Congrgulations Mr President Obama

Hi

Congratulations to President Obama and all our American cousins of whatever political view , he seems an amazing man and what an awe inspiring speech by him and Senator McCain was very gracious in defeat.Hopefully once again America can lead the world from the front into a better future for us all.

Well said Brian!

:rah:

It is an historic day! I just heard the two speeches (as I went to bed before them!!) and each was gracious towards his former rival. It has been an exhausting campaign for everybody I think, both all the candidates in the primaries through to the presidential contenders and all of us Americans! At least I had the advantage of not having to listen to endless political ads. :lol: On the other hand, I wrote my column for this Friday's paper --- which had to be filed yesterday -- based on the assumption that Obama had won so if he hadn't, I'd be in trouble!

:rah:Mr President Obama:rah::rah:

It is certainly a great day in American history!!!:rah:

The American people have spoken loudly and clearly! :rah: :rah::rah::rah::rah::rah:

Lets just hope he is as effective in deed as he is in word. His lack of experience is matters of foreign relations and his relative newness to politics concerns me. What, also, does he know of the average American's daily plight? His life has never been what the average American's life it. Frankly, I am disappointed that our country could do no better, in a country of 300 million people, than either of the nominees.

Frankly, I think it was time for change, but I am not sure what we have gotten is going to be what we need. I am not at all certain we even know what we have gotten, other than the fact that he is the first minority president. And why we keep focusing on that is also a question I have. Shouldn't that be something we look BEYOND? Instead, it is still a big factor in this election. I wonder how many voters voted based on his skin color (for OR against) versus his qualifications? I am sure the number is high. That would be a mistake. We should be looking beyond skin color in this election. If American's could not SEE the candidates they were voting for, and only read their qualifications and heard their speeches, how differently would people have voted? But none of that matters now.

Well, that was just my opinion, and I don't reallly think it matters much to anyone, if it matters at all, but I just wanted to say what was on my mind.

Problem with that Brotymo is that you know that come the time for the first address of the nation, Fozzy Bear would be sitting behind the desk as nobody saw his skin colour.

Sumilidon said:

Problem with that Brotymo is that you know that come the time for the first address of the nation, Fozzy Bear would be sitting behind the desk as nobody saw his skin colour.

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My point is, skin color should be no more of a factor than hair color. that doesn't influence our vote, and neither should race. I know we have become accustomed to seeing our candidates, but not too far back in our nation's history, most American's never saw their candidates. They simply read their speeches in the papers. Unless they were rich enough to travel and go see the candidates during their "front porch campaign", they never saw them.

I just felt both parties had strange choices of candidates to represent them (McCain, too much a Bush clone and Obama, lacking experience majorly) and either way we voted wasn't really that great a choice.

I will be interested to see what all this means for me as your average, struggling American. I sure hope Obama picks a team of very wise advisors to help him deal with our economy. If it gets much worse, I don't want to think about what that will do to most folks like me.

I am so excited that Obama won! I feel he will do great things for our country and for our international relations. How many days 'til 1/20/09?

Frankly, I think it was time for change, but I am not sure what we have gotten is going to be what we need. I am not at all certain we even know what we have gotten

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Amen. I hope very badly that I'm wrong about him. So many unanswered questions, so much information swept under the rug by the media about this guy's past and affiliations. Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire just in the name of change .... His "changes" are exactly what keep me up at night. Thank goodness for the balance of power set up by our insightful forefathers in the Constitution!

As an Illinois resident-- I have the same fears as Daisys Mom and Brotymo-- voting present doesn't really do it for "change". And being 6.25% black -- isn't really a reason to (or not to) vote for someone.

It's mister president-ELECT for a couple months still.

He won fair and square, and I'd hope that most of us that might've voted for somebody else will at least give him a chance now that it's over.

JeanKC said:

It's mister president-ELECT for a couple months still.

He won fair and square, and I'd hope that most of us that might've voted for somebody else will at least give him a chance now that it's over.

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Well, we can either do that or find another country to live in, can't we? I am not quite up for THAT radical a move just yet.

The popular vote does illustrate better how much closer the vote was than the electoral college makes it appear. I do wish this country would go with the popular vote and ditch the electoral college.

I think the media is playing up the racial angle, but the white people that voted for him thought nothing of race when voting.

I personally like his calm demeanor and he seems very straight-forward and honest. That will take him a long way in earning respect of those surrounding him, with politicians, world leaders, and the public (obviously). We'll see how it plays out.

In my opinion, McCain's downfall was in his VP candidate. I don't think a mother of 5, with a 6 mo (with Downs) should have a job as demanding as a VP. To uproot those young children and take them to DC seems like a bad idea. Okay, lash me now! It is not that I don't think a woman could serve that position, I DO! (I so wanted Hillary to be Pres) but one with such young children, no I do not.

Whatever about leaving now, many of us have gladly lived outside the US during a period when someone we were ashamed of represented our country.

The colour of skin or gender should indeed be irrelevent. But the history of most countries shows that skin colour and gender has long been relevent -- it is just if one is of any of the groups running things, it isn't very obvious as one isn't seeing the status quo as a colour or gender issue. In general, everywhere in the west, white males are vastly over-represented in proportion to the actual colour make-up of the nation. Or the university. Or the corporate management structure. Or conferences. Or judging panels. I just looked at the list of about 8 judges for a major industry event here and amazingly not a woman amongst them even though off the top of my head I could have created a 50/50 panel of very qualified people to do the job. How odd that whoever created the panel failed to notice its makeup! Or tried to make it more diverse and representative of the makeup of the businesses it will seek to award...

Actually I think if most people in the US voted on the basis of race in yesterday's election, Obama would never have been elected.

Unless they were rich enough to travel and go see the candidates during their "front porch campaign", they never saw them.

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I actually would disagree -- if anything, more people in the past would have physically seen candidates than ever happens now. The campaign train and stump speeches in thousands of cities and towns was the norm for a campaign, and masses of people showed up to hear those talks from all walks of life -- the same in the UK for MP races and in Ireland, when hundreds of thousands gathered to hear Daniel O'Connell for example. Far more people in the 1930s listened to an entire presidential speech from FDR weekly on the radio than I would wager listened to a full speech by any candidate ever, in the era of television. This has long been the era of small soundbites.

In Ireland our candidates and representatives still do a lot of door to door visits. I have had the former prime minister on my street many times. :lol: With his ONE bodyguard. And last week Enda Kenny (opposition leader) came up behind me to say hello to the dogs which startled us all (for many rasons! :lol: ! If anything maybe we see our politicians toooo much... :rotfl:

Actually I think if most people in the US voted on the basis of race in yesterday's election, Obama would never have been elected. :razz:

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I most definitely did not vote for him based on race......I would hope there were many others who weren't ignorant enough to base a vote on race. I voted for him because I felt he was the best candidate.

Race most definitely does play into this.....but I feel in a positive way. I think it's amazing how far we have come as a country in the past 40 years to actually have had a serious contender who was female and one who was black. That is huge!!! And I am hopeful that over the next decade it won't be considered a huge accomplishment to have a female or black run for the highest office in the country.....it will be the norm.

brotymo said:

Lets just hope he is as effective in deed as he is in word. His lack of experience is matters of foreign relations and his relative newness to politics concerns me. What, also, does he know of the average American's daily plight? His life has never been what the average American's life it. Frankly, I am disappointed that our country could do no better, in a country of 300 million people, than either of the nominees.

Frankly, I think it was time for change, but I am not sure what we have gotten is going to be what we need. I am not at all certain we even know what we have gotten, other than the fact that he is the first minority president. And why we keep focusing on that is also a question I have. Shouldn't that be something we look BEYOND? Instead, it is still a big factor in this election. I wonder how many voters voted based on his skin color (for OR against) versus his qualifications? I am sure the number is high. That would be a mistake. We should be looking beyond skin color in this election. If American's could not SEE the candidates they were voting for, and only read their qualifications and heard their speeches, how differently would people have voted? But none of that matters now.

Well, that was just my opinion, and I don't reallly think it matters much to anyone, if it matters at all, but I just wanted to say what was on my mind.

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I agree with you 100%. I just hope for all our sakes he lives up to his pretty rhetoric. :xfngr:

Lori

Everyone here certainly has valid points and varied opinions, and everyone comes to those opinions based upon their experience, education, livelihood, etc. They all have merit. We all feel strongly about our beliefs, or we wouldn't be so passionate about this election.

I respect all of you on here, and it is interesting what everyone has to say. I guess the longer conversation would be WHY everyone believes as they do.

I make it a point to not argue religion or politics...they are arguments noone wins! (all you have to do it look at the presidential debates...depending upon who you ask, the victory went both ways).
You can never make a person change their mind about politics or religion unless you do so in a way that they are convinced the change was their own idea. It takes a pretty clever person to do that!

I am happy to live in a country where we can vote for our leaders, say what we feel, and live free. I hope Americans don't lose their appreciation for that freedom in favor of bigger government to take care of them. Some words for thought:

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
~ Somerset Maugham

On another note, I am happy that I have a place to come (Cavalier Talk!) where I can forget about the world for a little while. If we all could just live as happy and "in the moment" as our cavs, wouldn't life be easy?