a lot of stuff is going to be little baby steps or "less than perfect". There will be plenty of opportunity for corruption, greed, fraud -- but oversight controls that (oversight was simply tossed out for six of the last eight years).

I think the rather short couple of decades of sitting on our collective asses is one of the things Obama is aiming at.

I want to see Obama succeed with all of what he has planned, but I'm a little worried personally. One of my high school teachers once said that a Canadian Prime Minister can do in 4 years what takes American politicians a lifetime, and the reading I've done in university about how decentralized power is in the US suggest that's not all hyperbole. It'll be particularly interesting to see how things work on the urban planning front, since I'm actually studying metropolitan governments right now and how hard that can be in areas where power is decentralized.

I'll admit my interest in the US's wellbeing is not entirely altruistic. When a country buys 80% of your country's exports, you tend to wish them luck.

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by thermopyle

Ah, not much else to do now but start listening to the whinging and doomsayers. 'Damn that new socialist/muslimterrorist/antiamerican/radicalblack/racist/homoluvin' President is gonna ruin the country!'

You forgot baby killing, what with using the word 'choice' together with 'freedom' = full support of abortions for all!
Nothing about laying the blame/responsibility on the woman herself who walks into the clinic to put herself through the process of inducing herself

But yeah, I'm sure you guys will keep us posted here on what happens on the national front anyways (if it hasn't already been mentioned on the bbc anyways)
Bush got booed xD
BBC rep was interviewing regular peeps in the crowds, as soon as Obama was like 'i wanna thank Bush for his work for the country in the last 8 years', the BBC rep was like 'there was some booing and skeptism around the crowd at that statement' xD

Well, i guess one has to go through hell to get to heaven, such is the relief that he is no longer president must be a breath of fresh air to the natives over there, so maybe in a hidden kinda way, it was good that Bush was so bad that people were prepared to go all out for something completely new