Jan 20 2009
I Wish You Well President Obama, The Nation Rejoices A Barrier Finally Destroyed
 
We seat a new President today – our President. And we can finally close a chapter on the racial divides that split this nation from its inception. Our lofty goals for humanity were always deeply and morally flawed with the support of slavery and its aftermath of racism. We can finally say we have arrived.
As the above picture illustrates the nation is in an incredibly celebratory mood. The crowds are huge – the smiles broad, the pride busting out. There are high hopes for our new President, and I for one hope he can succeed. Unlike some right wing whack jobs who are hoping he fails, I am still an American first. In fact, the tired conservatives better take a long hard look at what they threw away in their quest for purity. President Obama comes into power with massive support and with his party in firm control of both houses of Congress.
This is no accident. It is the will of the people who have rejected whatever poisoned brew this latest crop of ‘true conservatives’ are dishing out. Hate, anger and hoping Obama fails are recipes for decades of wandering out of power again. Conservative values, to a moderate level, are very positive and very good for this nation. It is why Democrats now adorn their policies with elements of conservative thinking (like low taxes, accountability and strong defense).
But conservative intolerance, fear mongering and degradation of fellow Americans on whims of zealotry are not positive and inspiring messages. The story of Barack Obama is an inspiring story. Sneer at it and you will find a proud nation giving you a well deserved finger back in your face. Obama is not my choice and I fear his liberal tendencies will undo a lot of good work.
I will guide him through support. I will try and blunt his liberal instincts and explain how conservative thinking is not bad, just some conservative thinkers. I will challenge him and disagree with him. But I will support the President of The United States. That’s what makes this country great. And that is what so many of us demanded for the outgoing President Bush, and many fell short there as well. How could anyone do any less?
Do unto others ….
Update: I listened to President Obama’s speech and I still don’t connect with him. Ce’ la vie. He recognizes the challenges, the delayed hard choices. He is seriously naive to think partisanship is over, as he claimed. How many times have I seen these fanciful visions from incoming neophytes? Debates will continue. We must concur with the path forward. He will need to reach out to the center and let down the far left.Â
He seemed a bit preachy, and his speech was filled with vacuous sound bites. But it is still an incredible moment, and he can learn if he wants to. Hopefully, those of us who have noted his inexperience are wrong and he will grow quickly to meet our challenges. Here is hoping that a miracle occurs.
Welcome to DC President Obama, you will soon learn why this place sucks he life blood out of people. Instead of trying to change America, you would do better to try and change DC and the halls of power. Only then can we make dramatic changes in our country’s direction.
Update: I hope everyone is noting the theme that we all need to sacrifice – that includes liberals and their dreams of endless wasteful government spending.
Update: OK, he flubbed the oath, the nation and his administration is still standing. Geez!
Update: Oh God no – not another administration of Juvenile Delinquents! Rahm Emmanuel, Obama Chief of Staff, caught for all prosperity on this historic day (H/T Drugde):
Update: Even more 3rd grade antics from the looney left as they mock PRESIDENT Bush. Why do these people ruin President Obama’s moment with these idiotic stunts? I mean really, this is not all about them! Talk about a ‘look at me’ complex. If this is how they start off we are in for a rough 4 years and the Dems will not hold power very long. Is 2010 the next 1994?
And this is how Obama claims his party is “Ready To Lead”? What a sad joke.
Did Obama break the law?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/biden_oprah
Joe Biden’s wife said Monday that he had his pick of being Barack Obama’s running mate or the secretary of state nomination that eventually went to Hillary Rodham Clinton, a slip that the vice president-elect immediately tried to shush.
Jill Biden’s comment came during an appearance with her husband on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” taped at Washington’s Kennedy Center on the eve of the inauguration.
“Joe had the choice to be secretary of state or vice president,” she said. Her husband turned to his wife with his finger to his lips and a “Shhhh!” that sent the audience into laughter. “OK, he did,” Jill Biden said in her defense.
The vice president-elect blushed, grimaced and gave his wife a hug while the audience continued to erupt in laughter. “That’s right,” he finally said to his wife. “Go ahead.”
18 US 599
“Whoever, being a candidate, directly or indirectly promises or pledges the appointment, or the use of his influence or support for the appointment of any person to any public or private position or employment, for the purpose of procuring support in his candidacy shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
perdogg:
LOL. Very nice – congratulations on ruining AJ’s message with just one comment.
Don’t you ever change, right wing whack jobs.
Let’s see if we really can put the white-guilt thing to bed.
As far as partisanship being over — let’s just say we get to treat Obama at least as fairly as Obama’s supporters treated Bush, how’s that?
RSVP, with regrets…
I won’t be watching the inauguration of Barack Obama today. Not that I have anything against the man personally: I almost never watch any inaugural. I bear him no rancor: his side won, my side lost. I’ve been through enough……
Guy:
I hope Obama does well and I wish him well. I may not have voted for him but I am an American. BTW, Obama is president now and lecturing someone else on criticizing the new president after 8 years of unrelenting partisanship from your side of the aisle is rich. You guys can dish it out but you suck at talking it.
Obama will no longer be able to grandstand on issues like he did Iraq. Like a lot of Democrats Obama seemed to think that we could call for regime change in Iraq without bearing any responsibility for what came after. Just a nice little coup and everything would be ok. Either that or just let it go altogether. However, in real life Iraq might well have ended up like Afghanistan with oil, wmd programs and 550 metric tons of enriched uranium. Add to that Turkey going after the Kurds, the Iranians coming in from the south and the Sunnis calling on countries like Saudi Arabia. Not to mention Zarqawi’s terrorist training camp in the north. I think that is what Bill Clinton was talking about when he said that Obama’s Iraq policy was a fairy tale.
Well, no more fairy tales. For years I heard Democrats who had no plan for what followed regime change in Iraq complaining that Bush had no plan for what came after invasion. Now they can not just point fingers and complain.
Good luck with that. The world is very different from that perspective.
Wall street’s verdict on Obama: -230 points and falling.
Given that Obama’s policies are socialist, I cannot wish him success or well.
To the extent he enacts sound fiscal and defense policies, I wish him well and will support those policies.
Beyond that, give him exactly the same measure of cooperation and consideration the Democrats gave George Bush.
The Titanic just ran head on into the iceberg, and all the fools are partying on the deck. There is no hope that this will turn out well – none, nada, zip. I actually feel a great deal of pity for Obama – how will he stand up when “Hope and Change” turns into “Abandon all Hope, ye who enter here?” Which is where we will all be soon. When the mob who loves him today turns on him tomorrow, this country will be a very, very ugly place to be.
The markets are waking up to the reality of trillion dollar plus deficits as far as the eye can see – the crash that is coming is going to be twice the crash that has happened so far. And every new dollar we throw at it makes the situation worse, since we are simply printing those billions.
Oh, the republicans have no good ideas of how to do anything better – they might do a little bit less bad, but after the last 6 months I doubt it. We all going to go down together. But Obama’s going to be left holding the bag.
Well, I was coming back to here to mention that I forgot to thank AJ for the tone and message of this post – regardless of the antics of random whack jobs.
And then I saw that last update. So let me get this straight: the actions of a group of classless idiots in the crowd somehow reflects on Obama himself? Those chuckleheads had as much to do whether Obama is “Ready to Lead” as did the folks as the McCain/Palin rallies who screamed that Obama was a terrorist.
You can’t control the actions of your supporters – especially when they are morons. (See Exhibit A: perdogg.)
GuyFawkes,
Coming from you, I’ll take it as a compliment.
I’m sorry, AJ. I just can’t stomach the kool-aid. The fawning adoration for this or ANY President is totally inappropriate to a Republic. Personality cults are characteristic of dictatorships, not free nations.
As for hope, I merely hope the price this country will pay for its folly will be bearable. But I fear that it will be measured in tens of thousands killed by terrorists, tens of millions impoverished by unwise policies.
And then I saw that last update. So let me get this straight: the actions of a group of classless idiots in the crowd somehow reflects on Obama himself?
They’re Obama’s “base.” Without them, he’d just be the junior Senator from Illinois, applauding the inauguration of Hillary Clinton. So they’re his cross to bear for the duration, just as what I termed the “Mikhail Suslov Conservatives” were Bush’s cross to bear from 2001-2009.
I wish y’all every last bit of the joy of dealing with your party’s nutroots that the GOP had.
I think I am one of the few people who truly appreciates the irony of both parties becoming more shrill and less civil in a desperate effort to appease whoever “the base” happens to be. That’s because “the base” translates into Arabic as . . .
. . . “al-Qaeda.”
Napoleon once said that those who seek to avoid war ” . . . would be advised to avoid the pinpricks that precede the cannonballs.” I don’t think either side of the political aisle is going to start avoiding the pinpricks (and worse) any time soon, so I’m not optimistic about the prospects of my (as yet unborn) grandchildren not reading about “The Second American Civil War” in their history classes . . . and I’m not especially optimistic that they’ll be reading about it instead of living through it.
Oh yeah right Guy. You make some crack about right wing whackos and then ignore your fellow Obamabots.
They were singing and jeering and acting stupid. Same old same old.
You know what? If Obama can break campaign finance laws and win I think Republicans should break the same laws.
Here in Indiana it seems that the Illinois disease is spreading. The state is going after both ACORN and Planned Parenthood for funny business in the last election. I wish we could give Gary to Illinois, it really would fit it better over there. If we did, McCain would have won the state easy. Crooked.
So we have crooked people breaking the election laws, jeering at outgoing presidents all the while lecturing the rest of us on unity. What a joke.
cobalt:
There won’t be another civil war. The left does not have the guts to actually fight.
[…] Strata: Wishing Obama well, but “still not connecting” and appalled that so many idiots think the best way to honor Barack’s day is by behaving like […]
There won’t be another civil war. The left does not have the guts to actually fight.
That’s what both sides said in the run-up to Fort Sumter and Bull Run/Manassas. We all know how that little spat ended up.
Push someone too far, and they will fight. They always have. They always will.
The problem is that both sides are insisting on having everything their way, all the way–in short, utterly annihilating their foe.
Sun Tzu’s dictum about leaving one’s foes a golden bridge–leaving them a graceful way out–is getting ignored on both sides. That means that the only options are victory or death.
I have to say that I disliked almost everything about the inauguration. I disliked Obama’s “Address”, his moral grander, when he has never made a decision of consequence to protect this nation or move it forward, except his change of heart about the FISA courts, and the bail out of the car industry. I disliked his assumption that he will put science back in it’s rightful place of truth, as if embryonic stem-cell’s are the answer to real progress, and global warming is a done deal. Bush is just too stupid to know the value of science. I disliked the assumption that maturity would change the discourse in Washington rather then a kind heart and the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Especially when the cruelty comes from much of the lies of the left. I dislike pretending that ideology is our big problem if only we could agree on his ideology, or progressive thinking. I disliked the poem or whatever that was, a gibberish of words. I disliked the music, except Franklin was great. I disliked Michelle’s dress and blowing hair. the daughters were lovely. For all the hype and money where was the joy, where was the uplift, everybody came to celebrate and we got beat over the head. OK I’m finished. Do I wish Obama well, yes I do!
Cobalt:
Well, this is not the 19th century and no one wants to leave the union.
Obama has the support of a large majority of the American people. That means that conservatives and Republicans are willing to give him a chance and wish him well.
The Democrats might not be able to say nice things about Republicans until they are dead, like Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower..but conservatives really do put country first I think and as such they are more willing to put partisan politics aside.
I am not talking about the rabid right here, but it seems to me that the Democrats just tend to more partisan. But partisan is not dangerous, it is just stupid.
Okay. He is officially ‘my’ President and thank God, the faux Office of the President Elect just stopped being.
I hope my President can do his job. Protect us.
The only joy I found in the day was thinking what this day meant to many older folks that had lived it. The younger? Forget it. They do not witness racism and I will not pretend they do.
President Obama now needs to clean his own house and get rid of the racists that are still standing in full view. He chuckled when his man practiced racism…………….again. I am sick to death of being the ‘white’ that so called prayer insulted me to my face in front of the world. President Obama. You invited him. I do not care what he lived through, he became what he rants about. Clean your house. You didn’t do it on your way up, but you have arrived where you couldn’t have, if any of that crap was true. Clean your house of the racists and Chicago thugs. I respect the office.
Well, this is not the 19th century and no one wants to leave the union.
Nobody wanted to leave the union until Lincoln won the election.
No true believer–of either side–wants a war of any kind. They just want “the other guy” to quietly cease to exist so that they don’t have to get their hands dirty and that they can just have their way. Funny thing is that “the other guy” is thinking the exact same thing about the first guy.
One important lesson in life I’ve learned is this: people are perfectly willing to kill, die, or kill AND die in order to preserve what can best be described as “the symbolic self.” Push anyone hard enough on an issue that is tied up with their central sense of self-identity, and they will fight. And we’re pushing each other as hard as we can.