The Official Obama Inauguration thread - Page 11

I thought Obama's speech was a little generic. It wasn't bad by any means--he hit all the right points, recognized the gravity of the moment, etc.--but I dunno; it just didn't reach out & grab me. If I had to choose between the two, I thought his Election Night acceptance speech was a lot more impassioned & inspiring (it gave me goosebumps, and (confession) I didn't vote for the guy!) However, watching the happy crowds in DC and seeing the magic of the moment made up for the "merely adequate" speech, in my book.

I confess--I'm more of a centrist/righty than most of the Chewers, and all the over-the-top Obama love is a little wierd for me. I don't agree with a lot of the man's politics. However, he seems like such an idealist and seems so sincere that I have been starting to see his appeal. I'm cautiously optimistic about our future as a country.

To paraphrase a movie many of you seem to like:

Obama may not be the President we need (I hope he is, though!), he is the one we deserve.

But that benediction did bother me a bit. Yeah, I'm white.

Also, take heed guys and gals - recognizing the fact that the inauguration of a president of African-American descent is a monumental achievement for America and that it's completely understandable why so many black people are jazzed about this is racist.

Pass it along.

(And that's not a shot at you, Ady, but a shot at some workplace dickface that I've had to now ignore)

Well, I also expected more from the inaugural speech. It'll likely not be as memorable as his introduction at the Dem. National Convention or his speech about race, but the whole moment made up for that.

BTW, I'm a bit worried about the whitehouse.gov makeover. I just realized, lots of wiki and other links to policies, press releases, etc. are now invalid since the change. I'm sure you can still search them via archives, but somebody is going to have to figure out a way to preserve these links in the future or at least provide an official archive/snapshot for them.

I imagine it's difficult to strike the right tone, being that we are jammed between 8 years of failure and what appears to be a supremely rough go of it. Can't be triumphant or expansive (after all, 'we the people' are ultimately responsible for electing the leadership that has consistently failed the country and the planet); can't be too backward-reaching (because it's the things to come that are really important now); can't be too demanding (they crucified Jimmy Carter for that) nor too optimistic (then he'd be pegged as chronically unrealistic). Can't cry about it. Can't be too specific. There is a reason there are so few great inaugural speeches (what is it, like three?).

Personally, I would have been fine with short and too the point. Something like: "Our country is in crisis, our way of life in peril, our planet in danger. I am charged to lead this country, during this time, and I recognize the essential charge laid before me. I cannot do this alone. We cannot do this alone. America remains the last, best hope for humanity because the promise of America speaks to all peoples, of all religions and ethnicities and hopes and dreams . . . the promise that speaks to our freedom, to do what is right -God willing- and to fight for what we believe to be right. This freedom is God-given, but it must be secured against the tides of despair. The sacrifices of our shared struggle illuminates these dark hours with the sentinel flames of liberty, of hope, of freedom. It is our task to tend these flames, no matter the hardship, no matter the circumstance, no matter the cost. It is my task, as President of these United States. It is your task, as citizens of these United States. It is our task, humanities task, to struggle together in the desperate pursuit of peace. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America."

Three paragraphs, done in five minutes flat. Easy. My secular humanist friends will cry "this is awful!" perhaps. Too much God. The invocations at the end are traditional and historical in nature, so we get the G-man twice. If anyone would like to suggest a more economical way of getting the point across, I would be interested to hear that.

I think something blunt, direct, and concise would be fantastic. Maybe not. Maybe next time.

So he WASN'T President after all...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/...ath/index.html

In the meantime, Alexander Haig was in charge, right?

You don't need to be sworn in to become President. He became President at noon tuesday, regardless of a jumbled oath.

Wow Jake, your coworker must have thought TV news was pretty fucking racist then, because thats all BBC World and aussie news talked about essentially

I wish Obama just got up there & said "Everybody chill the fuck out. I got this."

I'm not even going there, because they'd probably say it WAS racist. Trying to argue the point made my brain hurt, because me saying "NO, I DID NOT ONLY VOTE FOR HIM BECAUSE HE WAS BLACK. YOU CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE REASON TO VOTE FOR SOMEONE" did not sink in at all.

Is this person some overly PC retard or somehting or just a mental defective with delusions of intellect?

Cause now my head hurts just thinking about it.

Mental defective. He thinks that his ability to phrase a complete sentence and drape neo-conservative talking points in lots of other wordy statements makes him smart.

I just caught the tail-end of Ann Coulter on Dr. Phil. She was SHOCKED that people booed President Bush at the Innaugural. She said Republicans would never do such a thing and then washed over all the hate crimes that have been happening within the past few months because "Hollywood makes films about assassinating Republicans."

The audience just ate it up and cheered her like crazy.

Somebody didn't watch McCain's concession speech...oh yeah, it's Coulter. Fuck it.

She's doing Dr. Phil now? Oh Ann, your star is falling.

I just thought I'd tell you guys, I was in the closet 40 000 people for the inaugeration (would have been closer execpt my idiot cousin was slow). I got to sit down with ex congressmen in that section. Then later that night I was wandering around, and ended up scalping a ticket on a metro platform for the 'Southern Ball' and got to watch him dance with Michelle from 15 feet away. It was amazing. I would have told you guys about it but the weekened I came back was I believe the weekend chud got rid of talk backs which is where I was typing on the site before I joined the boards.

Hey guys, put up a gallery with some of my shots from the Inauguration. Some cool pix, check em out.

Hey everyone!

The One Year Anniversary is today!

Feel free to check out the gallery of photos I put up from when I was there

And if a person were so inclined, where could he view said photos?

On my profile, it's one of my galleries

Did you manage to find them OK, JVC?