The only thing that I am happy for is that my mother, grandmother, and all my other older black relatives and other black people that marched in the 50s and 60s got to see a black man as President of the United States.

i enjoyed his speech, it was well written and spoken with conviction. as for being the first black president, i think its great that a blackman can be president - always knew that they could, yet i question all the fuss over it. people are putting the cart before the horse, as hes yet to prove his effectiveness in office. give the man some time to produce some of his vows and then praise him as the next best thing since sliced bread.

i hope for america that he brings the type of change that is buzzing around. after such a monumental low in authority, it would be great to see a full revitalization of that governance.

for the darker members of our population, i hope this kills once and for all the lamenting nonsense of race and equality in todays world. equality has never been so... equal? with every organization fighting to destroy our identities (no religion in our traditions, no longer right to say merry christmas, cant even iver the -man endings on words cause it might be sexist), its important to realize that there is a point at which we must stop, accept that we are diverse and entitled to who we are and move on. only when we do, can we put aside the race and other differences and focus on what maters. for being a country of equality, we certainly focused on the differences!

anyway, all the best to the new young president!

You guys are looking from the inside, and you have a different perspective, but you have no idea – no idea – how amazingly good it is that this guy is now your president.

Twas a good speech. I cried a little.

Obaaaaamaa!

Sorry. I was very unimpressed with his speech. It sounded like he was still running for office.

I know he has a good mind so I hope he stops the rhetoric and starts the action.

I slept through the inauguration (Hey, I was tired). I'll see the highlights later.

I spent the entire day watching this. The speech was great. It was purposeful and clear. He toned done his usual style to not overly raise our expectations so that we don't expect change in a week's time. He also said of old debates and old programs that it is time to put away such childish things.

The President spoke to us, not as consumers or tax-payers but as citizens. I thought of his speech as a calling to the citizens to take back their role in government and realize that we can no longer blame the government for its shortcomings for they are our own. I felt like he gave us a great responsibility for the first time when really we just neglected it so long we for got what to do.

I wasn't a supporter of Obama during his campaign. But that doesn't matter now. He is the president and after today I truly think he was the correct choice. He brings with him a sense of renewal that gives confidence back to the people. Makes me feel like we can be more open to the changes that need to come in over the next ten to fifteen years if we are to remain a super power.

I know that we can't do much in the present other than to take a first step towards bettering our situation. I think things will still decline over the next two years or so before we see much progress. I just hope that we don't lose our confidence in our ability to continue on the path we started today.

and let me stress in relation to this ^ point ....

it's NOT about THIS:


it IS about THIS:


>___<!!

I know everyone is happy, but all that's happened is that the government switched its avatar. Nothing has changed.

Has anyone researched Obama's record? Did you know he voted in favor of the Real ID, which would force us to all have a national ID card to do normal activities? He voted for the PATRIOT ACT. Warrantless wiretaps! What a good mind he has!

Why is Obama so good to have as president? Because he can give "good" speeches? Because he gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling when he looks your way? Did you get your news from the TV, where they painted Obama with rainbows and sunshine and anointed him as damn-near the second coming of Christ?

The REAL people who WOULD change business as usual in government didn't stand a chance. They were completely marginalized as crazies and loonies by the media. Yeah, FOLLOWING THE GUIDELINES RECOGNIZED IN CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES IS f*cking LOONEY TUNES.

I'm done.

First black president and black people around the country (mainly the poor black folk) are screaming that Obama is going to take care of them and Obama is going to do all kinds of things for the lower class black people. Sorry to say, but Obama is upholding a lot of Bush's plans until they expire. The tax cuts for one, which expire in 2010.

All in all, this election was about race and not really about policy, in my opinion. Who else goes around being like, "First black president! My president is BLACK!" Really... I prefer to choose the better man for the job over race. If Obama was the better man, I'd accept it, but because he's black? No. It got on my nerves.

EDIT: No, I'm not saying Obama WASN'T the better man, I was just saying that it should be based on his policies and what he wanted to accomplish and what he stood for, not his race.

"Good" speeches? His speeches now are quite obviously meant to stand him on middle ground, and give him good status with both the right and the left.
You know how politics work, it's a lot more complicated than just hearing some speech and then judging the man's character based on that.

Do you realize how radically different the world is viewing the US now? With insane Bush out, and a new guy in – a new guy who, until now, has proven to be a lot of things Bush was not – the rest of the world has started to consider the United States as a reasonable country again.

there is a lot of rebuilding and years yet of positive action before any country views the US as a reasonable country again. bush did more damage to their image then any other time in the states history. all that good clinton did is washed away in two terms - well was washed away in one really.

Apparently no one knows what the Patriot Act is.

All I said was that Obama had a good mind. I didn't say he wasn't politically motivated. His speeches leading to election were very good. They told me that he is able to see his biases better than most people and that is why I think he has a good mind, but I don't think he is going to be unbiased or without political motivation so I too still think of him as a typical politician.

@ixzion - do you mean ron paul? cus you coudln't possibly mean mccain and palin. id have to refuse to believe that. if it were true. which it's not. the only people who stood a chance at getting there were obama or mccain... sometimes politics is pick your poison. and i don't think obama could possibly turn out worse than mccain... patriot act or not. you have to remember how many other people believe in it as well. isn't most of politics just about having a good avatar? if mccain had been voted in instead of obama we all would probably hate america even MORE.

We got a black man into office, now we need a MILF.

There, fixed. ^^

The Republicans sent a corpse to run against Obama.

First, you must consider why they were the only two who "stood a chance". Then, you must consider that the lesser of two evils is always evil. Next, you must consider that the Patriot Act is more anti-American than half the Middle East.

The Patriot Act issue can't be swept aside. If Obama has a good mind, then he clearly read it and voted for it even though he knew it was bad, which would make him a president with no good grasp on the Constitution OR if he had a "not good" mind, it would make him too incompetent to be president. See what I'm saying?

However, I can understand your viewpoint of an outsider, because you are. You don't know American law, history, or its Constitution. I am not marginalizing you, though. Too few of our own citizens know why these freedoms the Founding Fathers recognized so many years ago must be protected vehemently.

To the world, after Bush, it seems like America is sane again. No need to dig deeper than that.

I will keep sentry.

WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH stop right there

No said sane. We said reasonable.

^^

Ixzion,

Have you ever compared Obama with others who voted for the Patriot Act and analyzed their reasons for it. I hope you have before blatantly ruling out any possibility that could show a good mind (even if a biased or politically motivated one). What are you arguments specifically against the reasons that Obama put forth?