Wednesday, November 05, 2008

The first black US President Well, what's new these days. Oh yeah, there's a new young, black US president... I guess that deserves a quick write-up. For a long time, it seemed as if the country had been watching these campaigns and had been getting weary, and almost sick of all of it. What struck me was how fast it all started to go about a day or two ago. It was like watching a slow movie and then when it starts to build up and climax, you fast forward through the rest of it. I read a short blurb on what Tim Russert would have said about this election and what he would have wrote on that board of his and it probably would have been "Bush, Bush, Bush." You just have to look at an electoral map to see how many red states turned blue. People really wanted to fight Bush with their votes. It's a bit strange how much people hated Bush. He was actually a little bit more centrist than everyone thinks. I mean, a solid conservative President would not have signed a campaign finance reform bill into law like he did, which, incidentally, was sponsored by McCain. Either out of ignorance or shrewdness, he went against his own party on several initiatives but then again he did start a war that no one cares for now. But, back to my main point about Obama. I don't believe there was much doubt that he would win. These types of political party realignments happen every so often--it happened after FDR and his New Deal and after Nixon's horrible performance. It basically happens after something really bad happens. In today's case it would be the economy, which leads to my main point about the man. My raging enthusiasm for Obama is tempered by my dislike for another thing--hype. Hype distorts reality, and hype is pretty much what surrounds Obama right now. He hasn't really proven himself professionally and he has yet to take control of the office of Presidency. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be much of a bother, but a new face that is facing the worst conditions could have negative effects. He is working quickly already, though, by picking Emanuel as his chief of staff, and mulling over others for his cabinet. He's also already planning to pitch that the Olympics be held in Chicago in 2016 (incidentally, he made an awesome statement on being a White Sox fan). Overall though, I think people are going to have to be patient with Obama because if he's going to change things it's going to start happening maybe a year or a year and a half from now--not in the first few months. The thing that I'm most interested in is the aspect of race relations and how it could potentially be permanently changed. We know now that race is not a factor in the selection of President. I'm so fascinated by the interplay of race and politics and there were so many interesting things about how race was used and looked at in the media during the presidential campaigns. But, what's going to happen in the next 4 years with President Obama? Are people going to look at his some of his future actions as motivated by some kind of loyalty to some groups over others? Or will people be able to judge his actions based on their merits and only that? On the other side, will some citizens expect him to support their initiatives because they perceive him to have or that he should have certain allegiances to them? Or will people take those feelings out of the process and judge his decisions objectively? I can't wait to see what happens and how our country responds. But, whatever side of the aisle you're on, this is still a day that has no equal. I'm sure our civil rights leaders could envision a black man at the helm one day, but I'm sure many of them thought it would take many more years (although Bobby Kennedy actually did predict a black president right about now). Hopefully, it won't take many more years before we see an Asian-American president :) EDIT: Scratch everything I said. I just want to see how Iraq turns out.