So what will actually change under Obama to make the world a better place?

[MadameCastafiore]

Honestly I would like to know what you expect him to be able to do?

There is a lot none of you know about Obama.He was not born in America, he is Islam.He is a wonderfull orator, he can make you believe anything.He made a lot of promises, he can`t keep.

AZMom, what do you mean he was not born in America?

What do you know that the rest of us don't?

he was born in Hawaii - last time I checked that was America........and also last time I checked Muslims didn't go to Evangelical Churches

That's what I thought too. And even if there was some dispute about the requirement to have at least one "American" parent for at least five years after the ago of 16 (the parent that is) he was born there. This all came to light when he was elected to the Senate, so is really old news AZmom.

Given your name, AZmom, I am feeling you must be feeling none too happy given the result....

I do not get the significance of him being black - sorry!

reason being, he is not the first American president from an oppressed minority to be voted in, JFK was.

Slavery, civil rights (Rosie Parks and sitting in seats reserved for whites eg, MLK), etc, etc.

lol

That was at FAQ btw, not slavery and Rosa parks

perhaps because while JKF was running for presidency the majority of blacks were still unable to vote - although the constitution said they could numerous laws that were put in place (had to be literate etc) meant that most couldn't.

and also..........if he's not American - then my god perhaps he should have been a Hollywood star as his accent is very convincing

but if you look into black history in America, the signs didnt just say "Blacks" and "Whites". Many actually said "no blacks or irish". Job applications above service level often ended with the letters N.I.N.N.A which actually meant "n***s and Irish need not apply"
And if you think the literacy levels were any better amongst the wrong type of caucasian, well....
Being born into the wrong kinda white family in America was (and still is for some) the same fate as being born into a black family. The only way people from these groups would EVER get into a good area was through the service entrance.

JFK getting the biggest job of all was significant for all the groups who were repressed and discriminated against so I think it HAS been done before. The boundary has already been crossed.

lol - you are having a laugh about the education aren't you??

JKF went to some of the most exclusive private schools in the country!!!

..and went on to become president of America - it showed a massive turning point. Someone from a group that was once second class and inferior had been accepted into 'polite society'. People never dreamed that it would happen and it did.

thats why I dont think Obama is such a massive turning point as boundaries were already broken. (its good that they continue to be, would be nice to see people from Hispanic backgrounds represented more in positions of power, but its not SUCH a big deal as it would be if he really was the first)

Irish catholics were allowed the vote in the 1800's!

And over 1/2 of the American Presidents have had some Irish or Northern Ireland ancestry!

The peak of the discrimination against the Irish/Catholic community in the US was in the 1850's

sorry Sal - but Jackson (the 7th President) had both parents who were born Irish......it was no new thing for a Catholic to become President

I realize he definitely has lack of experience, Dittany, and that really did concern me when I voted for him, but here's what I think: didn't those with "experience" get us in this financial mess to begin with? I mean, Bill Clinton handed over the country to Bush with a budget surplus after inheriting a huge deficit from Bush Sr, and Bush is leaving with a record federal budget defecit, and a $10 trillion dollar debt. McCain isn't Bush, but has voted 90% of the time with his policies since Bush has been in office, and 95% of the time just last year.

I don't really have tons of confidence with McCain in regards to the economy, either. He admitted himself he doesn't understand economics as well as he should. He (and to be fair, to some extent Obama) cribbed some of Hillary Clinton's economic policies as his own after she left the race. And he even takes the blame for his campaign loss, since he had the lead over Obama until the day of Lehman Brothers going down when he called the economy fundamentally sound.

And, no, we weren't electing Palin to the presidency, but it is an entirely realistic scenario of her advancing to the oval office when the President is a 72 year old man who has been in 3 serious plane crashes, suffered torture as a POW, and has had 2 fairly serious bouts with cancer. I have no confidence of someone who doesn't even understand the duties of the office she was elected to, can't come up with a comprehensible answer to specific questions on foreign policy and apparently doesn't even know that Africa is a continent.

That being said, ITA McCain has gotten a worse rap than he should have, and like DH said, if he didn't have Palin running with him and question his economic views, you would really have to think hard who to vote for.

And I love your comment about VP not being an executive position unless you are Dick Cheney. I got a big smile from that.

I really don't understand all this about not having experience. It doesn't mean he'll be bad at his job. Like Dooney said, people with a great deal of experience have made huge mistakes. And, even the most experienced politician will have an awful lot to learn about being president. At least now there is an intelligent, educated and eloquent figurehead.

As for the republicans, I actually have some respect for McCain. But really, who thinks it wise to elect a 72 yr old who is not in great health to be president? And Sarah Palin was a joke. She couldn't even name 1 newspaper she read. She didn't even have the sense to just say, 'The NY Times' even if it weren't true. How many people can honestly not name 1 newspaper? And living 'close to the Russian border' doesn't really qualify as foreign policy experience, does it?

But, SB, she doesn't just read one paper and magazine, she reads "all of them'. And "Russian planes fly over Alaska all the time". That surely counts as foreign policy?

I keep watching that over and over again and I look like this: because I can't quite believe that people thought that was VP material. It would have been hilarious if it were an SNL sketch. Oh yes, it was an SNL sketch. And they didn't even have to write a script because Palin did the job for them.

I am overjoyed & thrilled & cried over the victory speech. But my cynical side says "So, it's hardly the 1st time that a rich white man mad a huge mess and left a black guy to clear up, even if he has to work 24 hours a day". The task from here is huge, & hardly enviable. And that's if he makes it to inaugeration. I hear Gun sales in the South have increased greatly "in case he bans handguns". Let's just hope that is the reason, or it could be like the JFK assasination but with several thousand mad gunmen...

of course I'm aware Palin wasn't running for Pres but VP role -- in the case of this election you had to look closely at the TEAM being put forward due to McCain's health issues (thus Palin very well could within the 4 year term find herself in the Presidential role) and Biden's considering Obama's lack of experience. In regard to Palin as Gov of Alaska and making major decisions daily - couldn't agree more, but on a worldwide platform she was a disaster waiting to happen. She wasn't prepared for this possible role - her worldly experience completely lacking. I do feel bad for all the slack she is getting and maybe one day she will be better prepared with more experience.
All and all it's done now - the ballots were counted - and that includes my vote as an expat in London.

To run for President of the USA you HAVE to be born in America!
If you aren't American then you have NO IDEA what the significance is of a black (albeit he has a white mother and everyone forgets this - he is mixed race) President. It shows how life has evolved in the US- even though there is someway to go - it is history as was Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.
I read recently: Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk to Obama could run (for President).

I think that it is easy to forget why the war in Afghanistan began. In the post-September 11th world the Afghan regime (the Taliban) was linked by the Bush administration to the 9/11 terrorists as a fertile training ground for militants. They used an argument of pre-emptive self defense (questionably shaky in terms of international law) to justify invading Afghanistan. It was probably not lawful, it was started by the right-wing Bush administration. The war has raged in Afghanistan for 7 years now and by all accounts the country is in a terrible mess, the armies are facing an uphill battle because all the attention and money was focused on another, more contentious and newsworthy US led war, the one in Iraq. I think Obama is quite right that withdrawing from Afghanistan now is to doom the Afghan population to extremist Taliban rule. Whilst I understand the arguments against the unilateral US action in Afghanistan in the first place, human rights activists had been calling for action against the Taliban regime for a long time prior to the war, because of the treatment of the ordinary Afghan people (especially women) by the Taliban. As long as the Taliban is allowed to maintain rule in Afghanistan, militants will be able to train and arm themselves, the education of the population will be impossible, women will lose any rights that they should have, the drug trade will escalate even further. Yes, get out of Afghanistan now, that is what the world (and the Afghans) need.

Obama seems to be absolutely right in his assessment that the priority needs to be securing a level of peace in Afghanistan. Which means proper strategical and financial investment in the military, in infrastructure, in medicine, in education.