Positive Obama thread

Amy, my daughter should be landing in D.C. right about now.  She left for the airport here in the middle of the night, so a very long day for her.  But she's young, she can take it!  They're doing a lot of sightseeing, before and after the big day, so they'll probably catch some music along the way.  I guess Sasha and Malia will finally get to meet the Jonas Brothers!  Chaperoning wasn't an option, unfortunately.  Their teachers are going with them. 

Kathi, thanks for awesome video link.  I love the new will.i.am song too, "It's a New Day."

I know what you mean about feeling extra energy Serene.  I was watching the various pre-inaugural events on TV.  The excitement and joy are incredible.  I guess the anticipation of change and witnessing history have made people giddy in spite of all the bad news.  We should revel in it while it lasts!  I was just talking to an American professor who teaches in Paris and he was saying that the last 8 years have been really rough for him, politics-wise.  He laughed that now he won't have to tell people he's Swedish. 

amy - i honor your foresight and am so happy it all came to be!

bonnie -  after the ducks the flyers are my favorite u.s. team. we have a lot of flyers fans here in duck land, the flyers look real good this year!

i can not wait to get on chat tuesday with all the lovely ladies here, to experience history together is a beautiful thing. btw, i will be the very sloooow chatter but i am totally there...lol...

another

yahooooooooooooooo!

The count down begins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you smell what DC is cookin!!!!!!!!!!

Tracey

Interesting article from Newsweek, called, "Enigma in Chief."

As George W. Bush once noted, "you never know what your history is going to be like until long after you're gone." What I think he was trying to say is that, in time, historians may evolve toward a more positive view of his presidency than the one held by most of his contemporaries. At the moment, this seems a vain hope. Bush's three most obvious legacies are his decision to invade Iraq, his framing of a global war on terror after September 11 and the massive financial crisis. Each of these constitutes a separate epic in presidential misjudgment and mismanagement. It remains a brainteaser to come up with ways, however minor, in which Bush changed government, politics or the world for the better. Among presidential historians, it is hardly an eccentric view that 43 ranks as America's worst president ever. On the other hand, he has nowhere to go but up.

In a different sense, though, Bush's comment has some truth to it. We do not know how people will one day view this presidency because we, Bush's contemporaries, don't yet understand it ourselves. The Bush administration has had startling success in one area: keeping its inner workings secret. Intensely loyal, contemptuous of the press and overwhelmingly hostile to any form of public disclosure, the Bushies did a remarkable job of keeping their doings hidden for eight years.

Probably the biggest question Bush leaves behind is about the most consequential choice of his presidency: his decision to invade Iraq. When did the president make up his mind to go to war against Saddam Hussein? What were his real reasons? What roles did various figures around him-Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice-play in the decision? Was the selling of the war on the basis of WMD evidence a matter of conscious deception-or of their own self-deception?

Bob Woodward, Ron Suskind and I recently debated on Slate the issue of how much we really know about Bush's biggest decision. Woodward, the author of four inside accounts of the Bush administration, believes that we do know the most important facts. He argues that Bush decided to invade Iraq in January 2003, that the reason was 9/11 and that Bush himself was the real decider. Suskind and I argue that we don't know how, when or why the decision was made-though we suspect it was much earlier. By the summer of 2002, administration officials and foreign diplomats were hearing that Bush's course was already set.

The disputed dates and details go to the most interesting larger issues about what went wrong during the Bush years. Did Bush's own innocence and incompetence drive his missteps? Or was it the people around him, primarily his vice president, who manipulated him into his major bad choices? On so many issues-the framing of the war on terrorism, the use of torture, the expansion of executive power-it is Cheney's views that prevailed. Yet at some point, perhaps around the 2006 election, Bush seems to have lost confidence in his vice president and stopped taking his advice.

To reckon with the Bush years, we need to understand what went on between these men behind closed doors. Despite some superb spadework by journalist Barton Gellman and others, we know very little about Cheney's true role. We have seen few of the pertinent documents and heard little relevant testimony. Congressional investigations and litigation have shed only the faintest light on Cheney's role in Bush's biggest blunders.

The same is generally true of Bush's most important political relationship, with Karl Rove, and his most important personal one, with his father. Only with greater insight into these connections are we likely to be able to answer some of the other pressing historical questions: To what extent was Bush himself really the driver of his central decisions? How engaged or disengaged was he? Why, after governing as a successful moderate in Texas, did he adopt such an ideological and polarizing style as president? Why did he politicize the fight against terrorism? Why did he choose to permit the torture of American detainees? Why did he wait so long to revise a failing strategy in Iraq?

It seems unlikely that the memoirs in the works from Rove and Rumsfeld will challenge Bush's repeated assertions that he was not only in charge but also in control. As for the president himself, we're unlikely to get much: Bush has a poor memory and is too unreflective to have kept the kind of diary that would elucidate matters. In time, however, other accounts are sure to emerge. Congressional investigations will shed new light. Declassified documents and e-mails may paint a clearer picture.

Once the country is rid of Bush, perhaps we can start developing a more nuanced understanding of how his presidency went astray. His was no ordinary failure, and he leaves not just an unholy mess but also some genuine mysteries.

Weisberg is editor in chief of the Slate Group and the author of "The Bush Tragedy." A version of this column also appears on Slate.com.

When  I was young I was raised by my birth mother. One of four children to a single parent. The neighborhood I lived in was what  we'd today consider "working class". While none of the kids in my neighborhood were rich, my family seemed to be the poorest. I didn't have new clothes every year at the beginning of school, we didn't get toys and such for Christmas -if anything we got necessities (read socks, undewear and pajamas). As a teen I alternated between living with anyone who provided a warm place to sleep and sleeping in my car. I joined the military at 18, left home and never moved back. I married and later divorced because I refuse to be anyone's punching bag. I came out of the closet at 25, while I was still in the military, and subsequently gave up my career in the Navy in order to live my life true to myself. I worked my arse off trying to educate myself, make a living and keep a roof over my head. There were times when I failed and again slept in my car and showered at the Y. Through it all I learned patience, tolerance, and the value of keeping an open mind and a positive attitude. Of understanding people, negotiating como ground, and never assuming the way I feel is the only way to feel. I have a wide range of people I have met along the way, whom I consder friends. Some I disagree with on a religious level, some on a political level, some on a moral level. None the less, we found things in common on which we could agree and became friends because we learn from each other.

WTH am I spilling all of this? So that it's (hopefully) understood that what I'm about to post is not meant to be anything other than food for thought from and out lesbian who happens to have another point of view.

In my opinion ~ Rick Warren is not "the" enemy. He is a man with tremendous compassion, vision and ability to nourish the hearts and minds of many. Yes, being gay, I don't agree with him on the issue of homosexuality. I don't agree with my own pastor on that issue either. That doesn't mean I discount everything he has to say. In doing so, I would miss out on the opportunity to learn more about myself and those around me. I know turning your back to the TV while he is speaking seems to be the right thing to do but I'd like you to consider sitting there with an open mind and an open heart and listening to what he has to say. We can not, as a human race let alone a nation, turn our backs on those who disagree with our own personal beliefs. If we all did that, nothing would ever be accomplished. Anything worthwhile in life requires give and take.  In 2000 I was not crazy about the idea that then want to be President Bush was a Republican and anti-homosexual - but I watched and ultimately voted for him his first term because - regardless of my own stake in it, I thought me might be the better man for the job and what was needed for the country as a whole was more important that the attributes I needed him to have personally. By turning your backs, you are also closing your minds. Healing doesn't happen when two people refuse to look at each other and listen. Only in listening and trying to understand each other will Blacks/Whites/any other race, Christian/Catholic/any other religion, Republican/Democrat/any other political belief sytems ever be able to coincide together peacefully. The war between Palistine and Isreal did not happen overnight...it started with one side turning their back on the other and refusing to listen.

IMHO.

amy - got the parade insert in the la times, put it aside for you along with the special inaugural section....added bonus is a beautiful picture of the obama family on the cover of parade piece...

get me your snail mail address and i will send them off to you...

...............love the smell coming out of the d.c. kitchen and can't wait to rock and roll with the concert today...:)

Great ideas

Thanks 

now here is something for the pelosi haters to really sink their teeth into:

Pelosi wants investigation of Bush officials, open to prosecutions

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pelosi_wants_investigation_of_Bush_officials_0118.html

personally, i hope they leave investigation to the new improved doj and let congress focus on recovery.

.....................

Tracey and flyrzfan, thanks for sharing your experiences and insights.  I just watched the concert at the Memorial and was again impressed by the diversity of the crowd and the performers.  Not just diverse in race, but in age and culture too.  How fitting that the last song would be "This Land Is Your Land."  (Wasn't it inspiring to see Pete Seeger up there?)  U2 were awesome too.   

I believe all of this inaugural pumping up of the country is necessary for our recovery.  It's not just our whoo-hoo for victory, it's also our collective cry before battle.  As Obama said, things will get worse before they get better, and change will take time.  It's not enough to have smart policy ideas.  I think we understood when we elected him that we also need a calm and optimistic leader to help us make it through the change. 

Can't wait to hear O's inaugural speech.  No pressure there!

Oh, remember 8 years ago? Disputed election, how miserable we were?  How much repubs crowed about the election of their candidate? Compassionate conservatism? You'd have thought it was the 2nd coming. Four years ago....disputes over Ohio....protests at the inaugural parade...again, repubs crowing....

Here we are. Our candidate won.  He's going to be inaugurated on Tuesday. We're happy. Why the heck not?  No disputes, no Supreme Court deciding who will lead the country.  The people spoke. There's a spirit of optimism in the air. Why the heck not?  Look at what's happened over the past year?  War. Record Deficits brought on by war spending and tax cuts. Torture in the name of our great country.  And now?  The knowledge of a new day. Will it be immediately different? Probably not. It took 8 years to get us to this point, it's going to take awhile to get us out. 

Once upon a time, we sacrificed. We knew that paying for war cost $$$.  The wars in Iraq & Afghanistan happened, wanted or not, and all we were told to do was "go out shopping". Keep the country running on credit cards.  The time is coming to pay the piper & hard decisions will be made. I probably won't agree with some - of course not. There's a certain amount of trust that we have to hold in our elected leaders.  A hard thing to do.  But do it we must. If it doesn't work, well, that's what we have elections for.

I laugh when I read about "drinking the kool-aid" and "worshipping" Obama and the media "kissing butt". Really.  What's wrong with optimism?  With enjoying something?  With hope?  Hooting over the fall of Faux News (talk about kool-aid, worship, and kissing butt) (and hopefully, Ann Coulter and her minions and trolls)?

Who gets the last laugh....the POSITIVE people!

WooHoo! 

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's choice for chief of staff, says Obama's speech Tuesday will ask the nation to reject the "culture of anything goes."

Emanuel says Obama will ask Americans to restore a national value system that honors responsibility and accountability. It harkens back to John F. Kennedy's call for personal sacrifice in his 1960 inauguration address.

lap - a little pressure tuesday? wednesday is when the big pressures start, imo.

thank you bonnie and tracey for an insight into how you got here today, i admire both of you for your fortitude and grace.

pam - disputed election, how about stolen election, no?

we, as a nation are soooo ready for change, i really do give president bush some credit for making the american people wake up and get involved in making a change. i think it will be the biggest part of his legacy, paving the way for Barack H. Obama to be elected President of the United States, and for that I can not thank him enough...:)))))))))))))

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

it sure does feel GOOD!