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Barack Obama Wins US Presidency
Last night, around 11pm, all the major networks announced that Senator Barack Obama had won the election. Soon after, Senator McCain conceded. There were no crazy partisan court hearings, just a simple election. This is your chance to talk about it and what it means for the future of our nation.
It means the Democrats finally have a chance to screw everything up. By my count there are 56 D to 40 R in the Senate and 251 D to 173 R in the House. While there's still a few undecided yet, that's Democratic control of the Legislative and Executive Branches. Normally I like to see these things divided between the two parties so nobody gets too far away from lagom.
My work here is dung.
A fellow bar patron put it best:
"BLUE TEAM WINS"
Rev. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream".
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Let's hope
I think Washington D.C. will become a radioactive wasteland and the survivors will spend their waking hours hunting mutant ants in collapsed subways.
Oh, wait. My copy of Fallout 3 arrived yesterday and that's all I can think about.
Thoroughly, and decisively, re-arranged.
Why? Did he vote?
The whole world agrees with those sentiments.
MABASPLOOM!
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http://i33.tinypic.com/zx6yi8.jpg
Oh, there was an election?
Just watched Obama's victory speech on the BBC, he namechecked Lincoln and derided Wall Street. If this is anything other than empty rhetoric he's not going to last a year. To paraphrase Ian Hislop on last weeks HIGNFY (popular UK satire quiz), "They're expecting a landslide and if that doesn't get him, the CIA will have to find some other way".
I firmly believe that Barack Obama is going to bring the change we need to alter the way the world see us. We need to earn back a little of our reputation that the eight previous years have lost us. We need to talk, discuss, and use diplomacy instead of force. I'm very glad that Obama won. I sincerely hope that he can keep all his promises he made to the American people, and with control of the house and senate, it looks likely that he won't have any trouble passing bills.
--"Forget the nectar of the Gods, just give me some Mountain Dew."
This Scot, for one, welcomes our Democraticly elected African-American overlord :D
Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
The party of big government soundly defeated the other party of big government.
Too bad for those of us who think the government is getting dangerously big.
15 million people are employed by, and have a vested interest in an the size and power of, the federal government, let alone state and local.
I can't tell if this is a joke or not, but people all over the world are laughing at the notion of Obama being a socialist. As in the 90s, at least we can rejoice over the lesser of two evils winning.
Well done, America. You've taken your first step toward re-establishing your international credibility by voting out the Republicans, who have played a large part in engineering the current state of international affairs. We recognize that your country is in a pretty deep hole left by the last administration, but we trust you'll do your best.
Yup! he voted for his son, Obama... :D
Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
Under Bush we all got "Stimulus checks" redistribution of wealth, we "nationalized banks", we "nationalized insurance companies", we "nationalized brokerage houses", and we gave trillions in welfare to Iraq...
And now you're worried about socialism? Welcome to last year.
Thanks to eating disorders most chicks are reasonably good looking these days.
I'm sure I'll be modded out, but as an Australian... can I just say, THANK YOU America for making the right decision.
Your country has a huge influence on us and I am so glad you are taking a positive step forward into what I hope will be a new era for us all.
Watching on CNN the sea of people in Chicago cheering for President Elect Obama and his victory speech convinced me that this was one of those unique moments, the kind that people decades from now will remember and ask each other "Do you remember where you were when Obama was elected?" Truly a great moment.
Hope because the idiots that have been running the country for nearly a decade are gone, fear that the new bunch of idiots aren't any better.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
The democrats now control the house, senate, and the presidency. I think "dear god" might be more appropriate.
This was easily the best election I ever participated in. Mostly because of Ron Paul. He opened my eyes to real liberty and true freedoms, and I've been a changed person man ever since. I'm not going to take crap from the two parties sitting down anymore, and I have real hope for this country, that someday we all might really be free from the federal government. I was also exposed to Ayn Rand and read her fiction, and really enjoyed it.
I wrote Ron Paul in, and I was beyond happy the rest of the day. It honestly felt awesome to vote for someone that I honestly believe in, an opportunity I've never taken before.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
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Where have you been the past 8 years?
Anyway, I can't say Obama would be significantly better (or worse) than McCain, McCain just too much risk of Palin becoming president. I think she would have made us look back on the "golden years of Bush"
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
all of the campaign ads so I can slowly wean myself off instead of going cold turkey.
Nicely put!
As far as the new president is concerned: the guy has a lot of shit to clean up now, and we don't even know what's still coming. He will have to take a lot of unpopular measures, and I really wonder if he can keep a high popularity for long.
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
I have never seen such hysteria for a candidate in my life. With the type of overwrought messianic expectations that he faces, there is no way to go for Obama but down.
I'm not saying that he deserves it, but when these pie-in-the-sky types realize that he is human like the rest, and that he won't be able to wipe the tear from every eye, his approval rating will take a serious hit.
I was writing joystick handling code on a Ubuntu install running under VMware. Truly, a momentous occasion.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Obama's win was widely predicted, although most people underestimated his support (right now, it looks like he will take 364 electoral votes).
The biggest surprise of the night is in Alaska, where against all odds, they elected a convicted criminal to the US senate.
I came here for a good argument
Well honestly what can you expect, when the last band of idiots was allowed to run up a 7 trillion dollar deficit? SOMEONE is going to have to pay that off.
What's his name again? Sadam Hussain Obama Bin Laden or something. Now if that ain't a Muslim name I don't know what is. America is meant to be a Christian country. It says so right there in the First Amendment, and it was that way back when we were founded by Jey-sus in 0AD. And now he's goin' to make an Oath on the Koran, change us all into Muslims and move the US to the middle east and we'll all have to join Al Quaeda and blow ourselves up. I don't know what I'm gonna do.
They are laughing at the fact the republicans THOUGHT he was. There was nothing socialist he was proposing that we are not already doing, and nearly half our friends we terms a "democracy" are truthfully socialist democracies. The socialist claim was truly one of the STUPIDEST moves the neocons could have pulled, especially when their darling base polarizing vise prez nominee actually PRACTICED socialism by redirecting oil drilling profits to state residence.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Kent Brockman: I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply doesn't work.
Summation 2
I have never seen such hysteria for a candidate in my life. With the type of overwrought messianic expectations that he faces, there is no way to go for Obama but down.
I'm not saying that he deserves it, but when these pie-in-the-sky types realize that he is human like the rest, and that he won't be able to wipe the tear from every eye, his approval rating will take a serious hit.
As far as a good part of the rest of the world...we don't think you elected a messiah. We're just glad you didn't elect the 3rd incarnation of the fucking antichrist.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
A person who lived through the collapse of the soviet union once pointed out that in America, the only relevant political parties are the Capitalist party and the Capitalist party. Democrats and Republicans disagree on a handful of very minor issues, despite all the media trumpeting about one being "left" and one being "right." The Democrats will still pass legislation that favours big businesses, just a different group of businesses. No president since the 1950s has served an entire term without engaging America in some foreign conflict. The use of signals intelligence operations to spy on foreign businesses and pass along their trade secrets to US businesses has occurred during both the Clinton and Bush administrations, and during both Democrat and Republican control of Congress.
If America wanted serious change, change that was not just superficial, then one of the third party candidates would have one.
At the very least, it is a good thing that the neoconservative movement appears to have weakened a bit in this election. Do not confuse neoconservative and Republican -- while most neocons are Republicans, most Republicans are not neoconservative and many Republicans found the neoconservatives to be embarrassing.
Palm trees and 8
Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's going to take a lot of hard work to undo the backward progress and bad decisions that the Bush gov't lied and cheated the American people into. But it's a serious job for grown-ups who are not afraid let reason and long-term strategy prevail, instead of fighting fire with fire 'til the house is burnt down. Luckily, there will soon be a responsible adult in the White House.
Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
No, however you would have had to put up with a lot of the status quo since even the most honest of Republicans would find it difficult to remove the most corrupt or incompetant entrenched in various nooks and crannies. The same could apply if there had been a corrupt Democrat administration but it would take a few years with nobody really watching before that could happen while some of the current crooks have should have rap sheets dating back to Nixon's administration.
One thing I've noticed from being in a place that had a far more corrupt government is that the replacements make an effort to try to be squeaky clean even if is against their nature. Also the Republicans now have a chance to purge criminal elements which they would not have if they had won, so I think it's better for them and the USA than if they had won. The bizzare shift to Monarchy within the Republican party and the rest of the odd neocon agenda has hopefully been laid to rest with this election if it wasn't already.
I think the thank god was in reference to the no recount. I could be wrong, but that is what my 'Thank God' reaction was aimed at.
"Little is much when little you need."
Well, I don't wanna' get all "tit-for-tat" here with that "love it or leave it" crap *I've* had to listen to for far too long. Oh, wait. Yes I do.
Think GW Bu$h ever DREAMED he'd be THIS much of a uniter? Mwahahahahahahahaha!
"Democracy." It's just a slogan.
Did you listen to the same speech as I did? Of course he thanked his campaign team, these people just busted their ass for the last 6 months. But he also clearly pointed out the problems lying ahead. What did you want him to say? Make a list of all his plans again? A majority of americans just APPROVED those plans! He clearly stated that this election by itself did not constitute change, that the promessed change was only now starting and would not be possible without the hard work of all americans.
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Why would we begin the prayer after it has been answered?
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
McCain isn't the antichrist. Not by a long shot. And I said this as an Obama supporter. He's served this country (more honorably than many senators) for a long time.
When will you get it into your head that your your political opponent isn't automatically evil incarnate? That may work for vi-vs-emacs and Apple-vs-MS wars on /., but it's just juvenile in the real world.
Go somewhere random
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I voted for Barr - even though I was rooting for Obama.
Why didn't I vote for Obama? Because I'm so disgusted with BOTH the Democratic and Republican parties that I,at least, wanted to send a message that, regardless of their candidate, I do not approve of their policies and direction.
As far as I'm concerned, the Bill of Rights, all of them, are cast in stone. We can't pick and choose which ones to keep.
Every square millimeter of the US is a Free Speech Zone.
We have the right to bare arms. PERIOD. That means if I want a magazine that holds 50+ rounds, I can have it. If I want a machine gun, so be it. Handgun -you bet - and NO license if I want to carry.
There is a separation between church and state. Religion has no business in government.
Ok...he won.
Now...honestly, what do you think is really going to change?
Do you think he'll get the Dems to undo the Patriot Act?
Do you think he'll get to the bottom of and stop the Wiretaps on US Citizens?
Do you think he'll have us 100% out of Iraq in the next week? Month? Year? Decade?
Will he magically fix the economy? If so, how long? What exactly is he going to do?
Will he walk on water?
Ok...the last one was a joke, but, seriously, everyone that seems to be treating his election as the 'second coming', what exactly do you think has changed, or what to you see as the time table to be looking for all this "change"?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The Patriot Act was passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Republican president.
McCain would tax the Poor?? really? If you really believe that then McCain's campaign has failed even worse than I'd imagined. Not once has he said he'd raise taxes on the Poor. Good Grief!
As a male white Italian with no involvement into USA elections, I have to admit that this morning I cried and laughed hearing what just happened in a big nation far far away. This changes everything. The politics of fear will end. Black people won't be seen "out of place" in any place from now on. Things won't go worse all the time, like last years made us think! A big thank you to the US people. This affects us all.
Nuffsaid
________
Don't know about his cat, but Schroedinger is definitely dead.
More importantly, a vote for McCain was a vote for Rove and friends. Rewarding them with another four years would have been interesting in a Chinese curse kind of way.
I'm not American and couldn't vote but I've spent all my adult life here and the last eight years have affected my life in much the same ways it affected yours. I'm very glad there were record turnouts, whoever you voted for.
I think its good to recognize this as a historic and important moment. I stayed up all night working and listening to the coverage. It is a night I'll remember and I'm admittedly quite happy. Certainly, there is hope, a word I haven't heard much off since 2001. I'm very glad that he acknowledged that the real work lies ahead and that it will take a spirit of service and sacrifice and both of them talked about coming together and bridging the gaps that have cut this nation.
Bridging gaps is a hugely critical message today. There is an interesting discordant note between all the commentators speaking about how this marks the end of slavery and the fruition of the civil rights movement and the change of a generation, and what looks like a yes vote on Proposition 8 in California. When the dust has settled, there is going to be much talk about the way different demographics voted and the gaps that represents. I hope it will not take 40 years for all of us to recognize that in the end, beyond nationality, skin colour, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or background, we are all just human beings.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
What's with the obsession with taxes? The difference in taxation of the last 30 years worth of budgets with their tax breaks and tax hikes are comparatively small with regards to your consuming power as it relates to other economic effects and measures.
Take the last 8 years for instance, GW Bush has effectively wiped out any tax-break by a) running up the deficit b) running up the inflation c) spending trillions of your tax money on a phony war and d) financial crisis.
So a 3-5% tax break on a $100,000 income is pointless with a 4-5% inflation and mortgage rates almost doubling the last few years.
Looking strictly at what ends up in your pocket after the taxes are paid and not what you get for your taxes or the overall economic situation is a simple reaction to a simplified issue from a simple person.
Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
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Sounds like you've been watching Fox "News". Shortly after Obama made his speech last night, I tuned in to see what they were saying, and pretty much heard *exactly* what you just typed.
No, he's not going to do any of those things in the first week, month, or most likely even first year he's in office. The shit Bush & Co. has done will take far longer to unravel, but he can start the process.
Quit being so damned bitter and actually start helping your fellow countrymen instead of being an asshole because your guy didn't win.
bork bork bork!
...is the international reaction to Obama's win. I knew that the reputation of America and Americans had been battered over the past few years, but I never suspected that it was as bad as it was. I watched the results last night, said a little "huzzah!" when Obama was declared, listened as McCain gave a warm, dignified, and gentlemanly concession speech, and then went to bed thinking I'd seen it all. I woke up at about 4:45 this morning and I've been flipping between news stations ever since. I got a little emotional last night during the speeches, but I'm absolutely devastated by the number of non-Americans who are dancing in the streets over Obama's win. I never thought I'd see video of a few hundred Chinese people jumping around and chanting "Obama! Obama!" A reporter in France walked up to a woman and simply said "Obama?" Her face lit up and she simply said "C'est formidable!" Kenyans are throwing feasts in his honor. Arab and Persian states are happy. Israel is happy. Pakistan is happy. Australians are losing their damned minds over it. Russia is... well, they're kinda grumpy, but they're not having a good year. And all morning I've been hitting my usual haunts (/., Fark, CNN, BBC, & more) and I keep seeing messages posted by people from a zillion different countries congratulating us and thanking us for "making the right choice." Before you ask, yes I voted for him, no, I don't think he's the messiah, and yes, I'm still pissed at him for breaking his promise over campaign financing. But even with all that, I still can't shake the feeling that something *seriously* important happened last night. I'm almost 40, so I've seen a few elections, but never in my life have I seen or felt the kind of excitement that's in the air right now. It seems like all sorts of barriers have just... vanished. Racial, political, international, interpersonal, it just all seems different now. I know that part of it is just the morning-after buzz of having your candidate win, but there's something special about having a friend email you and tell you how they got hugged twice in Germany while wearing an Obama t-shirt and walking to the bakery on the corner, then reading a post that says "The Netherlands are happy for you!" The world stood up and took notice of us this morning. I hope he doesn't let us down.
Thus endeth my waxing philosophical.
"We're just glad you didn't elect the 3rd incarnation of the fucking antichrist."
Even though I voted Obama and am VERY glad he won, I think that's overly harsh on McCain. Every impression I got was that he was more intelligent and sane than the Texas Village Idiot.
The problem is that McCain and Palin ran on a platform that catered to the same uneducated religious nutjobs that Bush appealed to. That platform backfired on them, when their "This is Real America" small-town speeches pissed off the (according to them) educated "Fake Americans" living in suburbs and cities. I may live in a small town now, but I grew up in the suburbs and many of their speeches implied that I was not a "Real American", which I found quite insulting.
Signed,
"Fake American" (aka educated ex-suburban-resident)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
...welcome our new black, arab, muslim, atheist, socialist, communist, not-born-in-america, terrorist, redistributionist-in-chief overlord.
LOL!
Seriously, from all of us in fake America to all of you in real America, thanks for the laughs...and the winks. Let's not forget the winks.
Go Obama!
I have never seen such hysteria for a candidate in my life. With the type of overwrought messianic expectations that he faces, there is no way to go for Obama but down.
I take it you were born after the 1984 Reagan-Mondale election.
Yes, it does.
I doubt he's likely to make things worse - and for most people, that's enough on its own. Damning with faint praise, or just a reflection of how bad King George Bush II was? I heard dubya was 6 points lower in the approval ratings than Nixon was - after he was indicted.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Residents of Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Marshall Islands do not pay federal income tax. They do pay Social Security and Medicare taxes but they are also eligible for benefits from those programs. To have representation in Congress (relevant to "taxation without representation"), those territories would need to petition for statehood. Puerto Rico, in particular, has consistently voted not to do so.
My favorite thing to hear on Fox was a discussion going on to do with the state of the economy, and how "we are only now seeing the full effects of the Clinton presidency". I about fell out of my chair.
I do realize that change cannot be immediate, but there are limits. Considering how long we've had a Bush for president, continuing to blame the past just flies in the face of all reason.
Now it still concerns me to stand by and watch just how much more damage the Lame Duck can do before the clean-up crew moves in.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Based on the "hopes" of a lot of people, the poor guy is going to disappoint a lot of people.
His supporters who think he'll change everything.
His detractors who think he'll change everything.
Take a look at a list of presidents for the past 40 years and you'll see no one president fundamentally changes everything. Can't be done. A president doesn't have that sort of power.
As I tell everyone, whoever gets elected you hope he/she does well for our country, because then everyone wins.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
So you honestly believe that the only reason so many people voted fro him was race? How sad.
It may also surprise you that, in retrospect, experience is not correlated to being a good president, and in fact some of the the most inexperienced presidents have been some of the most successful.
Compare it to the alternative McCain, who's political convictions apparently run so shallow that nearly all of them did a complete 180 in the four years since his last attempt at the oval office. His campaign was run by anyone but him and the choosing of Palin should shake even the most stalwart GOP supporter's confidence in that man's executive capabilities.
I'll take "confident and inspirational" over "schizophrenic and incompetent" any day, even if "experience" is lacking.
=Smidge=
With the world in financial crisis, two wars, and our civil liberties gone down the tubes, isn't it time for a charismatic leader with dreams rather than Joe from accounting?
When did we become so cynical that we believed nothing would change? I suppose there were people said the same thing when FDR was elected.
When did we become a nation of "that's too hard" instead of "yes we can"?
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Blaming Bush will only work for so long. If Voters took account of who was responsible for problems they would of tossed out Dems and Republicans in congress since the Democratic congress does hold some responsibility for their actions over the last two years, but the fact of the matter is that whomever is in the White house defines which party is responsible regardless of who is REALLY responsible.
Complaining about trains not running on time and management is FAR different than making the trains run on time and BEING management.
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I would have hoped that the American people would be smart enough to know that the crisis was a bi-partisan failure. From Credit Default Swaps passing the Senate as a rider 98-0, to the Bush Administration sounding the alarm in 2003 but being ignored, to Barney Frank famously telling the House Republicans that there is nothing wrong with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and getting the backing of House Democrats), to the Republicans blocking the Fannie/Freddie bill once it reached the Senate, there is plenty of blame to spread around.
The truth is that the economic crisis happened because the financial markets found new ways to be greedy that no one understood. When the powers that be looked at the balance sheets, they'd see these odd financial instruments and mortgage-backed securities and just shrug and say, "We trust that you guys are educated and know what you're doing. Besides, it seems to be working." Only now that they're falling apart is it clear to everyone how underhanded and vile these various financial instruments were. It's all crystal clear in 20/20 hindsight.
That being said, McCain didn't help himself any by appointing Grahm and Fiorna as his advisors. Having the guy responsible for CDSes and the most hated CEO in history (at least, that hasn't been prosecuted) didn't exactly endear him to the American public.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
> It is juvenile to think someone is evil because they use a
> different text editor.
Most folk on /. know it's juvenile. Those who accuse their political opponents of being evil usually don't. Hint: if your political opponent was truly evil, you probably wouldn't be around. Just ask some Zimbabweans who dared oppose Mugabe and were found in a ditch with their limbs torn off.
> It is just clarity to see evil in someone who will bring
> suffering to millions of people.
By that measure FDR would qualify as "evil" - his policies (including the US' insistence on the gold standard long after other nations abandoned it) extended the Depression for the US for at least 6 years and caused suffering to millions of people.
"Evil" is a loaded word. Sending people to Siberia to starve and die is evil. Sending jews and gays to bake in Polish camp ovens is evil.
If you think McCain is evil, you're deluded _and_ are cheapening the meaning of the word.
Go somewhere random
The hope is that he won't make things any worse. That, at least, makes me and many other people both inside and outside the US feel a lot safer. Perhaps he'll go the way of Jimmy Carter, but even if he does, at least we can be fairly sure there won't be another pointless war or needless reduction of civil liberties.
You thought you could break the laws of physics without paying the PRICE?
A coworker of mine described his vote very simply: "My fear with McCain is that he will do as he says. My fear with Obama is that he won't."
My response to those concerns is very simple: if he does half of what he says he'll do, that's still a big win.
I am officially gone from
What's so bad about socialism?
Do you honestly think that voting in Obama is going to turn the states into some sort of Soviet Russia just because SOME of his plans are similar to those in Western Europe?
Wake up and realise that it doesn't matter what the idealogical principle is. All that matters is that you do the correct action for the situation. Sometimes that action is one that reflects libertarianism, sometimes conservatism, sometimes socialism, sometimes environmentalism, sometimes etc.
Your healthcare system NEEDS drastic change, perhaps socialism. No one is suggesting a British style NHS (certainly not the British). But quite simply, whether you are proud of you country or not (and when did that matter to anything) you should be ashamed of your healthcare system.
Regards
Person-bored-with-meaningless-election-fearmongering-but-honestly-impressed-with-the-US-people.
If this were really happening, what would you think?
>Quit being so damned bitter and actually start helping your fellow countrymen instead of being an asshole because your guy didn't win
You mean like the Democrats did in 2000 and 2004?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
just because you heard it on fox news doesn't mean it's incorrect.
I just want to say again, Yes it does!
"Fox News" is not news. It is a commentator show. It is hard to even find a "news" show any longer. Everyone has to inject their opinions and interpretations of the carefully selected facts presented. That's commentating and editorializing -- not reporting and not news.
We need truth in labelling in everything, it seems, and not just on foods and drugs.
I am sure people will point out that McCain!= Bush, and I will admit that McCain himself seems to be a man of integrity. However, much of the republican leadership is not. Palin serves as a perfect example.
As a European who has paid an interested attention to this election, it seems to me that the McCain who gave the concession speech and sat 'debating' next to John Stewart (essentially the enemy) was a man of integrity and I was impressed that he was willing to give his views to an audience that disagreed. Unfortunately the McCain on the campaign trail, the stupid negative namecalling (when Obama wasn't there), putting a 'below-Bush-intellect' Palin on the ticket, the whole 'small-towns' thing was not a man of integrity, it was a man who let too many Bush advisors on his team.
A shame because he would have had better chance without them.
If this were really happening, what would you think?
Now it still concerns me to stand by and watch just how much more damage the Lame Duck can do before the clean-up crew moves in.
I have this image in my mind of Dubya, on January 19th, starting "police actions" in about 20 countries, and saying, "Let's see him fix this!"
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
For me, as a person born in the Southern US in the 1960s, this event is a very, very big deal. I've seen people do things that should never be done, and get away with it, and I never though that a black man could ever be president.
I'm very cynical about politics, but not about people. And for the first time in my life, I am truly proud to be an American.
No one expects miracles, but it feels good to put that chapter in our history at least partially to rest.
God? God had nothing to do with it. Thank Bush.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
It's funny, though... Obama is quite possibly the biggest con man I've ever seen. I have great admiration for his skills at deceiving people, even as I'm disgusted with my fellow countrymen for being taken in by a swindler so easily. Truly an exemplary politician, even if he is a bad statesman.
Why would you be surprised? Weren't we taken by Clinton just as easily in the 90's?
Yeah, and look how bad the Clinton years were for this country...
Oh, wait...
wants to be the first monkey to touch the monolith
A sadly unusual point of view. The president might be whom folks think of when presented with the term "US government" but he is not the US government. I know locally at least, almost all the incumbent members of congress went back for another term. Why is this, when approval ratings are so low?
Yeah, the "Bush is not my president" and "Somewhere in Texas a village lost its idiot" T-shirts and all of the /. posts about "KKKarl Rove stole the election" and "the chimp" things the Democrats did after 2000 and 2004 absolutely helped their fellow countrymen and weren't asshole things to do.
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
Blaming Bush will only work for so long.
Want to bet?
Blaming Hoover worked for FDR's entire reign.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
You guys are missing one of the biggest things this election means. He may not be able to fix the economy, the war, the erosion of our rights, but it is a great first step to fixing something that has plagued our country since its inception. Him being elected will not fix racism but it is a big step in the right direction. I just hope it continues and we as Americans can come together and be just that. Americans, and not white or black America. If we can solve that large issue and move forward, then I believe all the other problems can be fixed in time as well.
As opposed to the other completely neutral news organizations..right.
Also, :
- They were there for less than two years
- They are not in charge of the executive; by definition the legislative's impact is less imediate than the executive's
- Repugs fillibustered (or threatened to) almost everything the democrats tried to pass in the Senate
- Bush vetoed almost anything the democrats passed
Level Headed,
Does every wrong need to be met with another wrong?
Or can we draw a line, and say "enough - time to fix the problems and reclaim the American Dream for our children and ourselves"?
"For every right, an equal responsibility..."
Honest question: Why is that so bad? I've heard people go on and on ad nauseam about how she's supposedly some horrible right-wing nutjob, but what exactly makes her so terrible or rather, what makes her worse that the others?
Even putting aside the religious fundamentalism, she is very similar to Bush in that she seems to believe one doesn't have to think about issues, but rather can just make gut decisions and govern from some sort of pseudofolksy wisdom. Bush thought, and still thinks, he's a natural leader who always makes the right decisions just because it's in his nature. I got that feeling from Palin's actions as well. I mean, at the beginning of the campaign she stated that she had never really thought about the Iraq war enough to come up with a viewpoint on it. That's frightening behavior from an adult American, let alone a candidate for a major office.
How about the collective interests of the entire world, not just the interests of any one single country?
Why doesn't Slashdot ever get slashdotted?
Actually what alienated him from the american public was choosing an undeducated-appearing woman with no experience for a vice president. You have no idea how many times I heard "I'd vote for McCain, but he might die, and I do NOT want Palin as president."
If we don't care who runs other countries, then why do we keep invading them?
http://www.economist.com/vote2008/
Wow. Way to get the ball rolling. I'm sure your comment assuages all kinds of stereotypes about American arrogance.
And it should put a stop to all those people who insist they can't succeed just because they're black, too. :)
As an internationalist, socially leftist Obama supporter who believes it is vital to repair our reputation overseas,and is beyond thrilled that Obama won, let me just say: Back off. We are still the most powerful country in the world, and we chose Obama because he was the best choice for us, not for you. We are not coming to you hat in hand asking for your forgiveness, and you have no ability to put us on "notice."
As someone from the rest of the world who has seen the consequences of you bunch electing a bad president. Yeah, you elected Obama for you. However think about someone else for a change.
Not all conservatives are stupid,
but it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
- Hume
I used to think that way, and helped with the Nader campaign in 2000. When Bush won, my thought was "This guy is going to be just like Clinton, or pretty close anyway."
Damn was I wrong. Apparently the Republican administration viewed every international issue as a problem to be solved by bomb-bomb-bombing. Clinton generally avoided international confligrations. I was furious when Clinton compromised down to Don't Ask - Don't Tell, but Bush's push for a homophobic constitution has that beat. Don't get me started on relative deficit levels, the Axis-of-evil and amazing bungling of international relations, and two major crisis which he had been warned about and failed to act upon. Also, having to jam shampoo into 3oz containers to get onto a plane is weak and pointless.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure any 3rd party candidate is right for now. A Libertarian "hands off" approach would simply facilitate the economy imploding further. A Green Party candidate would never be able to stomach the smoke stacks required to get us moving again. And things aren't yet bad enough to start setting fire to buildings.
The ______ Agenda
Cool, who is it? ;)
This is the sig that says NI (again)
BBC?
(This is where someone says they don't like the BBC because they have a British slant.)
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Wow. Racism, sexism, class warfare, and teen parenthood. All in two and a half paragraphs.
You are some kind of trolling GOD.
-
> almost all the incumbent members of congress went back for another term.
> Why is this, when approval ratings are so low?
Because of the lack of viable 3rd, 4th, 5th etc. party candidates. By viable I don't meant the candidates themselves as they have at least as much to offer as anybody else on the ballots but the representation of them. The almost complete lack of coverage of them to the point of people being surprised to see other names they never heard of on the ballots besides the two D/R candidates. This is IMHO a true shame for the nation as a whole and the media in particular. I would welcome alternative views and more than two parties of importance since I believe that the views of well over 100 million voters can not possibly be properly represented by 2 parties.
Yeah, but you are also forgetting one thing? How much HIGHER would Obama's percentages be among white voters had he not been black, or supposedly muslim? Tons of white folks voted AGAINST him for no reason but skin color or perceived religion
Furthermore, you can't necessarily say it's racism. Maybe black people just really felt that Obama identified with their needs? You can find that type of pattern in many other things. For instance, look how much higher Obama's support was in major urban/suburban areas? In Florida, he barely took the vote, but in Miami, Tampa and Orlando he dominated, . North Carolina is essentially a tie, but in Raleigh, Winston-Salem, and Charlotte he dominated. Does that mean that city folk are reverse racists against white? Or that country folk are racist against blacks?
Until Obama won the Iowa caucus, all the black people were backing Hillary Clinton anyway. They're not racists, they're just Democrats.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Yeah years from now someone needs to ask Obama what he was doing when Rogerborg was writing joystick handling code on a Ubuntu install running under VMware.
You could argue that a lot of the white voters voted for McCain because he's white.
Try crunching those numbers by income instead of skin color and see what comes out.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
...but I grew up in the suburbs and many of their speeches implied that I was not a "Real American", which I found quite insulting.)
For me, Real Americans = aztecs, siouxies, etc. I'm South American and I can say I'm an American too, or at least I should be able to.
I think this is just another type of Ad-Hominem fallacy. Americans do something -> This shouldn't be done by Americans -> They are not "real" Americans.
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
I was actually watching the election coverage mostly on BBC World News last night. It was kinda refreshing. They were a lot more lighthearted than the American commentators, I found... except for that blowhard John Bolton, but they got rid of him eventually (a bit after he attacked one of the Beeb's own reporters). Two of them basically called it unofficially for Obama way early on ;^)
But yeah, they had Ted Koppel and John Bolton on there, as well as a few other Americans I believe... it can hardly be said that they were giving it a "British slant". The roundtable discussion method of presenting it was quite effective, I found.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Daily Show
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
LOL, you sound like yet another arrogant american to me. You want to repair America's reputation overseas and you rely on military threat as an argument? How very internationalist of you. Besides, with 2 failed wars and your supposed allies in eastern europe crushed by the Russians, who are you trying to kid? Do you honestly believe many countries are militarily afraid of the US at this point?
Here's a little hint for you, what do you think would happen to the US if the chinese flooded the market with all the US IOUs they've been stashing away? ICBMs and aircraft carriers are so 20th century. The real big red button these days is in Beijing and is labelled SELL (err... in chinese).
Having said that, i agree with you that you, as americans, elected an american president and you are justified in being offended by people in other countries not so subtly suggesting who you should vote for. I know i'd be angry if americans tried to interfere in Australian domestic politics like that.
Obama is the president elect of the United States, not the leader of the free world. America lost that title some time ago.
John McCain should have won the election.
If John McCain should have won the election, John McCain would have won the election.
My question would be, why didn't 95% of whites vote for Obama?
Anti-black racism in the white American community is ugly.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
True, but it's the people who perpetuate the problem over time that really help it happen. Those who bought into Reaganomics are the ones who kept the problem moving along. Others over time could have reversed the trend, but chose not to.
Developers: We can use your help.
These guys are Aryan nation kind of folks... I am dead serious here. Check out the number of women that are blond. You can't get away from it. Kind of scary actually...
Oh shit! 99% of my porn collection is white supremacist?
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
No it won't. Obama is technically interracial. It should quell the interracial people from insisting they can't succeed, but it will do nothing for people insisting they can't succeed because they are black. You don't give people enough credit for finding ways to pass blame to things they are not in control of.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
Well then for the sake of ending racism, I hope you will all join me in not giving a shit what colour he is. The rhetoric that's been spewing out of some people's mouths when they can't talk for more than a minute about his actual stated policies is really starting to get nauseating. Some people are going to get one Hell of a shock from this.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
"GET OVER IT."
And look at it this way. If you are sick of Anti-white racism in the African-American community, then I say you just won a tremendous victory!
The fact is, Obama is more or less the picture perfect image of a black man that white people don't fear. He maintains most all of his cultural identity and yet he is respectful, respectable, speaks well, is very intelligent and doesn't speak in rhymes. Obama is no dumb-ass.
And why is this a tremendous victory for you? Simple. What you likely hate the most is the rhetoric and the guilt and shame imposed on you because you were born a white male. Well guess what, now that we elected a black man for president, there is a LOT less they can say... there is a black man in the highest office. What else do they have to complain about that could be valid? When Obama fails to dish out the welfare, what are they going to say now? "Sell-out?" (maybe...)
How about the collective interests of the entire world, not just the interests of any one single country?
That's all well and good, but the job of the US president is to be the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, not the world. If you want a world president, have your country's leader propose the idea to the UN or whoever. But for now, the POTUS's primary concern should be the well being of the USA. The rest of the world is important, but not first.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Glass-Steagall (spell it right, people!) is a scapegoat. The situation is far more complex than that. Did weakening that bill have an impact? Absolutely. But it was only part of the problem. The real problem was the excessive greed and risk aversion in the financial market that lead to the creation of new financial instruments to sneakily make risk everyone else's problem. CDSes would have happened regardless of Glass-Steagall, and banks would have found alternative methods of making their financial risks someone else's problem.
There's a fairly good take on this issue here: http://www.bapcha.com/?p=53
The Glass-Steagall act probably should be reinstated, but moreover we should kick the greedy bastards out of Wall Street and replace them with the more conservative financial leaders who were slowly pushed out by the instant-gratification morons.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
How, exactly, is Carter to blame for either of those? The gas lines were due to OPEC's manipulation of the market, and the hostages were out of his control. He sent special forces in, but they failed to accomplish their objective. Unless he was there on the ground with them, I fail to see how the blame for that can be laid on him.
Now...honestly, what do you think is really going to change?
1. For the first time in 8 years, we have a president who can speak publicly. McCain would have done a fine job, too - but Barack is really a terrific speaker.
2. We've managed to go from segregation to president in about 40 years. More white people voted for Obama than Kerry. That is monumental. The best part is that since Obama is both black and white, he really can see and convey both perspectives of America. We're all going to talk about race a lot more than we used to, and that's a good thing.
3. We don't have to hear nonsense about the government banning stem cell research, blatantly muzzling dissenting scientists, and other such shenanigans that should have any self-respecting geek up in arms.
4. We'll gain some respect back from our allies. This is more than just a point of pride... we're going to need their help. Our army is exhausted and we all need to work together on the financial situation.
5. While I think all of the "Yes, we can," stuff is corny as hell, he does seem to be a pretty good leader. And a leader is what people are looking for right now. People were willing to put up with partisan hacks and leave Washington to fester when times were good, but now people want Washington to be a help and not a hindrance. The first step is to get them to stop acting like spoiled 2-year-olds. Barack is one of those politicians that does not sound like a spoiled 2-year-old.
Personally, I think John McCain could have done a pretty good job on that list as well, but the way his campaign was run in the last 2 or 3 months worried me greatly.
It didn't really hit me that things had changed until I saw the first family up there after the victory speech, and damn if it wasn't a black family. Cue "white house" jokes. :)
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Your reference to the "Chinese curse" (there's some debate on the real origins of it) "May you live in interesting times." is actually more "interesting" than you may think.
The phrase in Chinese that is most commonly translated as "interesting" is made of two words (three characters): you3 yi4 si. I won't try to imbed Chinese characters here.
you3 means "to have", as in "I have a car".
yi4 si means "significance" or "meaning", for example, it is used to ask what a word means.
So, a slightly more literal translation would be "May you live in significant times."
To me, that's more frightening than "interesting times".
Not voting Obama does not necessarily indicate racism. Where I work, I could have told you at least 5 of my coworkers were going to vote Republican before the primaries started, regardless if "the black guy", "the white guy", or "the manly chick" had won the Democrats primary.
I *did* however vote Obama (but my views are a lot more left-leaning than about half the people I wokr with [the Democratic party's tendency to push gun control makes them not well received by this group]).
Do you consider any black person who didn't vote for McCain to be racist, or any man that didn't vote for McCain to be sexist (due to Palin)?
I think you over-estimate the naivity of the banks and mortgage salesmen in relation to the credit crisis. It was nothing but greedy profiteering and has very little to do with encouragement from any recent adminsistration.
Here are some of the key points to remember:
1) Mortgage salesmen got a commision for each mortgage sold, regardless of whether it was stable or would be paid to completion.
2) Alarm bells should have been ringing down at the local bank branch but they weren't. Why? Because they were selling the loans (and inherent risk) on to larger invesment banks who repacked them.
3) The investment banks repackaged these loans together with the flawed reasoning that only a certain percentage would default based on projected market conditions. Those conditions turned out to be wrong.
4) The producers and packagers of asset backed swaps were further laying off and reselling the risk to hedge funds and banks that didn't necessarily have the capital behind them to pay up in the event of a default. It's illegal for insurance companies to take on obligations that they can't pay for but not for banks to jiggle risk around like this. This is criminal negligence in my view and people should have been in court by now.
5) No one really knows who is exposed to what risk because these leveraged products have been resold and unwound between multiple counterparties. The banks don't know how badly affected their peers are so they've stopped lending to others in case they disappear (like Lehman) or they need the cash themselves for their own write-downs which they don't really know the scale of for the reasons mentioned. This is the real credit crisis, not the mortgages themselves. That was just the catalyst.
Put it this way, you won't find anyone in the finance industry saying that they sold all those dodgy mortgages "because the government made us do it". It was greed, pure and simple.
DISCLAIMER: I worked in credit derivitives many years ago.
This nation wasn't founded on partisanship at all. Everyone knows that out founding fathers didn't initially plan a partisan system, but partisanship is a result of how our government and our psychology works.
I think it would be much better to have a non-partisan system, where there aren't only two opinions to choose from. Wouldn't it make much more sense if one could select from, say, 10 candidates with different ideas on things, rather than choosing either Democrat or Republican?
If we have a more limited number of options, the race becomes much more about choosing "the lesser of two evils" than choosing the best person possible to become the president.
That argument doesn't work anymore. Just because Fox News is a right wing tabloid doesn't mean they all have a bias. If the truth doesn't support your reality and the other news organizations won't bend their coverage to support your viewpoint, that doesn't make them biased.
And yet... they ARE.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Got a source on this? I just went to http://www.hrblock.com/taxes/tax_calculators/index.html and plugged in the poverty level for both a single taxpayer and married filing jointly with 2 kids, and in both cases the result was a refund via earned income tax credit.
"Rub her feet." -- L.L.
You're missing two points:
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
As an outside observer, I've believed from the beginning that simply having Barack Obama in the presidency would be good for America.
The problems with the markets right now stem in part from a lack of confidence in the US internationally.
Frankly, we think you're a bunch of ignorant, violent dicks who managed to actually try to argue that torture is a good thing.
By having someone who isn't saying these things as the ignorant violent dicks in power, I could see international investments slowly building back up, resulting in a more prosperous planet as a whole.
(Seriously. Did you guys really think that arguing about whether torture was really bad would end up well for you?)
It's been a long time.
Fox news is the least serious of any of the major national news
outlets or publications. They are the sort of people that make
you wish old man Buckley was still around so that he could show
them how it should be done.
They have a tabloid style. They are more sensationalist and
well for the lack of a better way of putting it... they
elevate unqualified kook nobodies to the role of pundit.
A genuine party rag from an earlier era was a more respectable news source.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
To most black folks, he's black. His daddy was black. His wife is black. His kids are black. He's a Democrat. He attends a black church.
You are right that there is a big difference between being black or white and being mixed-race. A mixed-race guy like Obama truly understands the perspective of a black person and of a white person. He's heard it all from both sides and has had his whole life to think about these things. This is why he can talk to white people and address their concerns and also talk to black people and address their concerns.
A typical black person (or white person) will most likely not have this insight, and I hope that blacks don't get too attached to hopes that Obama will act strictly as a black advocate. This will lead to profound disappointment.
While he is the first black president, he's also the 44th white president.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
You essentially had the choice (in my eyes) between: "Someone who says he'll do bad things, and might", and "Someone who says he'll do good things, but might not". Not the best of choices, but it's clear which one is the better of the two. I'm glad the right choice was made for once.
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
He or she is saying that people who don't succeed will find any loophole that enables them to blame their inability to succeed on others. He or she is absolutely correct.
...yes, it was all of that lending to "the wrong people".
It had nothing to do with the fact that these days banks
don't care about "bad loans" because they've gotten into
the habit of reselling them and quickly become "someone
else's problem".
It had nothing to do with predatory ARMs that anyone with
a solid grounding in match could see were a ticking timebomb.
It had nothing to do with making loans to people without
verifying any means to pay.
It had nothing to do with ignoring people's debt to income ratio.
It had nothing to do with allowing people to get a mortgage
without any sort of down payment and having "no skin in the game".
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
"Sacrifice". Obama said it in his victory speech, and I believe McCain also said it in his concession speech. The problems of this country are so massive they can't be solved without each of us giving something to the cause. I'm not talking taxes, although I'm sure that will figure into it. If Obama is going to be successful--and by extension, make the country successful--we're all going to have to embrace the notion of personal sacrifice and service to the country. Think about that before you reflexively complain about what's bound to be unpleasant for many of us. In the words of John McCain: "It's time to put the country first."
Prepare yourselves for four years of austerity. We can't continue as a country where the only people who actively sacrifice for it are the members of the military and their families.
Most people who think Fox News is an arm of the GOP, are comfortable getting their news from multiple sources, CNN, BBC, CBS, NBC, etcetera, EXCEPT for Fox News.
while most people who think Fox News is Fair and Balanced(tm) are of the opinion that all other mainstream media are "in the tank" for whomever they are hating that week, and are NOT to be trusted. this magnifies the echo chamber effect, since they are unable or unwilling to consider opposing viewpoints.
What's worse, is they incorrectly assume that everyone else must think like they do, and all other news outlets are as shrill and partisan as Fox is, because they have nothing to compare to.
in re: 1., yes you can: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_DNA_test#Biogeographical_ancestry. Of course, whether race means something apart from where you or your ancestors happened to come from, that is still open (*). But make no mistake, there absolutely is a technical concept of "biogeographical ancestry" which is very analogous to what is called race, and incorporating it into a model can increase the power and accuracy of clinical trials and disease screens. I would call this scientific.
*: Of course, to see as much between-group genetic variation as there is, and straight-facedly claim a priori that race has no statistical effect on anything, is just a bit silly. It's just one of those things you have to entertain for society's benefit.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Entire racial groups have a perspective now? When I lived in the USA, I met a Morrocan student who told me the most annoying thing in the USA were all the people who told him that they were "African." They all had more in common with their white countrymen than they did with him. There's no supportable reason a black person can't see things from a white person's perspective and vice versa. But the black person can't see things from white people's perspective and a white person can't see things from black people's perspective, because there is no such united view. There isn't even enough cultural unity to talk in generalities. If you were white, would it make sense for someone to ask you what white people thought of a particular topic. Outside of the most contrived examples, it would not.
What we should be discussing here is Obama's policies and intentions. Not pages and pages of discussion about his ethnicity. The fact that we are not is the clearest sign of a problem to me, although I think it is one that is being worked out.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
I don't believe Obama will fix anything "magically", because I don't believe in magic. However, there is reason for everybody here to hope, even Republicans.
Democracy does not consistently select good leaders. No system can do that, which is why democracy is important: democracy works by making throwing out bad leaders easier. You don't have to take to the streets with Molotov cocktails or worry about your relatives disappearing into some secret police dungeon to get regime change.
Competition improves the breed, and so a spot of extinction pressure is a hopeful thing. It means the system is still working on some level.
It's just like the free market. The market doesn't mean you are consistently satisfied with your purchases. No economic system could do that. It means that it is easy to switch vendors, which keeps the vendors working hard to satisfy you and redress your grievances.
Our system is designed to prevent overnight changes. 2008 is the continuation of a process that started in 2006, of throwing out the Republican party. Republicans should be glad in the long term of this, just as Democrats should be glad that they can lose most of their gains in the next election. Just as competition improves the breed, complacency ruins it. The Democrats, for now, are aware the country has just thrown out the old regime, and that come January there will be no more excuses. As long as they are mindful of this, they will at least try to do better.
Republicans will of course be looking at the mistakes that the Democrats will make. If they're smart, they'll look at the mistakes they themselves made. There are those in the party who say the answer is to become more like the party that got thrown out in 2006. I think the Republicans have a good shot of convincing the American people the Democrats have overreached if they deemphasize the ultra socially conservative southern wing and turn to the fiscally conservative, socially moderate and libertarian leaning Republicans of the West and Northeast.
I hope they do, I hope they put together and honest, credible attack on the Democrats by 2012. And I'm a Democrat. No party that thinks itself unassailable, as the Republicans did in 2005, can be trusted.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
No thanks. I'll give a shit what color he is mainly because it's a pretty damn good gauge of how far America has come along in terms of overcoming some nasty racism. That doesn't mean I will use the color of his skin to judge his abilities as his president, human being, etc. You act like the rhetoric spewing is coming from one side. I bet you I can find the same amount of people who can't really get past the words "socialist" and "Muslim" when talking about Obama's policies.
Abaddon: An Xbox 360 Indie game
Most of what SNL did was just quote her straight-up, which is the truly scary part: SNL didn't even need to write most of its own jokes. Palin is just that much of a twit, and the worst part is that she knew just enough to twist this to her advantage in the debates. Someone capable of this is not someone who belongs within 5000 miles of the most powerful office in the US (and, arguably, the world).
Palin is not the first person whose greatest attack ads were simply her own words played back at her. Sadly, she will probably not be the last either. But when they do spring up, there is good reason to fear them.
It's a shame about McCain. It really is. He's a strong statesman, a good politician, and he probably would have been at least as good for the country (if in different ways) than Obama. But Palin had to be stopped, and fortunately, she was. You might even say that she won the election; she just won it for the opposing side.
I spent the last 5 days in Sun Valley, Nevada talking to people of all colors, knocking on their doors and asking them to vote. The feeling on the ground in this battleground state was HOPE. Real HOPE that we can get past the petty divisions that have kept this nation from progressing past Reagan.
All of us need to forgive the Republicans and invite them to JOIN us in creating the future America in which every American will have a stronger stake in our economy, socialized medicine, and equality for everybody. Because these things benefit the Republicans as much as they benefit us. It isn't us against them, it's us AND them. That has ALWAYS been the real message of the Obama campaign.
Today conservatives will try to shove the wedge between us again. We must tell their followers that their differing opinions have value while showing them our own values.
The era of gotcha politics has finally come to an end. If we want to move forward all of us have to forgive the Republican supporters. They still have a place in this country and we want them at our side. They can join us, or they can rally against us, but we're going to keep moving forward as a nation. Like I said, the things we want benefit them as well. We just have to show them how.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
See? We aren't ALL cross burning rednecks!
However if you think we are going to start using less oil, stop polluting, pay off our credit cards, learn French, and stop bombing smaller nations, think again.
Oh yeah, we could use about $700,000,000,000 right about now.... I won't bother to convert that figure to yen or euro.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Guess what? Whites are no longer a majority in this country. (IE: Less than 50% of the population).
Whites make up 74% of the US population according to the Census Bureau .
There is no question that the election of a half-Arab, half-Black child of a broken home to the Presidency of the United States *says* something to the world and to history about us as a country, as an ideal, that can never, ever, be taken away.
I think idiotic statements like are what defined what the rest of the world thought of the US before this election, don't keep it up. You almost made a good point until you detracted from your entire statement with this nonsense.
Obama's mother is from Wichita, Kansas, and is quite caucasian. His biological father is from Kenya, and was ethnically called a Luo, a subsaharan African ethnic group. His adopted father, while in fact a muslim, was ethnically indonesian. Not all muslims are arabs.
Arab is an ethnic term, and there is no evidence that Obama is in any way Arab (just like there's no evidence he's muslim). I can't fathom why you said this, other than the fact that you might be thinking arab=muslim. If that was the case, then that's just plain idiotic, and is yet another reason why the world hates us, because if we can't get that right, we can't get foreign policy right.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
No, he's not.
No thanks. I'll give a shit what color he is mainly because it's a pretty damn good gauge of how far America has come along in terms of overcoming some nasty racism.
We have come a long way in reducing racism. We've passed the hate to the next down the line.
Here's a vastly oversimplified view of the line:
1830: Americans hate and persecute the Irish immigrants.
1890: Americans (now including the Irish) persecute the Polish and other Eastern European immigrants.
All along: American whites (including Irish and Polish) persecute blacks.
20th century: American whites (and many blacks!) fear and persecute latino immigrants.
Yesterday, on the day the USA first elects a black president, three states passed constitutional amendments making gays second-class citizens with fewer rights. In California, nearly 70% of blacks and hispanics voted for Proposition 8.
Yes, we just pass the fear and hate on down the line. Human mass psychology seems incapable of producing happiness without having an "outsider" group to loathe and persecute.
Honestly, I'm fucking thrilled about Obama, but I'm starting to see the "moving past racism" thing as just another turn of the hate wheel.
Right now the arrow is pointing at Gays and Muslims and atheists. I wonder who will be the target(s) in 2030?
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
...after reading through all three thousand plus posts on this topic, admittedly with a filter of +2, I feel compelled to come in and toss away all my mod points to say "thanks" to the /.'ers here and abroad for having actual, real, intelligent discourse about this. The signal to noise ratio was one of the best I've seen on a thread here in years.
I'd been firmly in the Obama camp since he came out against lobbyists in an incredibly direct zero-tolerance fashion (for Washington, at least). None in my ground crew, none in my cabinet, not a dime from them. So, that made the sale for me personally very early in the primary season. Voting for someone who's been a civil rights lawyer, and is incredibly well-spoken... well, that's just a bonus. How cool would it be to have a quotable president in your lifetime? All those speeches you memorize in school? What if you were there for a speech your kids memorize?
I'm not at all proud of what my government, and by association, my country has turned into in the last decade. And as cheesy as it might sound to some people, I really do think we need constructive, positive dialog to move forward. Race, international relations, financial markets... everything. We've gotten in the habit of painting the world in stark shades of idealogical black and white -- on both sides.
Growing up in the US, we're taught to believe in a very idealized, edited version of American history, and America as a symbol -- it's the history that we really wished could be. Down to the specifics of the Lincoln presidency and on, very complex issues are taught to us in a very binary, black and white fashion that loses nuance completely. But it's part of who we are. And for the most part, it's who we want to be. It might be borderline fiction, but it's a noble aspiration.
Something struck me during one of the debates. Obama said "We need to learn how to disagree without being disagreeable." -- which sounds juvenile on the surface, but is a consummate truth at its core and sums up a major issue with the "you're either with me or against me" macho cowboy politic crap we've had to endure.
We've been stuck in gridlock, incapable of positive change for so long that I think we've forgotten how to affect it.
I must say that if the John McCain who made the incredibly eloquent, heartfelt concession speech last night had been the same man who had been campaigning, I think things would have been a lot closer. Well, and ditched his trainwreck running mate, but I didn't log in to burn the neocons in effigy.
If Obama can achieve even a fraction of what he's set about, it'll be positive change for this country and world in my very honest opinion. It's arrogant as an American to believe that my vote affects the entire world, but looking over the last eight years in particular, it's incredibly naïve to believe it doesn't. We're a conflicted people.
McCain may very well have been capable of leading us out of this incredibly dark, deep hole that we're in, but the Republican party as a whole (down to my state and local levels -- I'm in North Florida) has lost any shred of credibility in regard to the term "conservative" where it applies to fiscal and legislative issues, and has taken the moral "conservative" tack -- ie, let's roll back the clock and stand in the way of social progress to regard to people who aren't just like us. You want polarization? Base your politics about making people scared of folks who aren't just like you, and spend your time telling other adults how to live their lives.
The world isn't like that, the country isn't like that... shit, my block isn't like that. So how did we get in this place?
The core of my personal moral compass is that there's nothing on this planet more offensive than a closed mind.
The more we talk, the more we begin to understand each other. And that's a start, isn't it?
Hard times are coming for the world, but working hard, with joy and passion, we can build a great world to live in.
Kudos, american people, and thank you.