Ignorant Mouth » 2008 Presidential Election

January 2009 in Review

dwilson — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:37:35 +0000

As February approaches, I thought it’d be worthwhile to look back and consider some of the issues and events that our world has faced this past month.

1- The Inauguration of President Obama – Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America On Jan 20, 2009. He was the first African-American man to be elected to that position. Obama’s Presidency also marks the return to office of the Democratic Party after eight years of Republican management under President Bush. Early into his term, Obama has so far closed all foreign CIA detention centres and urged economic action in dealing with the financial crisis.

2. The Financial Crisis Continues – We’ve heard about partnerships forming between Chrysler and Fiat, major government bailouts, talk of government nationalization of British Banks such as Northern Rock, economic stimulus packages, etc. The moral of the story: maintain your savings and try not to get yourself in debt. We’ll all see the end of this eventually. As mentioned, President Obama has promised economic action – and since the Americans are the ones dragging down the world economy they’d better get out there and fix it.

3. Palestinian – Israeli Gaza Conflict: This began in January where Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for recurring rocket attacks (70 a day) launched at them by Hamas from the Gaza strip. After a ceasefire was declared, an Israeli frontier patrol was attacked on Jan 27 prompted the Israelis to use jet attacks on Palestinian tunnels to Egypt.

4. Unions – We’ve commented on Unions a few times this month, so I thought it deserves a mention here. In Ottawa, a bus strike has continued for almost two months now. We’ve heard about similar problems in California. Unions have become an especially important issue in light of the economic crisis – I’ve heard unions blamed for a number of problems in the American automotive industry for example.

5. Sports – Arizona and Pittsburgh both advanced to the NFL Superbowl; the NHL all-star game was a financial success; the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes have entered dire economic straits and I’ve heard talks about possibilities of moving the team, new ownership, or even a dispersal draft; one player was killed in a hockey fight and another one was recently hospitalized in an American Hockey League game.

These are of course only a sample of things that have happened this month – I could have also included earthquakes, crimes; or even positive things for that matter. These are simply the broadest spanning issues that Ignorant Mouth looked into in January 2009.

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Obama’s First Couple Days

dwilson — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:42:49 +0000

President Obama has had a busy first couple days. He closed CIA detention centres overseas (including Guantanamo Bay), canceled midnight legislation pushed through by the Bush regime, and is working on his economic stimulus package. He’s made moves for an open and accountable administration, which is especially encouraging in light of the criticisms that were often pressed on the Bush regime over the years for their habit of internalizing decisions and activities.

It’s encouraging to see the man working so quickly on achieving his election promises – there is a lot of pressure and hopes placed on him and I feel that if he is able to make some early strides on just a couple issues he will earn moral credibility that will give him the time and flexibility to work on the difficult issues. I said on his Inaugeration Day that I suspect he’ll be an efficient President, and so far he is living up to that.

It’s been an interesting week to follow American news, and I’m looking forward to what happens next week. I’m really intersted to see what his foreign policy initiatives are – espcially with regards to the ongoing issues regarding Gaza.

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Obama’s Big Day

dwilson — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:01:37 +0000

As everyone knows, today is the day Barack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States. Congratulations to him and his supporters. Many people will remember this day as a historic – I use that term with Reservations I will explain – day, and I’m sure many people will talk in years about where they were when it happened. This is a fascinating day for sure. Not only is Barack Obama the first African-American man to be President, but he is also the man too young to have served in Vietnam.

I flipped to CNN so I could write this and offer my immediate thoughts as they come to me. My first thought was not directly related to President Obama. I wondered, why is a political leader being sworn in so exciting to Americans? Not just Obama, but any leader. To the best of my knowledge, no other country makes such a spectacle out of a simple swearing-in ceremony, atleast to the extent Americans do. I mean – this isn’t the Queen we’re talking about. I guess it’s an American thing. The United States President does hold a kind of cultural role outside of politics, and within politics he is the most powerful man in the world. I guess that the majority of people probably can’t remember who their Senator or Congressman is, but everybody knows who the President is. It’s nice that people recognize their leaders like that.

My second thought is more of a plea: the word ‘history’ is being thrown around too much. Yes, Obama is the first Africa-American man to become President of the United States, and yes he is the first man too young to fight in Vietnam to become President. Beyond that, wait and see. History books aren’t written for years after the event for a reason – history requires analysis from all perspectives with the gift of time. Who knows what will become of the Obama president? Great things maybe, terrible things perhaps, but let them happen.

One thing that I do find interesting is that Barack Obama is classic American story, achieving the American dream - the son of an immigrant that becomes President. Granted, his parents weren’t exactly your Mom and Pop’s Dinner sort of people. But the idea that the son of an immigrant can become President speaks highly of the United States – aynone can make something of themselves. It works to dispell the idea that only ‘rich white men’ can do well and hold influence.

I must say though, I like Mr. Obama. I don’t think he’s going to achieve any kind of ‘great change’ or be an exceptional leader – I think people are expecting incredible and unrealistic things. Nevertheless, I think he will be a reliable leader and be able to achieve foreign diplomatic measure through personal diplomacy (FDR style) because of his great charisma. I predict he’ll be an effective President.

As far as President Bush’s legacy: give it time. The man is no longer President. I suggest his critics leave him alone now, and wait a few years to see what results from his policies before judging him. History, as I mentioned, takes time to study and learn from.

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The World Loves Barry Obama

mwilson — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 12:00:27 +0000

By now president-elect Barack Obama ought to be getting used to the idea the he will soon be the most powerful man on Earth. Obama-mania has stricken all corners of the globe – for some reason people love this guy and have pinned a lot of expectation on him. Even Obama isn’t immune to the storm he’s created – at several points during the campaign he

For my own part, I first became attuned to Obama’s path after hearing him mentioned in Neil Young’s 2006 Living with War:

Maybe it’s Obama
But he thinks that he’s too young
Maybe it’s Colin Powell
To right what he’s done wrong
America has a leader
But he’s not in the house
He’s walkin’ here among us
And we’ve got to seek him out
-Lookin’ for a Leader, Neil Young

Perhaps it was only my perception but it was around about that time that references to Obama started to crop up everywhere. Even after the saturation of coverage I still don’t fully know this guy. He certainly ran a brilliant campaign, seems to “get it” in regards to technology and youth culture, and quite oddly seems to have very few people to owe for getting him to the white house. Lack of vested interest means (in theory) there will be no special accommodation for Big Oil amongst others.

It worries me that Obama’s media coverage consists largely of his supposed race, his similarity to “regular people”, and his wife’s wardrobe. So I beg you to please forgive me for not jumping on the Obama worshiping bandwagon right away. Let’s see how the man goes about filling the huge shoes of expectation that have been created for him.

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Barack Obama’s plans for the web

dwilson — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:41:13 +0000

It seems that Barack Obama has taken a quite novel approach for a politician with regards to his tech usage.

Barack Obama’s campaign in the 2008 election made use of new techniques such as Facebook, Youtube, and emails in order to reach a broader portion of the electorate in new ways. It would seem that he intends to continue these channels of communication into his upcoming Presidency through the use of Youtube that harken back in a way to the radio addresses of FDR in the 1930s and 40s (BO’s “Monitorside Chats” anyone?).

These media approaches have been relatively ignored by most political leaders. While they all maintained websites of some kind, it is easy to wonder if the last few Presidents of the United States knew how to work a computer. Barack Obama will be, after all, the first President too young to have fought in the Vietnam War. His ascendency marks a new generation taking the reigns of the political scene with new ways of communicating. Obama may be able to reach a larger number of Americans by employing these different methods – his campaign donations show how effective he has been at that already.

Now, if only he could use Youtube to fix the economy…

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Gun Sales Surged In Lead up To Obama Presidency

mwilson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:23:02 +0000

Despite the economic downturn, massive layoffs, and an uncertain future, gun-loving residents of the United States had a truly important issue to deal with – if the Democratic candidate became president, would automatic weapons be outlawed? Naturally, the solution is to stock up while it’s still possible. Many states enjoyed surges in gun sales during the lead up to Obama’s presidency.

Even though I was surprised to learn that homicide rates in Florida declined after right-to-carry laws were introduced, I find it disconcerting when there is an uptake in gun ownership at a point when it is generally thought we are heading into bad times. Combine 50% gun ownership with the fear of violence against the new president and an unstable social environment in the wake of a middle-east war, this is a slippery slope that has all the makings of a landslide.

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