Humanizing Obama
November 7th, 2008
holy fuckin shit
November 5th, 2008
We won. America won.
Obama wanted to be president during the worst possible time. I can only think of a few worse times to be elected POTUS, and they involve the Civil War and the Depression 1.0.
As someone quoted what someone else said and needs to be spread around: “Rosa Parks sat, so Martin Luther could walk. Martin Luther walked, so Obama could run.” And as they all learned or will learn, that was the easy part. Obama’s acceptance speech (no one who actually listened could rightly call it a victory speech) quoted MLK - from the day before he was assassinated.
Many champions of rights in our country have been killed, by our citizenry. Many others as well, either attempted or successful. We have a history of assassination (and attempts) with our presidents. Four successful, sixteen attempted (Nixon, Ford, Clinton and Bush I were all popular enough to get two tries).
Teddy Roosevelt was shot (by John the Saloon-Keeper, yet another historic figure in America’s long history with the ‘the’ clan) after he had already lost the presidency and was running again, as a 3rd party candidate. This was after he lost an eye (as president, in a boxing match at the white house). He had, to put it bluntly, more cojones than pants to carry them around. Obama’s gonna need the same, he faces some very tough problems, most of which are beyond anyone’s real control.
And, you know, with all the trash that’s been talked this election, the funniest thing turns out to be the rumor that Barak Obama wasn’t sworn into the Senate with a bible and wouldn’t be sworn into the White House with one. Why, you ask?
Roosevelt took the oath of office in the Ansley Wilcox House at Buffalo, borrowing Wilcox’s morning coat. Roosevelt did not swear on aBible,[46] in contrast to the usual tradition of US presidents.[47] Expressing the fears of many old-line Republicans, Mark Hanna lamented “that damned cowboy is president now.”[48] Roosevelt was the youngest person to assume the presidency, at 42, and he promised to continue McKinley’s cabinet and his basic policies.
When Roosevelt won the Presidency in his own right, he was age 46. When he assumed the Presidency from the late McKinley, he was the youngest at age 42. He had problems with the regulation of industry, the environment, healthcare, the safety of our republic, and went up against powerful, moneyed oponents for the good of the people.
100 years ago the successor to that great man was picked, surely a hard act to follow (even though he would probably be appalled at Obama’s ancestry and applauded Bush II’s anti-muslim aggression but such went the gestalt of the time). Yesterday, a great man was picked, and his predecessor may be an even harder act to follow.
Time will surely tell, but whether good or ill, history has been made. Let’s not let the hard work of the last 227 years down.