Change at the Top
.I caught some of the inauguration this morning, missing the swearing-in itself and whatever came after Obama’s speech.
Unlike most people I know, I don’t expect much from an Obama presidency—except, perhaps paradoxically, to be disappointed. But I’ll try not to rain on everyone’s parade today with my reasons for that. Instead, I’ll focus on some good things.
First, I have to give Obama credit today for mentioning “non-believers” in the section of his speech where he was focusing on American diversity. I think that this is the first time such a mention has been made in an inaugural speech. Even better, as he was speaking that sentence, I thought he wasn’t going to mention non-religious people at all, and was about to be irked by this when he surprised me. So, for that, he deserves a lot of credit, even while it’s kind of annoying not being able to take that for granted in 2009 (but that’s not his fault).
The other good thing, of course, is the end of the Bush/Cheney era. Even if Obama is a terrible disappointment, I still think he’s likely to be better than they were. Even if that’s in small ways, small things can add up when you’re President of the United States. Furthermore, anything that gets Cheney out of the White House has to be a good thing. (Note: Cheney may now be a Coen brothers character.
I’ve been in the United States (this time around) for over nine years, and Bush was elected (kind of) quite a long time ago. I’m very curious as to whether the country is going to feel different in a positive way now. I hope it does.