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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Is Truly A Good Time To Be A Democrat!
Last edited Sun Jan 20, 2013, 12:15 AM - Edit history (1)
On the eve of President Obama being sworn-in to a second term, I wanted to take a moment and state the obvious. Not only is this a great time to be a Democrat, but as I look back at President Obama's first term, I can't help but to feel a sense of amazement at the work he has done and the work ahead. In the face of unimaginable obstruction from the opposing political party, President Obama has not only worked hard for the American people, but for the cause of the Democratic Party!
Now, there may be times that we may criticize some of his actions or his thinking, and that is natural with any politician in any political system, but I think that through it all, President Obama is one of the most decent men to hold the office of the Presidency, and history will reflect that!
From the self described "skinny kid with a funny name" to a two-term President of the United States - here's saying "bravo" to all the work that has been done in his first term, and here's wishing him all the best in a second term!
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)We are dealing with an unprecedented, contrarian Republican Party. Because of this, it's a BAD time to be an American.
it is NEVER a bad time to be an American ! We will overcome this hard time , just like we always have . Believe in the strength of this country and the courage and basic goodness of most of our people . I am always proud to be a naturalized citizen of this great nation .
pacalo
(24,721 posts)which is being shown right now: http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/
Just a moment ago, Cheney rolled out of the WH in a wheelchair with a cane in his lap. Biden followed from behind with a somber look on his face & said to a few people standing on the portico, "A little chilly out here."
/edited for spelling error
catbyte
(34,373 posts)Cha
(297,154 posts)about this 2nd Inauguration. So many of us worked long and hard to make this happen and it happening!
I'm going to be watching online 'cause I don't have a tv.. I'll be on DU, and http://theobamadiary.com/, too.. where there will be lots of pics and celebration!
That is the best, most moving picture that I have EVER seen! I love these two men, for what they have done for this Country!
They both sacrificed so much, so that we could soar. So that we as a Nation could reach out and grab on to our Dreams.
Bless them both!
Peace to you...Peace to us all!
she
Cha
(297,154 posts)really have it goin' ON!
"Bless them both", Indeed!
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)Lincoln's signing!
Cha
(297,154 posts)Luther King's Bibles at his Inauguration!
The inclusion of King's Bible is particularly significant since the inauguration comes on Jan. 21, the federal holiday in honor of the civil rights leader, who delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech 50 years ago at the Lincoln Memorial. Obama will be facing the memorial as he takes the oath. King's Bible, which his children say he used early in his career as a preacher, has never been part of a presidential inauguration.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/obama-using-mlk-lincoln-b_n_2447174.html
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)Ferretherder
(1,446 posts)...that's fuckin' COOOOLLLL!!!
...and I ALSO have to say, yet again, that I never thought I'd live long enough to see the first African-American president of the United States. Now, I want to see Hillary become the first female president - BOOM, two in a row!
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)bit of history and symbolism surrounding this event.
calimary
(81,220 posts)Our future and past.
Nice! REALLY REALLY nice!
SunSeeker
(51,550 posts)blkbear
(25 posts)I can't wait to see President Obama turn loose his election machine on the republicans.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)adieu
(1,009 posts)and I didn't even vote for him this time around. (I did volunteer at the Organizing For America Obama reelection campaign, and I did donate to OFA and barackobama.com.)
Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)nc4bo
(17,651 posts)Actually makes you want to smile looking at it.
Sorry just had to say it.
I want one of these LOL.
juajen
(8,515 posts)UtahLib
(3,179 posts)Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)Love that picture of Obama!
sheshe2
(83,746 posts)Thank you so much, PennsylvaniaMatt!!!!!
cbrer
(1,831 posts)This is no time to sit on our collective asses in smug satisfaction. There's LOTS to do!
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)cbrer
(1,831 posts)I'm grooving on the power of the electorate AS WE SPEAK! (type?)
Seriously, my greatest joy, my penultimate degree of success, my "Magnum Opus", my single most enthusiastically pursued endeavor, is to turn over to my children, a BETTER nation than was turned over to me!
But a glass of champagne won't hurt anything...
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)and will be watching the inauguration live for the second time in my life- the first being on 09
Tarheel_Dem
(31,233 posts)babylonsister
(171,056 posts)have to work. I WILL be home by around 2pm, but will miss the big festivities. Maybe I'll catch a rerun.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,233 posts)but I'm old & cranky, and I deplore road trips these days. I took the day off anyway, so I'll have a front row seat for the festivities. Sorry you have to work, but if I know MSNBC, they'll do recaps throughout the evening.
juajen
(8,515 posts)druidity33
(6,446 posts)Because i'd much rather see a National Holiday for ELECTION DAY than the Inauguration. Why we don't do that, i'll never understand. As for MLK, love what he did and stands for, but i'll take the Time-and-a-Half for the day instead of the day off.
catbyte
(34,373 posts)At least they cancelled classes for the first time.
DevonRex
(22,541 posts)Vic Vinegar
(80 posts)Decent man he might be. This has nothing to do with policy. Time will tell if Obama is a Wall Street Monetarist Neo-Liberal or a New Deal Democrat!
He MUST raise the debt ceiling via the 14th amendment! He must nationalize the Federal Reserve and lend low interest century bonds for infrastructure, re-industrialization, hospitals, public schools. He must stop supporting scab jobs to make it appear as if he has created real jobs. He must support a 1% Wall Street Sales Tax! He must stop ALL cuts to entitlement programs that he has allowed even before the fiscal cliff. The list goes on...
If Obama does not accomplish these things he is not a Kennedy, he is not an FDR, he is not a Lincoln and he is not even an LBJ. Democrats must pressure Obama to do these things! If you are not willing to pressure the president with demands then you are allowing the descent of the Democratic party into the Monetarist Neo-Liberal wing which is now the dominant faction.
I beg you, never be content. We need change and it can not be pocket change reforms Obama has instituted.
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)hfojvt
(37,573 posts)We apparently stand for nothing and fall for anything.
I feel like I should apologize to anybody that I told to vote for Democrats. I told people that Democrats, unlike Republicans, would represent ordinary working people.
It turns out that I was a liar when I said that.
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)it might be time to look elsewhere.
We will try to muddle through without you. It will be rough going for a while - but I think we can make it, despite your absence.
babylonsister
(171,056 posts)As for me, I feel a helluva lot more represented by President Obama than I would have with Romney.
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)Many of us can never be okay with that.
It's sad to see that many have been duped into believing that a left of center party still exists.
babylonsister
(171,056 posts)believing this was a 'left of center' party? I'm saying that what/who we have is infinitely better than the alternative.
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)Just making a point.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)the difference between keeping 85% of the Bush tax cuts and keeping 100% of them is not that huge.
CheapShotArtist
(333 posts)And just a heads up--you come off as a troll when you call it the "Democrat" Party instead of "Democratic". People like Rush call it that all the time.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)I joined this board in November of 2004. Kerry had just been defeated. I wanted and needed some kind of support group. I thought I was joining a group of like-minded people who were working together to undo the damage that Bush had done/was doing to the country.
It turns out, that I feel like I need to constantly bash Dems, because they keep refusing to undo that damage.
I mean, by electing Democrats to Congress and to the White House, we were supposed to get rid of those tax cuts that favor the rich.
At least I thought so. Instead, Democrats keep most of them, and only about six people on this board seem to care.
Like I said, apparently we will fall for anything. It's apparently a great time to be part of a party that embraces the Bush tax cuts.
I am so old, I can remember when it was better to be a Democrat. When, for example in May 2003 when EVERY SINGLE Democratic Senator voted against the Bush tax cuts. Even Lieberscum. Fast forward to 2012 and almost every Democratic Senator voted to keep them. Wow, what a change. It's unbelievable. In just nine years, the Democratic Party has apparently become the Republican Party.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,233 posts)Dawgs
(14,755 posts)We know what we got. It certainly wasn't a "Democrat".
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Tarheel_Dem
(31,233 posts)It wasn't like you didn't have choices. Just how much were your "principles" worth? Like I said, you guys only serve to amuse the rest of us, at this point. You worked diligently here, and probably elsewhere, to demonize this president as "UNCLEAN", but your ravings were summarily dismissed, as I suspect they will be moving FORWARD!!!!!!!
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)It's been that way since I joined this site.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,233 posts)DU has become a small echo chamber of Obama hatred, much like Freeperville. The Democratic Party, not so much. Not sure what your point is, or whether you even have one.
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)And it's not "Obama hatred", it's Obama disappointment.
And, maybe in your world the Democrats you know are happy with Obama. Not in mine, DU or otherwise.
babylonsister
(171,056 posts)99Forever
(14,524 posts)... where you are in the pecking order, huh? Things aren't so great for all of us, but that's okay, you got yours.
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)candidate for 2016.
Times a wasting.
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)We haven't seen anything close in a really long time.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Dawgs
(14,755 posts)JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)But I'm not one of the disgruntled and so I would never be as good as some one like you at proposing the right candate.
Liberal In Red State
(442 posts). . . that I thought it would be a momentary bip in time . . . Much like the Kennedy Era . . . but we made it through the dark days of the Tea Baggers . . . and showed the press . . . the pundits . . . and the Repugs that we . . . the people . . . are a force to be reckoned with!
humbled_opinion
(4,423 posts)However, I will reserve my jumping for joy until after I hear exactly what his plans for this term are. Already I have the idiot teabaggers at my job talking about the Obama debt bubble. They claim that if Obama does nothing different on this term than his last that in 2017 when he leaves office he will be leaving a legacy of 22 Trillion in debt massive inflation, and higher interest rates. They claim that there will come a time when the FED will not be able to keep the interest rate on the debt at the current 1.5 percent and it will return to the historic norms of 5-6 percent when that happens the interest payments alone on the debt will eclipse more than half of the current revenue causing austerity to destroy SS and Medicare. They believe there will be no way to tax our way out of that problem and any massive tax increase on the Middle class will meet with a major revolt against Obama at the end of his term they believe that historians will ask why Obama did nothing to deal with the bubble as it will destroy the currency, as they run the media talk circles with this type of debt bubble fear mongering it will not take much to make it stick in many persuadable minds.
My fear is that Obama himself will succumb to the future debt bubble talk early on this term and be enticed to cut spending and give in on the GOP dream of privatized SS and major cuts to Medicare. The baggers say that Obama has no stomach for massive cuts to the DOD because the news streams of his term will continue to show a resurgent Communist Russia, a building of massive military from Communist China, the Iranian nuclear threat becoming a reality and further deterioration in the Middle East not to mention the rise of Al Queda in Africa. They claim the only thing left he has is massive spending cuts and every day we spend at current levels it means those cuts get just a tad bit deeper.
I know what the correct solutions are to this debt problem but I have yet to hear them spoken by the President that is why I said my jumping for joy is reserved for now.
libodem
(19,288 posts)Bless and protect our first Family.
indepat
(20,899 posts)ever. For this to become reality, he imo must bust (politically) a gaggle of right-wing heads, so many that the GOP will be destroyed as a viable second party. After all, did not a 2009 Homeland Security Department report identify domestic right-wing extremists as our greatest threat, a greater threat to America, its people and government, than Islamic extremists? Please Mr. President, make that top-five list, which would require imo that you bust a gaggle of right-wing heads in the process.