This Day Has Come At Last
We always knew George Bush’s last day as President would arrive. It just seemed to take forever! But it is here, at last.
I’m not sure if I’m more excited about Bush no longer being President or of Barack Obama becoming our nation’s 44th President. I think it is the latter. President-elect Obama brings with him the optimism of a nation. I’m hopeful about our future. Had McCain-Palin won the election I would not be feeling hopeful — I’d be looking for a Canadian husband!
The road ahead is not going to be quick or easy. President Obama will need citizens to remain active so that Congress knows what we want and don’t want in our policy.
The fact that Barack Obama was born 1961 excites me. Presidents have always been people closer to my parents age. For the first time my President will have been born in the same decade as me. Barack Obama is younger than both of my brothers. I feel more connected to him than past Presidents of my lifetime.
George W. Bush & Bill Clinton were both born in 1946. George H. W. Bush in 1924. Ronald Reagan was born in 1911, Jimmy Carter was born in 1924. Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon were both born in 1913. Lyndon B. Johnson was born in 1908.
We skipped a President born in the 1950s. Barack Obama is 47. John Kennedy was 43 when he became President in the year Obama was born.
Barack Obama is a handsome man. Even the straight guys out there can recognize that. Michelle Obama is a head turner — as a gay man I can recognize that. Together with their two daughters they make a picture perfect family.
They will have three generations living in the White House — Michelle Obama’s mother will be joining them in the residence. That is real family values!
Assuming Obama will have two terms in office we’ll see the 45th President in 2017. That person will likely be my age or even a few years younger! Again I’m hopeful. President Obama will be a tough act to follow.
But that is 8 years away. An 8 years that will go much faster than the preceding 8 did. But this day of transfer of the Presidency has, at last, arrived. The voice of Etta James rings through my head:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADDigK8LwyE[/youtube]
It might be cold out but the skies above are blue! Happy Inauguration Day everyone!
I’ve been singing Etta James all morning–it’s the perfect anthem for today, isn’t it? My other ear worm today is It’s a Beautiful Day by U2.
Me too! I was just humming it at my desk. We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Tonight, we will get to hear “At Last” as our new President and First Lady take their first dance. It will be Beyonce Knowles singing, but the spirit of Etta will be there, for certain.
Funny that you should mention that you were excited about President Obama being born in the same decade as you; this is the first time in my life that I have been older than the President. This is a great day for all of us and hopefully optimism & opportunity will soon follow.
I’m still younger.
Bunch of old farts. Looks like I have a couple decades before I get a president my age.
Hooray for the end of eight horrible years without any leadership for the country.
I will not be hopeful. I look at him the same way I do ever politician, with mistrust and the expectation of disappointment. Once he actually does something, then I may revise my opinion. But until then, he’s just another politician from Chicago, just a little cleaner than most of ’em.
Also, with the Dem’s controling the House, Senate, and White House, I expect to see some actual work done. Otherwise, they’re no better than the Republicans and I don’t want to hear anymore bitching from either side (which will never happen, but I can hope.)
Write about STL that’s why we’re here. Some of us didn’t fall for C.H.A.N.G.E. – Come help a nobody get elected
Yeah, well, another hack from Chicago. I can hardly wait to see how this plays out. I’m guessing lots of talk of the latest crisis and solutions to said problems much like the ones that caused the problems in the first place. Round and round we go…..but for me it means impending unemployment. It’s not every day the President goes on national TV and says he is going to eliminate the product you sell. Yes, I see a big “change” coming in the near future. Depending on how quickly Congress acts I’ll be looking for a new gig within the year.
“Some of us didn’t fall for C.H.A.N.G.E. – Come help a nobody get elected”
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some of us were tired of the republican party pandering to evangelical nut-jobs. also, acronyms aren’t funny any more – just in case you hadn’t heard.
I hadn’t thought about the skipping the 1950s births before. In a technical sense, Obama is still a tail-end Baby Boomer, since most demographers mark 1963 or 1964 as the end of the Baby Boom, as birth control became more widely available.
Nevertheless, Obama experienced support from young people in huge numbers, maybe not quite like Eugene McCarthy in ’72 (and of course those young people were Baby Boomers), but still huge numbers.
While the Constitution says the minimum age to be President is 35, in practice I cannot see anybody under 40 getting elected. So, Obama is definitely a young President, and his election does represent a major demographic shift.
Well, Tim, perhaps you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps, take some personal responsibility for your life, and stop waiting around for someone else to solve your problems. I can’t say that while I was watching the enormousness that was the inauguration proceedings and reception of the new president by elected members of both parties, heads of many foreign and domestic states, and a powerfully large number of American citizens, that I was thinking what a “hack” from Chicago he must be. Considering the embarrassing failure that just departed the Oval Office, and true hacks like that idiotic knucklehead House Minority Leader John Boehner (who remains in the trust of his fellow party members despite presiding over two historically humiliating electoral landslide ass-kickings by the opposition), I’d be choosing my adjectives a bit more wisely.
For someone who just wiped the floor with anyone standing in his way, I’d be careful calling that person a “nobody”, unless you’re willing to admit anyone you cared to get out of bed on November 4th to vote for got smoked by a “nobody”.
Oh, BTW Tim, I can hardly wait to see how this plays out as well either, as I keep having to remind myself that we actually have a competent, educated, law-abiding, constitution-respecting person in the Oval Office making critical decisions and not some buffoon from Texas who fancied himself a ‘decider’.
Ha, just keep kidding yourselves that he isn’t just another hack with a lot of “happy talk” for the mindless masses. And this one really cracked me up, “constitution-respecting person in the Oval Office”. Really? I won’t hold my breath on that one either. The power of the Executive has been growing exponentially and I don’t see him curbing it. As to that chump Boehner my question today after this story http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090123/ap_on_go_co/republicans_economy;_ylt=AtJkXRab7t_pIeY3aqp2.fiyFz4D is where was he when Bush printed up money to hand out? All of a sudden printing money to write checks isn’t such a good idea. They’re all hacks and you dummies that waste your time voting get what you deserve. As far as my boot straps I’ll do fine. I saw this coming two years ago when the Dems took over Congress. If you read between the lines you saw it. But when he finally just announced it on TV it just confirmed it. But hey, with any luck since my job will be eliminated I might just get a nice severance package. Now if they could just make that happen in early Spring or Summer and not the dead of winter next year.
You saw what coming when the dems took over? “They’re all hacks and dummies”… no, that’s pretty much just people like you, Tim. If you and your bootstraps are just fine, than what on Earth are you complaining about? You shouldn’t need that severance package, because you’ll be able to innovate your way out your company’s inability to retain your position. Don’t let yourself get too cracked up Tim, you may need your entire constitution to remain solvent, but Rush, Sean and Bill should keep your mind occupied and well supplied with all of the spicy attacks on Obama that you’ll likely be repeating here on this blog. I bother to vote because I believe the American system of government needs our involvement as this is what a democracy does. If you choose not to exercise your ability and privilege (and many will say, your duty) to vote as an American, then you too will “get what you deserve.” I don’t feel that time I spent in line on the morning of last November 4th, or many special Tuesdays of the past, was wasted, nor do I really consider myself a part of some mindless mass, as I have a mind and it operates quite well.
Since McCarthy never made it on to the national ballot, it’s difficult to make the comparison, but Obama’s success among 18-29 year olds is the highest I have ever seen in my lifetime – he beat McCain by a MASSIVE 34 point margin in this demo, 66-32 on Election Day.
So, we’re replacing big wasteful spending with big wasteful spending and pretty words.
One thing I liked about Bush was that he was a terrible communicator. It made him vulnerable, ineffective, unlikable, and people were able to easily belittle him and call him out on his bullshit.
This Obama cult scares me. You’ve got clowns on MSNBC treating him like celebrity. “OH MY GOD HE SAID THE WEATHER WAS NICE! HE SHOOK MY HAND! OH MY GOD!”
Its funny, that crazy old coot McCain ran an ad saying just that — calling Obama a cult of celebrity, comparing him to Paris Hilton.
I was dissatisfied and voted Libertarian (I’d have otherwise stayed home, don’t give me the “wasted vote” garbage).