President Obama
Comments from DL staffers below the fold:
nemski: I now know how my father felt when Kennedy was elected. I now know the pain that previous generations have felt through war and tough economic times. I now have a President who will lead, but asks of me and my neighbors to get involved and make this nation great again.
pandora: I am so proud of my country and its ability to reinvent itself. Once again we are leading, we are proving to the naysayers of the world that we are a nation of possible dreams. Today we are at our best.
cassandra_m: Believe the Hype. Not the Obama hype, because that doesn’t matter, but the America hype — a country who responded to a man who reminded us all that our own history calls us to be better than the petty and selfish politics of the last 20 or so years. Who reminded us that the people who built this country are in crisis, and as long as they are in crisis, we can never fulfill our potential. Who reminded us that we are always more powerful when we come together as community. American possibilities are back, even though we have a lot of work to do to clear the table to get to those possibilities. He won’t be perfect and he won’t do everything I’d like, but I do know that he will be deadly serious about managing the United States of America. We’ve gotten our country back, and I’m proud of all of us who fought to get us here.
Delaware Dem: Clinton was my Kennedy. He inspired me. But that inspiration was short lived (like Kennedy’s presidency) and disappointment shortly followed. No, President Obama is my FDR. I do believe he will fundamentally change this country like FDR did. Could he disappoint? Sure, and he probably will. He will undoubtedly make mistakes. But one thing is for certain. We again have a cautious, patient, practical and intelligent leader again. The wonderous thing about Obama’s election and inauguration is that it proves true the addage that, when faced with tremendous challenges, America always chooses the leader for its times. And that is a relief, since we are saying goodbye to a President so ill suited, in temperament, intellect and ideology, for the times that he nearly destroyed this country. It falls on President Obama and all of us to rebuild America. We can do it. We’ve done it before.
LiberalGeek: Almost a year ago, I stood in the cold for hours to catch a few minutes of listening to Barack Obama on Rodney Square. My family and I had become seperated and I ended up finding a sightline that let me see Obama from quite a distance. In front of me were an African American woman and her 10 year old granddaughter. The little girl was too short to see anything, but her Granddaughter wanted to bring her out to see a dream. A dream that she had had for decades. A dream that seemed impossible in her lifetime. It was still far from a done deal on that day, but no Africa American before had seemed to have a legitimate shot at the Presidency like this. He had vision, where many before had none.
I lifted that young lady (and she wasn’t light) and gave her a view of Barack Obama for a good portion of that speech until my arms gave out. I was happy to give that girl a chance to see a little piece of history and to help her grandmother show her granddaughter the promise of America. Today, that is a promise kept.
Donviti: I’m not sure if people realize that this guy is black. How long ago where the riots in Wilmington? How long ago was MLK MURDERED? We had a black man lynched this decade. We had Katrina illustrate just how oppressed not only the poor are, but black people and minorities in general are. In one fell swoop, a single party that used fear and racism, which was full of out right racists, a party full of oppressive white people, that wanted to win at all costs; that party has been defeated and the sins of a nation are washed away.
I pray and hope that “Change” really will happen. I don’t hold much hope though. The rich and powerful need more and they want to keep what they got illegally, immorally and unethically. They have had their way with lady Liberty and aren’t going to let her go without a fight. We fight their wars, we pay their salaries and our tax dollars support their mistakes. Yet, I still hold hope. I hold hope that something will change simply because it has to.
You can’t turn an aircraft carrier on a dime and this country won’t change course easily either. Hopefully, Obama will continue to signal to the people that have been held back, held down and been cast aside as hopeless and helpless that miracles do happen and that this country is the best FUCKING country ever. I’m proud to be an American today and even prouder that the majority of people in this country got a say in what happens to them.
Obama means America to me and today I can dream that America will change for the better after 8 years of hell and ruin and out right defiance of the will of the majority.
X Stryker: Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.
On the night of Election Day, 2006, with great satisfaction I went to sleep knowing that the victories we’d achieved would not be complete until we took back the White House. As I drifted off, I wondered who our next president would be. I woke that morning with an answer – Barack Obama. Had it come to me in a dream? A vision? Or had my mind simply worked it out while unburdened by the distractions of the waking world? Whatever it was, be it divine, psychic, or mere chance, I woke with great clarity and renewed sense of purpose.
And today, we all wake as I did that day, in a world where the old conventional wisdom has been thrown out the window; a changed world where the old notions of the limitations of our achievements have been demolished. This is a day many millions of Americans never thought possible.
And so we wake from the long national nightmare of the Blunderer-in-Chief, the Unitary Executive, that useless, useless man who has brought us to the terrible precipice before us. At long last, the hour of renewal has arrived. Thank God, and as Obama said minutes ago, “we are ready to lead once more.”
Tags: President Obama
Cool post.
From my twitter feed (RSmittyDE) during the performance before Obama’s inauguration – limited to 140 characters, so it’s short:
Obama supporter or not, there is so much to be proud of today as an American. If you can’t see that, your vision is clouded by something of which I do not subscribe.
Awesome day. Awesome.
I’m with you, Smitty — there is much to be proud of today.
YES WE DID!!! YES WE ARE!!!
Updated with my comments.
I wore a tie today for the first time in a long time. There’s work to do. It needs to be done with pride and humility. Won’t be easy…
“I woke that morning with an answer – Barack Obama.”
He’s not kidding. He started campaigning for Obama to me that very morning.
Ex-President Bush has left for Texas.
Yup. Not there any more.
OK; bye y’all.
Anyone there? I’ll be in Texas.
Yup.
It is kinda cool that the key note of the Obama message is the one coined by Biden – we are going to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off
– CHAMP!
I noticed that the Chief Justice fucked up the oath. What else would we expect from a right wing jerk.
“It is kinda cool that the key note of the Obama message is the one coined by Biden …”
You mean someone plagiarized Biden?
I forgot to add that I am so looking forward to seeing this picture on the walls of my agency next week than what I have been forced to look at for the past 8 years. And hopefully, they’ll also turn off FiX News from the television in the lobby (we have been forced-fed that crap for 8 years – our complaints to change the channel were ignored).
A nation cannot prosper that favors only the prosperous- Barack H. Obama Jan 20 2009.
We are finnally rid of the administration of the have`s and the havemores, after they have driven us into bankrupcy. they leave with the share of national income going to wages the lowest since 1929, and this is the figure from 2006 before unemployment began to skyrocket, and in the same period corporations were setting profit records.
It`s time for the people to take back their far share of the economic pie.
I feel good about this one….unlike the gut-punch of Bush’s coronation, you know, because I actually knew of his slash-and-burn vulture capitalism, nepotism and fairy tale-believing wankery.
A successful four years of Obama will mean the preverbal death nail in the Modern Conservative coffin.
If that’s not a reason to be hopeful and wanting Obama to succeed, then I can’t help ya! 😉
I watched the inauguration in a room full of Democrats. It was so amazing, seeing history being made in front our eyes. His speech was truly great. How about that Rev. Lowery! He was great!
I loved Lowery!
Agreed, VC.
Today was an extremely emotional day for me. We watched the inauguration from The Exchange on Market Street. The place was packed and diverse. The unity was breathtaking. We were one. I’ll cherish these memories.
Why is the stock market crashing. Obama is president, shouldn’t the DOW be around 12,000 by now?
All of the employees of every company in the US are watching, hurting productivity.
That would be the purveyors of malfeasance taking their money and running – hiding it under their mattress, I imagine.
“I watched the inauguration in a room full of Democrats. ”
I bet you felt very safe and unchallenged.
I bet you felt very safe and unchallenged.
That’s funny because Democrats have a rich history of challenging themselves. The same cannot be said of the other party.
And doesn’t acknowledge the other bit of history being made today — that being that today is an united as Democrats ever get. And this time are joined by a majority of independents and more than a few Republicans.
The usual bickering starts tomorrow.
The Republicans were busy mourning Mr. Unpopular and making lemons out of lemonade.
What conservatives don’t get, and will never understand, is that this movement is bigger than Obama. For they are the one’s who dubbed him “the messiah,” not us. The people are speaking. The people are now invested and pro-active. The far right is making a huge miscalculation focusing solely on Obama.
“…Democrats have a rich history of challenging themselves…”
True dat. But it’s usually confined to the primaries.
Not true, Mis. Dems usually are their own worst enemies.
Remember folks Clinton was stabbed in the back by Foley and Mitchell bot Dem’s . obama should be weary of Harry and Nancy
2 Million People! Simply amazing.
Engaging Americans again, you cannot beat that.
wow, 2 million? thats twice as many as at the phillies parade. Was it true that people were experiencing spontaneous obamagasms? Just the thought of him made people immediately Jizz in their Pants?
“2 Million People! Simply amazing.”
Perhaps the biggest 3-D echo chamber in history.
“Just the thought of him made people immediately Jizz in their Pants?”
I didn’t jizz, but I must admit my nipples were getting rock hard.
Wait, maybe it was the cold weather.
Great post Nemski.
I am late to it so I’ll have to play catch up tomorrow.
For now just let me say that Obama brings a genuine, joyful, unifying and legitimate vibe to the country when it is in desperate need of genuineness, joyfullness, unity and legitimacy.
It is a vibe that throws the fraudulence, pettiness , joylessness, and divisiveness of abject losers like arthur and miscreant into sharp contrast.
Yet, unlike you, Jason, I have yet to advocate physical harm or death to those with whom I disagree.
No, Miscreant, unlike Jason, you have been the supporter of people who actually have caused the torture and death of those with whom they disagreed.
“…actually have caused the torture and death of those with whom they disagreed.”
You must be referring to war, Grasshopper. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Contrary to wishful thinking, those swords may beaten into ploughshares, only to be recycled later into assault weapons. It’s human nature (for those of us who still concede we are human). A thousand years from now we’ll still be killing each other. Only the methodology will change. It’ll just be cleaner.
We largely overcame slavery in less than 100 years. If we are to survive on this planet, we will have to overcome war. And we will.
Don’t knock it [war] until you’ve tried it.
What an utterly inane statement.
Returning to our “conservative” roots by rejecting Bush’s infantile and peevish war mongery was one of the great themes of the speech.
The world needs an optimistic, peaceful America that is slow to stir out of its traditional pacifist sensibilities, but once stirred acts with a moral clarity that is more devastating to the enemies of peace and justice than any bomb.