Well, I watched the whole inaugural ceremony. I am hard democrat but my whole family is hard republican so it makes for some conflicts.

Your thoughts?

I'm often described as hard myself.

I've voted Republican most of my life; I didn't this time.  The Republican Party have collectively committed political suicide.  Bush painted himself into a corner regarding many issues and McCain completely ruined his political cred, much less any chance of becoming President.

In a week, or so, the novelty will start wearing off and everyone will be expecting him to fix the problems that he inherited.  I'm sure that the war in the Middle East will be over and we'll have all our people home in the next two years.  I think that fixing the economy will take a lot longer.

And I'd like to thank Garth Brooks for completely fucking up the song American Pie.  After hearing that, Madonna's version doesn't sound so bad.


Phil

I hope for all our sakes that he will be successful.

I wouldn't want to be in his shoes though. We're in a mess. How come no one has mentioned the stock marked closed under 8 000 today? Anyone who thinks that doesn't affect them because they don't own stocks are just doing osterich imitations.

I actually was never interested in politics. Only around election time was I interested, but this election was sort of different. Now I can't wait to see what happens.

You should always be interested in politics.  It keeps the politicians from doing too many stupid things.


Phil

Quoted from Shelton I'm often described as hard myself.

You never stop you wise cracker!!!

Sandra

This was fascinating:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tag_clouds_of_obamas_inaugural_speech_compared_to_bushs.php

That actually is pretty fascinating.  You get to see what the buzz words were at the time of each election.  

I'd actually like to see Bush's first inauguration speech compared to the second.  I bet there's a big difference there too.

If you can find it online then you can use Wordie to do the word cloud.

Quoted from mcornetto If you can find it online then you can use Wordie to do the word cloud.

That sounds like work.

it sure does. Man the mood from 4 years ago to now is a WHOLE lot different

Bush - 2000

Yeah, I'd say that's quite different.

Way way WAY different

Aarons word cloud

There should be a "Joker" in there somewhere.

now that's awesome

I think the most interesting that happened with Obama even prior to his taking office was his reversal or stance-change on some of his issues after he talked with Bush. Seems as if once he got a presidential briefing on what's really going on, he had to change his mind on what he thought he could do and step into reality.

Personally, I couldn't care less about democrat or republican. The two party system has caused nothing but problems and creates those party lines that people like to vote down.

My personal hope for Obama's presidency is now that the media has a democrat again that they'll actually leave the president alone or at least try to give him some dignity. Part of Bush's problem was the unfavorable picture that the media painted of him. Everyone seems to forget that the US is founded on a principle of checks and balances to where the president cannot act unilaterally on anything. If he wants something, he's got to go through congress to do it. This means that Bush's ideas had to be approved somewhere beyond himself.

And whether you like or dislike Obama and his ideas, his ideas will have to go through the same process of approval by the rest of the government before they can go anywhere. My hope is that Congress will actually look at what he proposes and vote honestly and ethically as to whether it is the best thing for the people they represent and not worry about what party they're in. Peer pressure sucks.

It'll be interesting to see how many of his issues he can actually get through congress. Obama's got MO-mentum right now and a Democrat-controlled congress will obviously help getting his agenda through, I'm just hoping his first term won't be one long re-election campaign where everyone is too scared of actually doing anything on the basis that it can come back to haunt you in the election.

I heard that he has already "ordered" the suspension of prosecutions of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days. I guess that's the first step in closing down the prison camps at Gitmo - as he said he would.

Quoted from sniper It'll be interesting to see how many of his issues he can actually get through congress. Obama's got MO-mentum right now and a Democrat-controlled congress will obviously help getting his agenda through,

buzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm sorry but that is the incorrect answer!

During Clinton's first term, the Democrats controlled Congress but nothing got done.  Democrats, generally, have their own agenda.  As a result, nothing was accomplished.

You have to give the Republicans credit; they work as a team.


Phil

Quoted from dogglebe During Clinton's first term, the Democrats controlled Congress but nothing got done.  Democrats, generally, have their own agenda.  As a result, nothing was accomplished.

True, but I just got a feeling that this'll be different - at least for a while. With the sort of Messiah-like treatment Obama is getting from both sides of the aisle (and especially the media) I don't think anybody's gonna mess with him...like I said, for a while.