President-Elect Obama • 5 November 2008 • The SnowBlog
President-Elect Obama
Oh thank goodness. This wasn't a close election and it won't be easy to spin it that way. I've already mentioned one thing I liked about Obama: that he raised vast sums from small donations. That means he's representing ordinary people in large numbers. The other thing I like is that he wasn't supposed to get the nomination. The party leaders wanted Hillary Clinton and they didn't get their way. That's good because the Democratic leadership are a disaster. They act as though not upsetting the Republicans is their main role in life. But despite their efforts, America has ended up with someone who has hardly had to 'play the game'. He's hardly had to make strategic alliances with big industry. He's hardly ever voted with the caucus and against his conscience. And what's more, when the Republicans called him a socialist (not to mention a terrorist sympathiser and a muslim) he won anyway. So either voters on balance don't believe the Republicans or they're fine with electing a socialist muslim with radical associates if they think he's a good guy. Either of those interpretations is good news in terms of his perceived mandate.
What I'm now hoping is that some of the skeletons of the last eight years will begin tumbling out of the closet. The Cheney/Bush administration have been getting away with murder and a landslide victory for their opponents might just make the news organisations brave enough to investigate some of it.
With the election result, it's my belief that all of our chances for a happy life have just improved.
And America will now have a president who actually reads books.
Rob
Oh thank goodness. This wasn't a close election and it won't be easy to spin it that way. I've already mentioned one thing I liked about Obama: that he raised vast sums from small donations. That means he's representing ordinary people in large numbers. The other thing I like is that he wasn't supposed to get the nomination. The party leaders wanted Hillary Clinton and they didn't get their way. That's good because the Democratic leadership are a disaster. They act as though not upsetting the Republicans is their main role in life. But despite their efforts, America has ended up with someone who has hardly had to 'play the game'. He's hardly had to make strategic alliances with big industry. He's hardly ever voted with the caucus and against his conscience. And what's more, when the Republicans called him a socialist (not to mention a terrorist sympathiser and a muslim) he won anyway. So either voters on balance don't believe the Republicans or they're fine with electing a socialist muslim with radical associates if they think he's a good guy. Either of those interpretations is good news in terms of his perceived mandate.
What I'm now hoping is that some of the skeletons of the last eight years will begin tumbling out of the closet. The Cheney/Bush administration have been getting away with murder and a landslide victory for their opponents might just make the news organisations brave enough to investigate some of it.
With the election result, it's my belief that all of our chances for a happy life have just improved.
And America will now have a president who actually reads books.