h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So, on 'this historic day*', Obama was sworn in. What do you think of his speech, what do you think he'll do, what do you think he'll have to do to become a successful President?











*I think I'll be happy that tomorrow isn't an historic day.

I didn't catch his speech, but I reckon he won't need to do much to be considered successful. My cat following Dubya, would be viewed as successful.

Being hard nosed serious though, I'd say it's how he manages the present capitalist economic crisis.

I say if he is the president who catches and prosecutes bin Laden without setting off mass chaos in Saudi Arabia, he will be able to get away with anything after that. Eventually he'll have to pull out of Afghanistan even though that war will keep the military industrial complex happy for now. At home if he creates a successful social medicine program he'll be the most popular prez ever, full stop. Government regulation of economic activity won't solve the current crisis but it might prevent it from happening again, even though the neocons will shout and scream about it. I'd say if he makes it to a second term while keeping even ten percent of his election promises he will be the most famous and possibly most popular president in my lifetime (which is a looooong time).

I have heard a rumour in the news room here that within an hour of his inauguration he ordered Gitmo shut down. That alone may be his finest hour.

I think people need to remember that economic recessions are very common and normal in capitalist economies and no amount of regulation from anyone, let alone the government, will "prevent" them.

"I think people need to remember that economic recessions are very common and normal in capitalist economies and no amount of regulation from anyone, let alone the government, will "prevent" them."

This crisis was brought-about by deregulation, it might well have been prevented had the financial sector been properly regulated like it used to be decades ago. Obama alluded to this in his speech: capitalism is alive and well but Reaganomics (which was essentially based on Thatcherite economics) is pretty-much dead and buried.

"So, on 'this historic day*', Obama was sworn in. What do you think of his speech, what do you think he'll do, what do you think he'll have to do to become a successful President?"

His speech was very good, Obama is a great orator which I think is a large part of the reason he's risen so quickly. People who can move an audience with words are surprisingly thin on the ground.

As for whether he'll be successful, I'm not sure. Early indications are that there's a lot of substance behind the spin. Apparently, his approval ratings on going into the White House are around 80% thanks to his early appointments as President-elect. He's very sensibly trying to be bipartisan and non-ideological on a lot of issues. He's kept-on Bush's defence secretary, presumably in order to keep any transition on the Iraq and Afghan situations as smooth as possible.

But he's got a hell of a job ahead of him and he acknowledged this in his speech: the United States is in decline, the economy is in freefall, the country is at war on two fronts, there's a continuing terrorist threat. He pretty much said to the Americans "things are not going to be easy, it's going to be hard, sacrifices will have to be made.". They were the right things to say at this time but I wonder, once they look past Obama's oratory, whether it's what the Americans want to hear. They've had, what, five or six decades of prosperity and now they're being told that potentially it could be the 1930s all over again.

Speech was fine.

There was one hint of Blair(not that I think he is like Blair politically they are opposites) when he said 'there are hard decisions to be made'.

He called athiests 'non-believers' which I really hate but he has to suck up to the 'believers'.

He did speak about unity and hinting that if the Muslim world stops chopping people hands off and 'opens up it's fist' they can talk etc.

Words are cheap, actions are what maketh the man. Let's hope he can give some hope to the black community and hopefully show some of the racists/general whitey-first folks that it doesn't matter what colour you are it's what you can do.

He has a interesting team behind him and I think he will use their experience rather than try to solve the problems himself which is like any good company set-up.

And as someone said above hopefully better medical care wil come forth...reducing military expenditure etc should help that out.

And let's hope his fluffed oath doesn't take much flak. I think the guy prompting him cocked up actually and said the middle bit differently to how Obama had learnt it.

>>And let's hope his fluffed oath doesn't take much flak<<

Oh well, whoever was to blame, I don't think it 'made him look foolish'.
We're all human (at least, I am ), and one thing that destroys us,
is trying to come across as 'invincible'.

Exactly, warner!

It's just something his 'enemies' could use.

3dots, I think the 'non-believers' thing was actually an olive branch. I don't expect McCain would have mentioned them at all. Note also the bit about restoring science to it's proper place: doesn't sound in favour of creationism in the classroom.

It was the first inaugural address to mention both atheists and gay people. From that alone I take heart.

I thought the speech itself was excellent. I don't think it was as quotable as JFK or FDR's, but it worked for me. I liked the fact that he barely mentioned enemies: that things are hard, but the only way through it was by old-fashioned values of hardwork etc, not beating up other people.

I liked his emphasis on science and research, something that's been backed up by excellent appointments. He's had an amazingly smooth transition and now we need to see him follow that up with action.

To be successful, I think he needs to:

Support Iraq and help increase its stability. Asking Robert Gates to stay on was a good move because he's done a good job - it shows that Obama is a meritocrat.

Transfer troops to Afghanistan and make sure that the progress there isn't lost.

Diminish the impact of the recession and put legislation in place to make sure this scenario can never happen again.

Reforge some of America's alliances, there's never been a President with such a huge global mandate and he needs to take advantage of that.

Do something about Zimbabwe and Sudan. Let's see Mugabe try and call him a colonial oppressor.

Something for gay and lesbian people would be nice too. Try and defang that whole debate in the States.

I think that he'll disappoint everyone in one way or another. On foreign policy, it seems hard to see how he can be radically different to Bush, in that troops will remain in Iraq and Afghanistan for a good year at least. Plus, Bush's Defence Secretary is staying on which hardly screams 'change'.

On the economy, I think the massive spending on infrastructure will be a huge boost. Apparently their highway system is falling apart and needs a huge overhaul. He mentioned building a digital infrastructure, presumably wifi etc., which if done properly could keep the US right up there for decades.

I think the investment in green technology will be the most important though. I think he's committing the Federal govt to use green energy, as well as investing in R&D. This is smart imo, cos it guarantees a market for companies doing the R&D, which is essential. It also won't be *that* expensive, cos even though it'll be more expensive than oil in the short run, most of the money should stay in the US rather than going abroad (and that's not even counting the costs of climate change).

Overall though, I think the change of tone will be key. They'll make mistakes, sure, but an America offering leadership to the world is utterly necessary, and we'll get that if nothing else.


As for the speech, I thought it was good but not great. But only compared to his campaign speeches; compared to anyone else in the world it was superb. I think it got the tone of what's to come pretty well, that there are huge challenges ahead but if the right attitude is struck, they can and will be met.

Also...

How he manages Congress will probably be the most important thing domestically. I watched Panorama on Monday night and it noted how powerful lobbyists are, particularly those of the healthcare industry who donated to 533 out of 535 senators and congressmen. If he gets proper healthcare reform through that then I think he'll get re-elected quite easily.

Fun fact: Ségolène Royal claims she has inspired Obama.

But not to lose, thankfully.

Obama's announced a 90-day moratorium on trials in Guantanamo Bay, to get time to decide what to do. A good start.

BouncyBitInTheMiddle

Agreed, actually, maybe he realised that the religious nutbars wouldn't know what a secularist or athiest was so he had to say 'non-believer'.



Hoo-rah, hopefully state funding for stem cell research will return.

re: Iraq - 18months for the withdrawal I think. The US have a duty to make sure they leave Iraq safe-ish!

"It was the first inaugural address to mention both atheists and gay people. From that alone I take heart."

I clocked the non-believers bit, but when did he mention gay people? I've read through it again, but I still can't find it - am I going blind again?

<"It was the first inaugural address to mention both atheists and gay people. From that alone I take heart."

I clocked the non-believers bit, but when did he mention gay people? I've read through it again, but I still can't find it - am I going blind again?>

Didn't you hear him say: non-believers and non-heterosexuals?

I didn't hear him mention our 'pink-brethren' either.