Last night we elected Barack Hussein Obama to be president of United States. I’m incredible excited about this – much more so than i thought i would be. I find that i’m constantly wedged between people who are overly optimisitic about the political situation in American and people who are consistenly negative and pessemistic. Listening to Obama last night, i couldn’t help but caught up in the hope and optimism that is reverbirating through the country. Some things i feel:
- We have an intelligent president again. Obama was president of the Law Review at Harvard. You don’t get there by being competent. Clinton was this way too. Bush wasn’t. I like the thought of having a President who can take in lots of inputs and process them intelligently.
- I feel that Obama will be more transparent than past Presidents. This isn’t a rip on Bush but rather a reflection of our times. With the rise of the Internet, information is everywhere and the world is becoming exposed. You can no longer protect information. Instead you need to over-communicate and release it. Angelina Jolie figured this out and releases more press releases than any other celebrity around and i think Obama has too. One line he spoke yesterday was: But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.” makes me think we’ll more information from the Obama camp than we’ve heard from past presidents
- The return of Joe Biden. Biden was a Senator at age 30 and was once thought to be the future of the Democratic party. Time hasn’t shown that to be true but it’ll be interesting to see how he puts his foreign relation skills to use
- Shedding the dillusionment of American Politics. Most people i know couldn’t care less about what the govement does. “It doesn’t matter to me” is a common response. But, these same people felt inspired by a candidate for the first time (at leat that i can remember). The passion i saw the older generation talk about JFK, i saw people talk about Obama and i felt it too. If Obama would have lost, i think we would have lost the younger voters forever. Fortunately it’s moving in the other direction
I’m happier than i ever thought i’d be about a President. Last nigth when the results were announced all the cars in Hollywood started honking their horns for about 30 minutes. It was loud, obnoxious and totally amazing.