The Election

[Yaya]

Well, today's the day.

The day that the future of America will be decided.

The day that will spell either hope for a new beginning, or the end of the great country of America as we know it.

The world watches.

[Professor Smooth]

I tried to explain the significance of this election to some of the other teachers at my school. As is my understanding, Obama is the son of two immigrant parents who grew up in a tough part of Illinois, but worked hard, got an education, and may be the next president of the United States.

To really drive home that point, I said that such a thing would be like my son or daughter becoming the Prime Minister of Japan.

THAT got through.

Also, an open note to America: If you elect McCain today, please take a step outside and **** yourself.

[Astrotrain99]

I voted for Obama in Virginia today. Hopefully he'll take it, swing-state baby!

[sprunkner]

I voted for the O-man. Not that Washington is a swing state, but hey, I did my best.

I'm seriously on the edge of my butt here. I actually prayed for the guy to win. Yaya, did you give a shout-out to Allah for the big O?

[sprunkner]

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

[IronHide]

Democratic Senate, House, and President.

This should be an interesting 4 years to say the least.

[Yaya]

I'm seriously on the edge of my butt here. I actually prayed for the guy to win. Yaya, did you give a shout-out to Allah for the big O?

Gave a shout out for Him to do what's best for us.

Seriously, I feel I just witnessed an entire nation walking a highwire with a five-foot fall to a soft cushion on one side and a sudden death thousand-meter plunge to a solar pool on the other.

I think we fell on the cushion.

I'm not really one for politics, but I know a dire and desperate situation when I see one.

Today was such a time, and am breathing a huge sigh of relief as I go to bed feeling there's still hope to restore America to the nation it once was.

I honestly believe that, had McCain/Palin won, America's end was at hand and the world should be ready to embrace China as the world's international leader.

I was particularly happy for the blacks here in this nation who were only a century ago hanging from trees and forced to the back of buses.

This election of Obama, an election I felt Barack had no chance of winning because of his race, tells me that we've come a long way as a people. Smooth might even have to think about making his return, eh?

Though things ended positively, I'm still shocked to find that the popular vote was only separated by a mere 3 million or so votes out of over a hundred million votes. Just a difference of three million!

[spiderfrommars]

Great news.

[Best First]

And now over to our Foreign Correspondant Best First who has the reaction from Europe:

Thank F***!

Maybe we can have some grown up politics now.

[Professor Smooth]

Thank you, America!

You know, for me, the United States is like an old girlfriend. We spent a lot of time together, good and bad. In the end, I felt like it was the best thing for me to leave, even if there was some love left. Even I never wanted to see her again, I wished her the best. It hurt me, greatly, to see her in pain over these past few years. But now, I see that she is in good hands. So now I can say goodbye to the her, knowing that she's better off. Now, finally, I can start my life here in Japan with no regrets. Who knows, perhaps years from now, my son or daughter can grow up to be the Prime Minister.

Just a few minutes ago, I got back to my apartment after a long night of celebration. I have spent the last 10 hours thrilled at the prospect of an Obama presidency. My friends and I bought American beers and toasted to the President Elect. At my last stop, my favorite bar, I was cheered by the bartender for being from the same country, state, and city as President Elect Obama. In my honor, he put on a DVD chronicling the civil rights movement. By the time the DVD got to Martin Luthor King's speech, I was in tears (and I wasn't alone in a bar populated exclusively by Japanese people). I finished my beer and went back to my apartment. I phoned my parents and thanked them for helping to usher in what may be a new day in American history.

I'm still choked up by Obama's victory. More than any politician in living memory, he seems like he can inspire hope in the jaded society that I gave up on two years ago. I wish him, and the people of the United States, nothing but the absolute best in this and all things.

[Predabot]

The U.S.A has done the right decision. The ONLY viable decision!

I actually feel a bit bad that we have so few coloured politicians in Sweden or in the EU now. Why, there was a french guy I read in an article yesterday who had been met with racism during his time in politics.

Now that the USA is showing the way on this, I truly believe that we in the EU needs to follow suit, and improve our numbers in this area.

And now over to our Foreign Correspondant Best First who has the reaction from Europe:

Thank F***!

Maybe we can have some grown up politics now.

F***in' A, man! F***in' A!!

[Yaya]

I'm still choked up by Obama's victory.

As am I.

Being Muslim, I never know what to expect from any politician, what their stance might be towards the people of my faith. That goes for Obama as well. For me on a personal level, the jury is still out.

But for the black people of America and for those youthful spirits of varying colors and creeds who fought so hard this election to preserve justice in this country, I still wept tears of joy.

Though I'm not black myself, I feel the elation in Obama's election, after the so many years of hardship and struggle the blacks have had to overcome. I feel their joy, their victory, and I weep for it. It's quite a strange sensation, to feel utter joy in the victory of a race not my own. It's because I feel we're all better off for it.

And I'm left with a feeling of hope for America. When you see blacks and whites dancing in the streets together, crying together, how can one not feel moved by that? When you see Kenyans and Japanese and Indonesians and the French celebrating across the globe, I can't help but feel the hope of a more tolerant world.

Though under Obama's proposed tax reform, I will be hit harder, I don't care. Money is not so important a thing when the stakes are justice and tolerance.

And last night, I saw tolerance and justice prevail.

[Best First]

And last night, I saw tolerance and justice prevail.

PRIMUS!

[Shanti418]

Yep, we did it!

We've elected the best candidate, but although he'll ALWAYS be remembered for being the first non rich white guy American President, it's still going to be on him to prove he can change things in Washington, and more importantly, in America. His acceptance speech showed once more that he's on top of things.

'Cause if he doesn't, he could just end up being a Carter for the 21 Century.


But he's gonna f***ing do it! It's just so funny how starved we are for decent government around here. Obama's like, "I'm going to tell you what I think, even if you don't like it, and I'm going to tell you why I think that way," and America's like, "Wow! That sounds awesome! I wonder what that will be like?"

And again, although it's a bonus IMO compared to the prize of getting an intelligent guy to operate the country in a desperate time, we can't even begin to grasp the social implications of having a man who is half Kenyan as our President. Of having a black family in the White House.

Democratic Senate, House, and President
This should be an interesting 4 years to say the least.

True, but consider these things:

The last time the Dems had this was with that youngster with the big ideas, Bill Clinton in 92, and the cluster**** that was health care reform at the time contributed to the big republican wins in 94 with Gingrich. Which also points out that there will only be two years until Repubs have a chance to do anything about it.

Thank F***!
Maybe we can have some grown up politics now.

Oh yeah, we Americans already have visions of being the cool kid on the global block again. As people are saying, the election of Barack Obama has reminded the world what they had really liked about America in the first place.

My friends and I bought American beers

Whoa. I don't know if I would have been that HAPPY, but ok. (just kidding, American beers)

[Impactor returns 2.0]

******* brillant, made me cry, Obama can lead the USA to a brighter future

[The Last Autobot]

I doubt he ll end his tenure

*cof* Kennedy *cof*

[Shanti418]

I doubt he ll end his tenure

*cof* Kennedy *cof*

Your optimism is overwhelming.


But yes, I wish he could be enveloped in bulletproof glass at all times.

[Professor Smooth]

Report from Japan:

When Obama won, we flipped out. People hit the town and celebrated his victory! My favorite bar was playing a DVD of the America Civil Rights movement. I honestly don't know why they had that, but...

I understand the dangers involved for the man, but I'm optimistic. After eight years of being angry ALL THE TIME, that's something I didn't think I'd ever get to say again.

People have been congratulating ME for days.

I picked up President Elect Obama's books at an import shop. The Audacity of Hope makes me even more psyched about this man being the next President.

[Metal Vendetta]

It's a brilliant result but...

...any Brits remember 1997?

[Yaya]

My concerns?

Eight years of government by power-driven oil tycoons and businessmen is a long enough time to make permanent changes to the system behind the scenes. They just won't disappear after that long, right?

I mean, can one man have an impact on such far-reaching change, even if he surrounds himself with people with a similar agenda?

We're dealing with an international cabal here, the likes of which include the Bushes, Chaneys, corrupt Saudi princes, etc. They aren't just going to disappear. They will plan behind the scenes and, likely, have become that much more powerful over these last eight years.

They will seek to discredit Obama.

I guess my real concern is, who is really in power now?

[Brendocon]

It's a brilliant result but...

...any Brits remember 1997?

You not enjoying our shiny new Socialist Tomorrow?

[sprunkner]

Expectations are really high, possibly unrealistically so.

Yet if you remember one thing, remember this:

He ain't Bush.

[Shanti418]

Eight years of government by power-driven oil tycoons and businessmen is a long enough time to make permanent changes to the system behind the scenes. They just won't disappear after that long, right?

Powerful buisnessmen, military, industrial, oil lobbies fixing the system to benefit them? I only WISH that it started 8 scant years ago. Try more like 50.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

Same with the debt crisis. Look at this speech from the Prez in the late 70s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tPePpMxJaA

This illustrates two important points:
1. The problems we are confronting had seeds planted WAY before Bush. All he did was add fertilizer.
2. Even if the President says, "Look! Over there! Problem!," that doesn't exactly mean it's fixed yet.



Perhaps if Republicans hadn't spent 20 of the past 28 years shoving sunshine up our ass about how cool and invincible America is, we could have confronted these problems sooner.



Expectations ARE high, but I still have confidence. Like I said before, if he has problems, he will go to the people on the Internet, on e-mail, on TV, and say, "America, here's what's up. We have problem A. I have solution B. There are complications C, D, and E. And these other people think counterpoint L. Therefore, we've compromised to get something done, and have come up with plan X. "

And that plethora of information, of being kept in the loop, of trusting Americans to NOT be retarded illiterates, is, like sprunker said, WAY better than Bush.

[Yaya]

Eight years of government by power-driven oil tycoons and businessmen is a long enough time to make permanent changes to the system behind the scenes. They just won't disappear after that long, right?

Powerful buisnessmen, military, industrial, oil lobbies fixing the system to benefit them? I only WISH that it started 8 scant years ago. Try more like 50.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

Same with the debt crisis. Look at this speech from the Prez in the late 70s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tPePpMxJaA

This illustrates two important points:
1. The problems we are confronting had seeds planted WAY before Bush. All he did was add fertilizer.
2. Even if the President says, "Look! Over there! Problem!," that doesn't exactly mean it's fixed yet.

Perhaps if Republicans hadn't spent 20 of the past 28 years shoving sunshine up our ass about how cool and invincible America is, we could have confronted these problems sooner.

Well said. And deadly accurate.

[Predabot]

Eight years of government by power-driven oil tycoons and businessmen is a long enough time to make permanent changes to the system behind the scenes. They just won't disappear after that long, right?

Powerful buisnessmen, military, industrial, oil lobbies fixing the system to benefit them? I only WISH that it started 8 scant years ago. Try more like 50.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

Same with the debt crisis. Look at this speech from the Prez in the late 70s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tPePpMxJaA

This illustrates two important points:
1. The problems we are confronting had seeds planted WAY before Bush. All he did was add fertilizer.
2. Even if the President says, "Look! Over there! Problem!," that doesn't exactly mean it's fixed yet.



Perhaps if Republicans hadn't spent 20 of the past 28 years shoving sunshine up our ass about how cool and invincible America is, we could have confronted these problems sooner.



Expectations ARE high, but I still have confidence. Like I said before, if he has problems, he will go to the people on the Internet, on e-mail, on TV, and say, "America, here's what's up. We have problem A. I have solution B. There are complications C, D, and E. And these other people think counterpoint L. Therefore, we've compromised to get something done, and have come up with plan X. "

And that plethora of information, of being kept in the loop, of trusting Americans to NOT be retarded illiterates, is, like sprunker said, WAY better than Bush.

You know... reading this, and seeing that you're from Texas, ( you'd think I'd notice after all these years) I just have to ask...

Now that you've got the 'key-notes' to Bush, what he's about, what he'll ALWAYS be about.. do the people of Texas still think the Dixie Chicks were wrong..? Do they still follow, and would follow, should he decide he wanted to be your senator again, George WALKER (wtf... he's the ******' U.S.Agent..??!) Bush?*

Is the general Texon'-public still pleased with the man they first elected to supreme power? ( even tho he's from Connecticut...)




*( can't be re-elected since he's already served two terms, but you know, if there was a change in the constitution that would allow it, or some such)

[Shanti418]

You know... reading this, and seeing that you're from Texas, ( you'd think I'd notice after all these years) I just have to ask...

Now that you've got the 'key-notes' to Bush, what he's about, what he'll ALWAYS be about.. do the people of Texas still think the Dixie Chicks were wrong..? Do they still follow, and would follow, should he decide he wanted to be your senator again, George WALKER (wtf... he's the ******' U.S.Agent..??!) Bush?*

Is the general Texon'-public still pleased with the man they first elected to supreme power? ( even tho he's from Connecticut...)

Well, I don't think we're monolithic enough in our opinion to PROPERLY answer the question, but I'll say a few things.
One, he was our Governor. So, instead of going to Washington to represent us, he was basically the President of our state. I don't think he'd go back to that, or to being Senator. Ex-Presidents don't do such things historically.
Two, I think they're as displeased as anyone else about him. I'm not sure he would win the state again, based on how closely (relatively) that Obama lost. But there will ALWAYS be people who will be military and "pro war" for lack of a better term. And there will always be people who are religious and socially conservative.
Three, the thing about Texas is....there are 4 BIG cities: San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Austin. There, the opinion is pretty varied and rational. But there are a PLETHORA of small and medium sized towns that form a web over the state, and those rural "real Americans" most likely still like Bush. Here's the Texas electoral map from 2008 The blue area in the south is a result of the increasing Hispanic demographic in Texas.


To give you an example of some of the stuff you might run into in Texas, here's a Texan on another unnamed board I'm currently having a political argument on the election of Obama:

In Obama I see the second term Carter never got. Obama is as every bit anti-Israel, pro-Palestine as Carter. People forget that both Hamas and Hezbollah endorsed Obama.

And like other Marxists in our country he wants to diminish American power to "bring it in line" with the rest of the world. His idea to stem a new recession? Raise taxes, go after businesses. That's a recipe for disaster. I suppose many Americans fell in love with the "spread the wealth" idea. But how will they feel about it when they realize eventually the wealth that'll be spread is their own?

The only good thing about the One winning, the only positive from this, is that racism is officially dead as a wedge issue. We just elected a black man as the leader of the Free World. This was the death knell for racism and the Left won't be able to use it to divide the country again.

Sit tight my friend. Remain vigilant. The Fairness Doctrine'll come up in the new Politburo Congress soon, cause when the Commies can't win in the free market they'll try to legislatively force you to listen to them. And it's going to be a dangerous four years. But the most important thing to remember when speaking about the 'new Carter'... after Carter we got 12 solid years of good God-fearing conservatism.

I also need to point out a key difference between Leftists and conservatives.

When Leftists lose an election, many of them whine and say "Oh no! I'm moving to France!" or "Oh no! I'm moving to Canada!" and then never follow up and go - lacking, of course, the courage of their conviction. Conservatives never say things like that. Conservatives know they live in the best country on the planet and they'd rather stay and fight to make it better - not cut and run after losing an election.

I love it when leftists start calling Bush a tyranical war monger - bin Laden's bad, but Bush? Bush is just plain EVIL, right?

This is what I will miss most from having a grown up wearing daddy pants in the White House. The "killing terrorists dead" part. I'll point out again that the Messiah 51% of this country just voted for was endorsed by both Hamas and Hezbollah. Does that for one moment not give anyone pause? That two of the larger terror groups on the planet endorsed the guy we just elected?

So, um....yeah. Please refer back to that electoral map and notice I live in Austin.

[BB Shockwave]

I just want to quote ol' Lex Luthor here from JLU when the Question implies he wants to become president of the USA...

"President? You have any idea how much power I'd have to give up to become president?"

So I know many of you are cheering because of the great change (which I agree on, I mean Bush was ****), but don't expect anything radical or new. Presidential promises are nice but 80% of the time, are not followed up.

It kind of irks me that the same 2-party system you in the US have is getting copy-pasted everywhere in the world... in Hungary I can choose between the post-communist (now more like capitalist) left-wingers or the pro-liberal,somewhat nationalist right wingers... and frankly none of them are my cup of tea, but these are the only two choices, smaller parties don't have a chance. Meaning that you don't really get to elect anything as there isn't a huge difference between the two parties, just like in the US.

Eight years of government by power-driven oil tycoons and businessmen is a long enough time to make permanent changes to the system behind the scenes. They just won't disappear after that long, right?

Umm, don't you think they haven't been around before? During Clinton? Or much, much earlier? Who do you think is behind the democrats also? Naturally, not the same tycoons and 'eminent grey' but they are still very much the same.

Bottom line is, there are some politicians who are more sympathetic then the others, who are charismatic, energetic, and want change. Is Obama one of these? Yep, you can bet. I really like the guy and am happy that it's him winning and not McCain (same way I rooted for poor John Kerry 4 years ago). But to get some changes in a country as big and powerfull as the States, you need more then charisma and determination... you need the 'OK' signs from the higher powers.

So I'll remain sceptic and won't expect any earth-shattering changes in US politics anytime soon.

[Powermaster Optimus Prime]

*( can't be re-elected since he's already served two terms, but you know, if there was a change in the constitution that would allow it, or some such)

False, the law only states that you can't be elected to 3 consecutive terms.

Mwhahahaha

[Guest]

*( can't be re-elected since he's already served two terms, but you know, if there was a change in the constitution that would allow it, or some such)

False, the law only states that you can't be elected to 3 consecutive terms.

Mwhahahaha

Actually, the United States Constitution states nothing of the kind. It does, however state that no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. There is no "consecutively" omitted to the previous sentence, so there is no ambiguity over whether a third term is allowed if separate from the previous two. There is no third term allowed. Period.

Saying that, however, if a person becomes President without being elected to that office (i.e. through line of succession), and has served less than two years in office prior to the end of that term, they are still eligible for two full terms in office, making a potential maximum time in office of just under 10 years.

[Obfleur]

God damnit Rebis, I love you.