The Content of His Character
My daughter is 8 and my son is almost 6. He’s unaware of what’s going on in the world today, she’s aware but remarkably, blissfully, admirably nonplussed. I realize that while my mom and dad watched as beloved leader after beloved leader was shot down and removed from their destiny, and my wife and I grew up hoping but not really believing that we’d ever have a minority President, my kids are growing up in a world where that’s happened. I understand, I think, how they will see it. “Of course an Asian/Woman/Gay/Latino/Arab/Jew can become President dad. Stop living in the Stone Ages.” That makes me happy. No matter your affiliation, pay attention to this day. Whatever your ideology, if you’re a patriot, you want this guy to succeed. The US is in trouble. Lets cling to this hope while we can. Celebrate while we can. And wake up and realize that today is history. Today, no matter your politics, is a day to be a proud America. Today we have a President named Barack Hussein Obama, and think he was elected based on the content of his character. I’m proud to be an American.
January 20th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I’m in my main engineering office building today, and there are 42″ TV’s everywhere – 4 per floor where they generally have a slide-show of company and general technology news.
Today they had the live feed and folks were huddled around the screens – about 20 where I stood. And applause – that floored me, the emotion and importance of it all really came through.
Toss aside the cynicism, un-dig your heels, we need *everyone* to rescue this country and world from the path it is on.
January 20th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
BAH!
January 20th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I honestly can’t grasp the significance of the whole “first black president” thing. Sure, I sort of understand how black people not being allowed in many restaurants to a black person running America within my parents’ lifetimes is a giant step forward in a relatively small time span but, without experiencing it first hand or growing up in a particularly racist time period, it just doesn’t feel like a big deal. I understand why it is but it just doesn’t feel particularly important. I’m more impressed that the US has elected a president with a triple digit IQ score.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
My wife and I live in downtown Washington, DC and have been enjoying all of the events and positive energy in the city. We walked down to the National Mall for a while this morning and then returned home because our 2 year-old little girl kept telling us she was cold. We very much enjoyed President Obama’s speech.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I am not all that old and didn’t grow up in a time with institutionalized racism. That being said, this is still a big deal. Up until relatively recently, any minority candidate was typically seen as someone who was only representing their group. That we have moved to the point where one isn’t seen that way, and is seen as representing all, is a big deal.
I am cautiously optimistic. I can fully appreciate the history of this event, but I am waiting to see if he can implement some decent policy and achieve what he said he would do. Time will tell.
I’m more impressed that the US has elected a president with a triple digit IQ score.
Meh, it takes more than just brains. Herbert Hoover was probably one of the smartest presidents we ever had, in terms of intellect, but he was a disaster. Richard Nixon was also a very smart man.
Obama, like Bush, is entering his presidency with a very high approval rating and a great deal of support. Let us hope that he can make more of this than Bush did.
January 20th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
“like Bush, is entering his presidency with a very high approval rating and a great deal of support.”
Huh? In 2000 about half the country *still* thought that Gore should have been the one on stage, there were massive protests and demonstrations, his approval just barely broke 50%, and even most of those who supported him didn’t see him as having a ‘mandate’.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Michelle Obama’s Great-Great Granparents were property.
Also, that entire DC Mall and some of the monuments were built by slaves.
But you are right in that it’s also remarkable that he’s half-white (inter-racial marriage was illegal in most states when Barack’s mom married his dad).
That he’s half foreign, much less half-African. We’ve never elected anyone of foreign descent.
That his middle name and last name either are or sound like the two biggest enemies of our time. Saddam and Osama.
In the US we do elect the PERSON. Remember, England has never elected a minority. Your Queen was in by blood and your Prime Ministers are elected by party. Frankly Some Guy, I’d be just as surprised and pleased if England elected an Indian, Jamaican or Pakistani immigrant as PM.
It’s a huge mandate.
But then again, we don’t have Presidential scions calling anyone “Paki” ’round here.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I don’t know how that mandate line got in there. I wasn’t going to comment.
Bush had a tiny mandate in ’04 and he squandered it on Social Security “reform”. Obama’s mandate is his current approval rating – and the way things are moving. I think his reaching out to conservatives and such are more than pandering, I think he’s forging powerful allies.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
What I don’t get is that everybody says “Oh, the content of his character” and “Oh, we elect the PERSON”, then in the same breath go on to list all the superficial traits that make this election “historic”. Are we ignoring race, or what?
January 20th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Good point James.
Like much in life it’s a paradox. I think you can argue (and win) that Obama won IN SPITE of his race not because of it. That’s what makes it more than significant. He won in spite of his age, race, name, heritage. We can’t ignore race.
I believe that today we made the Constitution, Declaration, and Bill of RIghts more accurate. In reality we elected an impressive man. Symbolically we made the Republic, to quote Jefferson (an anti-slave guy who owned slaves, talk about a paradox), more perfect.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Also there’s this. I’d say we are definitely living in a Moment. History class stuff. Even if you’re young PAY ATTENTION! Big History is happening now. I’m sure one of my kids will write a report about 9/11, the Berlin Wall coming down, Barack Obama, the Iraq War, etc., You wanna tell your own kids what it was really like. Seriously, I was too self-absorbed to watch the Wall coming down. I regret that.
Reminds me of that old Simpsons where it shows Granpa watching the moon landing while Homer sits in a bean bag chair with giant headphones singing “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I Got Love in my Tummy.”
January 21st, 2009 at 10:04 am
You mentioned that England has never elected a minority. Last time I checked, women are still considered minorities. Margaret Thatcher was elected PM of England back in 1979. So I think, we may still be behind our friends in Europe…..
January 21st, 2009 at 10:38 am
He barely has any experience.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:12 am
It’s interesting. I had two discussions yesterday with people about what was going on.
One was with my wife (a Democrat) who is still very upset that Hillary lost out to Obama. She, unfortunately, sees it only as a black male vs white female issue and that America now values black men over white women. I disagree and think there was a lot more than race and sex that separated Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, but that is another discussion. I do know that there are others who feel the same way.
The other was a friend and neighbor. We live in a predominantly Republican area of NY (Nassau County) and my friend took issue with the fact that our children (2nd graders) watched the innaguration on TV in school. She claims that it is only because Mr. Obama is black and a democrat (since we all know that EVERY teacher on the planet is a Democrat) that whey watched it and if McCain had won nobody would have seen it. Now, I agree with her that the fact that he is black is part of why the kids watched it. As it was pointed out, it was a historic moment. But I remember either watching or at least discussing the inaugurations when I was in school as early as 2nd or 3rd grade when Carter was sworn in. Now apparently one of the teachers supposedly made a comment about how great a President Mr Obama is going to be, and that I can understand someone getting concerned over since teachers shouldn’t share their political opinions with grade schoolers. After all, it is the parents responsibility to corrupt their children like that. 🙂
My biggest concern is that there are people who appear to believe that President Obama is now going to flip a switch and everything is going to be fixed. Racial problems will go away (or get worse, depending upon your opinion), the economy will be fixed, the war will end, etc. and that they have completely unreasonable expectations for the new administration. Those people are going to be in for a rude awakening when it takes time for these things to get fixed. Much longer than any of them are probably hoping.
My 2 cents, is that I think he is a smart man who is surrounding himself with smart people who have enough balls to say “No Mr. President, we can’t do that and here is why” when necessary, and he has the support, at the moment, of both the nation and Congress to get some things accomplished. I hope he does.
Oh, and I don’t think the late night comics are going to get all that much fodder from him slipping up at speeches like they did from Mr. Bush.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Huh? In 2000 about half the country *still* thought that Gore should have been the one on stage, there were massive protests and demonstrations, his approval just barely broke 50%, and even most of those who supported him didn’t see him as having a ‘mandate’.
Gallup had him at close to 65%. Among conservatives that were tired of Slick Willy, there was a great deal of hope for the Bush presidency. For many of us, that didn’t last.