FINALLY.
Really, I doubt there's much left to say that hasn't already been covered by other people with regard to the inauguration, but I felt like I should express my profound sense of relief at the end of the Bush administration. I think Richard Lewis said it very well in a recent interview with Keith Olbermann when he said, "I was always proud to be American, but these last eight years, I was hiding under my bed. But I'm out now!"
As someone who spent a sizable chunk of the last eight years living abroad, I can't begin to describe how tough it's been to be an American overseas during the Bush administration. And in all honesty, I think it's a little more annoying to have to do all of the explaining and reasoning and, "Listen, we're really not as crazy as our government makes us look sometimes," when you didn't even vote for the guy. So yay for having a president that people overseas, at least for the moment, actually like.
I'm not naïve enough to think that everything is going to magically change because Barack Obama's President (although Biden's ascension to the Vice Presidency might mean that people actually know that Delaware has a university- excitement!). I'm a little nervous that he's going to go so centrist in the name of "bipartisanship" that the policies he outlined during his campaign will be shunted to one side, and I won't be impressed if the torture and Geneva Convention violations of the previous administration are just brushed away in the name of "moving forward." But I think it's a huge step in the right direction, and if nothing else, Obama has gotten a huge number of people engaged in the political process who previously didn't care, and that's something to be proud of.
Or, as Stephen Colbert just put it, "I feel like my heart is going to burst... because it's full of rainbows!"
As someone who spent a sizable chunk of the last eight years living abroad, I can't begin to describe how tough it's been to be an American overseas during the Bush administration. And in all honesty, I think it's a little more annoying to have to do all of the explaining and reasoning and, "Listen, we're really not as crazy as our government makes us look sometimes," when you didn't even vote for the guy. So yay for having a president that people overseas, at least for the moment, actually like.
I'm not naïve enough to think that everything is going to magically change because Barack Obama's President (although Biden's ascension to the Vice Presidency might mean that people actually know that Delaware has a university- excitement!). I'm a little nervous that he's going to go so centrist in the name of "bipartisanship" that the policies he outlined during his campaign will be shunted to one side, and I won't be impressed if the torture and Geneva Convention violations of the previous administration are just brushed away in the name of "moving forward." But I think it's a huge step in the right direction, and if nothing else, Obama has gotten a huge number of people engaged in the political process who previously didn't care, and that's something to be proud of.
Or, as Stephen Colbert just put it, "I feel like my heart is going to burst... because it's full of rainbows!"