Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine The United States Has a New President -Elect. . .

Someone once pointed out that no president has ever had a last name that ended in a vowel other than "e."

As of January 20, this will no longer the case.

President Elect

Yeah, I was just being amused by all the news stuff asking what President Obama is going to do next.

Well that answer to that is easy. He's going to wait two months until he is actually President. Until then Shrub is still the head honcho.

But only in name. He'll probably do more in these 2 months than all other President Elects in history. There is a lot of economy related moves to make now, and I'm optimistic he can do it. From what I understand, he has several impressive businessmen who may be helping him (i.e. Warren Buffet), but also even some former Republican economists, like Paul Volker, who he is listening to. Good--whatever it takes to get the economy on track before things become truly terrible.

Then he can fix foreign affairs next year

You got me! I was a little caught up in the excitement of Obama's victory and being the first person to post it on LW.

I challenge Obama to do more good than any number of former LMBP leaders...

Yeah. It's been a feel-good day.
All day.
It's like a little balance was restored to the Force.
..or something..

Hmmm. Well, for the first time since i became eligible to vote, i didn't. I actually went to the polling place, stood in line, and was about five positions away from my turn when i was honest with myself and left.

People here know i am conservative, not republican. And mostly just a little right, not the screaming idiot right. But i honestly couldn't do it.

I'm no McCain fan. I know people that were in the military, and the things they say about him are scary. Add to that he really isn't conservative, but a sloppy liberal (and by that, i am not insulting liberals. McCain calls himself a conservative to get a larger vote base, but he's like lieberman, who i do have respect for.) I haven't forgotten what he and Lindsey Graham and the rest of the gang of 14 did. And i didn't see him trying to put the brakes on the crazy spending the repubs did. He just wasn't worth voting for.

Obama...no, couldn't do it. I look at the "messiah" worship going on and can only think that when he fails to live up to it, the crash it gonna be pretty bad. Folks really don't know anything about him. He sings a pretty good speech, but he's hung out with a racist as a mentor (the pastor), a homegrown bomber (remember Oklahoma City? I do. And i cant respect anyone that would be friendly with anyone that could or would try to do something like that).

I watched the media whitewash things for him (ACORN, land deals, whether he actually IS a natural born US citizen), his wife's disdain for america before it "woke up" and elected him as its "savior"...

Sorry, its like under the "first black presidents" two terms, i really don't have a president.

Politics and the average person tend to break down into three stages as i see it.

Young- you see all the great possibilities of the future with stars in your eyes and your emotions on your sleeves.

Middle age- you've seen enough and been disappointed enough to be cynical and jaded.

Old age- you realize that no matter what they say and promise, be it a shining hill, or hope, or change...its all cow poop on your shoes. They are gonna do exactly what they want to do and to hell with anything they said to buy your vote.

I'm definately in the old age stage. It doesn't matter who you vote for, the world still turns, the sun still comes up, and politicians are still gonna lie.

Rick,

I hear you. I do hope that President-elect Obama will be able to do some good for the country. We certainly need some good after the mess caused by the current President. There are some mighty big problems facing President-elect Obama and he could easily fail. Heck all the great leaders of the past could fail given the problems we face.

I hope President Obama and his administration will surprize you in a good way.

That said, my favorite joke is:

How can you tell when a politician is lying?

His lips are moving.

It's a wonderful day. For the first time I feel that there is a president that might actually have my interests in mind. And not the old way of protect the rich/self interest politics. I hope the arrow points up after the next four years. The previous administration has been a complete embarassment.

As a life long Democrat I am thrilled with Obama's election. I believe he is a good and competent man. I agree with him on most policy points. It was certainly thrilling to see the first African American make his acceptance speech. Jessie cried. Oprah cried. I cried with them.

The thrill of the moment is greatly marred by the vehement hatred that heterosexual Americans once again showed gay Americans in this election. I live in Arizona. I was insulted by the barrage"Vote Yes for Marriage Ads"on the radio, television, and billboards over the past few months. I was stung by the margin of "victory" for the constitutional amendment that guarantees my status as a second class citizen in my state.

The Florida constitutional amendment took it a step further and made domestic partnerships illegal.

In California, the rights of married couples were ripped away. Exit polling suggests that seven in ten African American voters pulled the lever in favor of discrimination against gay people. That's shocking and shameful.

By a huge margin, Arkansas voters made it illegal for unmarried couples to adopt or become foster parents. This is a hatred that runs so deep that they even took these rights away from heterosexual unmarried couples in their attempt to keep the gays in our place. As someone who works every day with brutally abused children I know the desperate need for more foster parents to keep these kids out of damaging congregate care. Heterosexual Arkansas, your hatred is so strong that you have sacrificed your children.

I'm angry, hurt, saddened and disgusted. November 4, 2008 will be remembered as the day that one group took a giant step in overcoming discrimination while another was sent a clear and overwhelming message that hatred is alive and well in America.

The previous admin in my mind was the right admin for the right time. Few would have handled the beginning as well as they way they did, certainly not Gore (nor Kerry) IMO. Someone probably should have thought, gee, Hussein wasn't very nice to pops, would this guy have an agenda? Anyhow, 9/11 made this a very difficult admin period.

As for Rickshaw's thoughts, as someone coming from a similar political position I spun it differently. My decision was made when Palin was selected. Just couldn't see it. I had the same concerns about Obama as Rickshaw1, particularly the wife.

Ultimately I knew" previous presidents have had annoying wives and we survived. Previous presidents associated with outrageous bigots or were themselves, and we survived. I would be hard pressed to believe there weren't previous presidents that associated with those that would wish to overthrow the government and we survived.

My only real regret is that those kids are really annoying and he's not going to take the Clinton tact of keeping the kids off-limits. These kids are going to be mugging for the camera for 8 years. Oh yeah, and more Oprah.

God help us.

Not to fuss, but: Kennedy and McKinley

Or, if you're going by vowel sounds: Monroe


As far as the outcomes from yesterday go, I have mixed emotions. I'll just say that I agree with what Jerry wrote so I don'thave to write it all again.

So many of the people I know have been jubilant over the election ...

The thing is, Obama is not the messiah. He's just a man. More than that, he's a politician. He's already demonstrated in the past that he'll take the politically expedient course when he feels that it will benefit him.

He said that he would accept public funding and challenged his opponents to do the same ... until it turned out that he could make far more money by forgoing public funding.

He said that he would bring change to Washington, but he chose a 40 year veteran as his running mate.

Then there's the questionable deal that got him his house at a bargain price far below its market value.

The Reverend Wright situation makes him seem disingenous to me.

His election is a historic occasion and it speaks well of us as a country, I think.

But at the end of the day, Obama is a politician and he will not live up to his promises. No politician ever does.

And to be fair, the expectations of him are so unrealistic that no one could ever live up to them.

Jerry, my wife has a lesbian friend that has a child of her own and is raising her crackhead brothers child as well...and the chld is one hell of a lot better off because of it. Dad was/is a crackhead, and mom is one and worse.

I completely agree that the needs of the kids come first and that if they voted the way you say they did, then they really are a bunch of ignorant asses. This of course sets aside the predatory people of any gender, race, or sexual orientation. We expect that these folks will be weeded out from the foster care system. But that isn't always the case. More than one simply see taking a child in as a means to get money for very little, with kids shuffling through the system and never feeling valued or wanted.

I am, however, enough of a conservative to think that marriage is between a man and a woman. I don't have problems with domestic partnerships, with the rights to be extended completely and fully. No partner should be excluded from another partners deathbed because some rule says that the "family", often folks that disowned the dying partner when they found out the person was gay, has more say in the matter than the person he or she choose to live their life with. You should be able to recieve pensions and benefits.

But to deny a child a possibly good home just because someone isn't willing to do the leg work to make sure it IS a good home...its that creeping kind of gray evil that leaves everyone it comes into contact with feeling just a little dirty.

When my state went blue I was absolutely delighted. It's just time to move forward, taking the best of the past with us and leaving the worst behind.

( and what Yellow Kid said )

The 2.5 months between election and installation is is something quite weird about the American process. Government is more or less paralyzed for two months. In the Westminister system the new government takes office within days of an election, though I assume the executive power remains vested in the Sovereign and the Privy Council when there is no Prime Minister with the confidence of the House of Commons.

More shocking is that before 1936, the US inaugurations used to be in March (4+ months following the election). This was a problem in at least two points in US history. The secession of the Confederate states in the 4 months after Lincoln's election where the outgoing Buchanan took no real action to pre-empt or prepare for the upcoming civil war, and the 4 months after FDR's election in which he was powerless to enact his New Deal as the economy continued to worsen under Hoover.

Note the FDR changed the inauguration to its current schedule before his second term. I guess the 4 months was necessary back in the day (imagine coming to Washington from California to serve as a Congressman before the railroad) but it sure is weird in the 21st century.

The big difference here in the UK is that even if there is a cahnge in government the civil service remains the same. Whereas in the US (as I understand it) the entire White House/legislative staff changes after an election so you need time to appoint everyone, hand over everything and all that type of stuff, here the backroom staff (not just secretaries and basic admin staff but pretty much everyone apart from the ministerial posts) are part of the Civil Service and as such are supposed to be a-political and mean they can change who the minister for each department actually is pretty much over night. It means that you can switch who is in control pretty easily compared to the US system. Also during the run up to an election the leader of the opposition (and possibly the leader of the Lib Dems, not sure about that) is involved with any major meetings that the PM has so that they can be fully up to date with the situation in the country and the rest of the world in case there is a change in gorvernment. I would imagine something similar happens in the US though for the same reason.

I voted for McKinney [Green], chiefly out of towering rage at the misogyny of the hooligan faction of Obama's supporters [yes, I understand they are not a majority of his supporters, but I have ZERO tolerance for misogynists, particularly foul-mouthed, rowdy Young-And-Dumb-And-Full-Of-S**t male talking apes], abetted at times by the candidate himself.

I look for him to be Jimmy Carter 2.0, except that I actually liked Carter.

Jerry--FWIW, I voted against that sprocking amendment that would bar unmarried people from fostering or adopting kids. I love the Arkanshire, but it really disappoints me sometimes.

Oh, and I apologize to the inhabitants of Gorilla City for comparing human misogynists to talking apes.

The Obama campaign's suppression of media coverage of Mckinney's campaign, if true, is a *really* bad sign, imo.

I've been a Republican since I became politically aware at nine years old (My parents were Dems.). In twenty years of voting, I've cast my ballot for third party before, but never for a Democrat. Until now. I don't have much against McCain, but my vision for the future of the US, and of the world, is all-inclusive. Any short-term compromises that I have to make in ideology are worth it too advance my long-term goals. I'm encouraged by Senator Obama's commitment to include Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, and I'm sure he'll do much to improve our standing in the world community. Also, I try to remind my few Republican friends to be patient because the pedulum swings both ways (remember 1994?). Until then, I will try to give all parties concerned the benefit of the doubt and support the Office of the President.

Jerry, you said everything I've been feeling. As a Californian, it's not so much anger I feel, but sadnes and weariness. I've felt depressed since election night, despite my joy at Obama's victory. The words "second class citizen" are exactly what I am feeling I am right now. Thanks for expressing so well what many of us, I suspect, are feeling.

Well, I'm a little sad that there won't be any more boss Tina Fey parodies of Sarah Palin...

I'm pleased with the results, but I truly wonder how much of the past 8 (and even 28) years of downslide can be reversed.

I shall hope for the best and wish him well.

28 years? Hell, post wall when all the defense technology got released to commercial use, we were golden. Crime rates were down. Access to higher education increasing. Social norms being evaluated. Stock portfolios were doing wonderfully and even when it started going haywire, it was easy to find stable safe investment.

Economic downslide is relatively recent. Moral downslide may be 28 years or since 60's but more likely it's just risen to inspection.

The problem I'm seeing is this "ameri-centric" world. They're always up in our business complaining then at the same time looking to this country for leadership, so, we lead.

If a black man had been elected PM of GB would the news in nearly every country be talking about new hope for the WORLD?

Why the heck are people in Europe and elsewhere celebrating our election? Because they're too focused on us while saying, they're not focused on us. Other than Mandela, I can't think of a time when we (American's) got very excited about who was elected what in some other place and even that lasted only until the next big sports weekend.

Can a country garnering all this attention possibly be in decline?