Today, the whole world watched as Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. His campaign promised "Change" and promoted chants of "Yes, we can". Now I hear him say "I think we can". I have agonized over the writing of this post and gone back to it many times to try and edit it. I worried too much about offending anybody who might read it but then I realized that I wasn't being true to myself and my feelings if I allowed anybody else's opinion to sway what I wrote.
As our neighbours to the south celebrate this day . . . I truly wish them well. It just seems like overkill.
The whole world has watched this spectacle and is waiting for a miracle. The merchandising of Obama has reached astronomical proportions and the media comments on his least little move. Look - here's a picture of Barack taking off his shirt. Well, he did promise "change" throughout his campaign. I just didn't think he was going to change his clothes in front of us. I thought that most people already knew how to take their shirts off. And as for puppies . . . why is the world so obsessed with what kind of dog is going to be in the White House? Perhaps the concern might arise from the worry that maybe Rover could possibly lift his leg against Lincoln's bed or chew some priceless antique. I find it all so confusing but I digress.
The whole world has been watching this election. Eight years of George W. Bush has left a bitter taste in people's mouths. It seems to be his destiny to go down in U.S.
history as the worst president ever. American politics tends to be more closely scrutinized because of the ripples it leaves on the rest of the world. Americans are in the worst shape their country has ever been in and right now they are pinning all their hopes on one man - Obama. He appeared from nowhere and yet his ingenious use of the internet and his by now famous blackberry catapulted him into super stardom. He won the endorsements of well known and well connected people, not the least being Oprah. The black community rallied around him as being their champion and saviour. He appealed to the average Joe and a lot of the funds in his campaign war chest was filled by the little people. This election cost over a BILLION dollars. Obama outspent all his rivals by at least 2-1.
I am simply amazed at the election process. First, the candidates in each party have to spend months campaigning within their own party to get nominated and they have to go state by state to be elected to their party. Then, the whole thing starts all over again with the parties squaring off against each other. It drags on forever. This election drew more first time voters and ended up with more people voting than ever before. People lined up for hours to cast their vote. The media was in a frenzy and it was fairly obvious that the media chose Obama. I believe that there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than we will know for quite awhile. It will eventually come out but for now - Obama is president. Even the events leading up to the Inaugural seemed to take forever.
The crowds were overwhelming. The cameras and the media all focused on the black community. If in doubt- point the camera at a black person. My daughter and I live on opposite sides of Canada and yet we were on the computer together sending messages back and forth to each other as we watched the Inaugural. Her attitude mimics mine - as Canadians we tend to take a rather dim view of politicians - and we spent most of our time joking about the whole thing. She shared a rather amusing story of her brother in law who jumped in his vehicle and headed off towards Seattle to be a part of the Inaugural celebration. He wanted to see this historic event for himself. I asked her if he knew he was heading in the wrong direction but she just put an evil faced little smiley on her post.
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