THE OFFICIAL BARRACK OBAMA THREAD

[Mandich]

In this thread we'll discuss Mr. Obama being selected for president, your political views, likes and dislikes and everything that has to with him. He was also a B-ball player.

[benji]

He's just more of the same. We needed change, not four more years of the same failed Bush policies and Washington politics.

Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Rahm Emanuel, Bob Gates, Tom Daschle, etc. "The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result."

We've been promised more of the same deficit spending, following Bush admin timetables on Iraq, surges, leaving the Bush tax cuts intact, unilaterial diplomacy, no windfall profit taxes on oil companies, foolish drug war, increase in lobbyists in Washington and the administration, etc.

It's just like 2006, the Democrats promised me change, fiscal prudence, openness and an end to corruption, and they too just gave me more of the same old Washington politics with the same old Washington names. I'm starting to get disillusioned and cynical about politics...but, you know:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation and that you move out of your comfort zone. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage.

Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual – uninvolved, uninformed – you have to stay at the seat at the table of democracy with a man like Barack Obama not just on Tuesday but in a year from now, in four years from now, in eights years from now, you will have to be engaged.

Just four more years of the same "fear" tactics to pass unwanted policies: “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.” — Rahm Emanuel

But hey, we've got that big international crisis to look forward to, amirite?

[diddy]

i like obama and now Russia has another young smart president, wich works hand to hand with our present prime minister Putin (former president), i hope that we could collaborate with US more productively, also we got one common interest is a developing new economic and political methids that would be competitive to Chine! and i heard this already, that Medvedev and Obama would discuss these questions! by the way in 2008 Russian government have passed a law about president terms and now its 6 years. it would take his power since next election! and 99% that next president gonna be Putin, cuz all the country loves him and he has done a LOT of great things for our people! so we got great young, smart and perspective team in government.

[Oznogrd]

1. If you think its important enough to make a thread: spell the guys name right.
2. I hate that voting has come down to "I like no candidate but I want to vote so i have to pick the one I despise least"

I voted for him, but benji is right on this. the "change we need' most likely was a campaign strategy and a campaign strategy only. Expect same shit different day until the country collapses under its own bullshit...

[Sauru]

i hate that voting has come down to a popularity contest based on how one looks more so than what they know and can do for our country. however you are also right, the last 3? maybe more? elections have come down to who you hate the least

[Andrew]

2. I hate that voting has come down to "I like no candidate but I want to vote so i have to pick the one I despise least"

Pretty much the only option here in Australia, unless you want to donkey vote.

[Oznogrd]

2. I hate that voting has come down to "I like no candidate but I want to vote so i have to pick the one I despise least"

Pretty much the only option here in Australia, unless you want to donkey vote.

I was very close to writing in colbert/stewart

[Eich]

THE CHANGE HAS CUMED

[cyanide]

He just had his inauguration today.

That is all.

Edit: Contribution: The transcript of the speech

[Oznogrd]

Apparently he became president at noon whether or not he got sworn in. I find that an interesting footnote in the Constitution.

also i have beef with the coverage: dont get me wrong: peaceful transference of power should be a goal of any country...but come on: "Every word is historic, I hope the mics are on over there" as the obamas got to the white house and were greeted by the bushes. You know what they were saying? "fuck its cold out here"

to our republic functioning i guess. Lets hope things are on the up.

[Drex]

Hehe, he forgot a line during his presidential oath

[benji]

Apparently he became president at noon whether or not he got sworn in. I find that an interesting footnote in the Constitution.

No, they are Constitutionally required to take the oath of office. Obama, like all Presidents, did a real oath hours before, so that no matter what he became President at noon. The public one is just for show and is not legally binding.

to our republic functioning i guess.

So that's cheers to Bush? (Our Republic does not function when people take or hold office, it functions when people willingly leave office.)

Edit: Time to hate on the speech. (And subsequently Obama since he "wrote" it.)

It starts off with a factual error:

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.

Not true. Obama is only the forty-third American to take the oath.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply.

I don't have to respond to your arguments, they're old and no longer apply. Because I said so.

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.

What about "is it constitutional?"

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

No.

[hova-]

Just nice to see Bush is gone. Oh and Putin is an evil man if you ask me. (we Germans just have a bad impression of the Russian politics .. the whole East Germany thing ..)

[Mandich]

Putin is a bad man by many of us. He and Bush are the worlds greatest idiots. They fucked up many things.
But they are also very smart as they get many profits for themselves.

[Oskar]

Everyone can see the profit ..

Good luck to Obama, I have high hopes for him !

[Marek]

I like Obama I must say...he looks good as President, and has big potential to become a great politician. and BTW - I just saw tonight, that he is left-handed, just like me

[Matthew]

And he breathes air, just like me!

[Patr1ck]

You spoke a sentence! I saw Obama do that once!

[shadowgrin]

And he can play basketball, just like Kobe or LeBron! Obama is amazing.

[Jugs]

Barack Obama is black.

[benji]

phpBB [video]

We're definitely in the farce stage now.

[Matthew]

So all those people were arseholes before Obama?

[MarvAlbert]

The Republicans are trying to compete with Obama now by electing the first black head of the Republican National Comittee, Micheal Steele

[Gundy]

I have seen some disgusting things on the internet and that video is by far the most repulsive. Thanks benji, I will now try to erase that from my memory.

[Eich]

phpBB [video]