Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration

I don't know how well Barack Obama will do as President of the United States. Frankly, I'm not very optimistic about it. There's one thing, though, that I'm happy about today:


George W. Bush is no longer the President.


'Nuff said.

8 comments:

Rainier96 said...

I'll make a flat prediction, before he even has all his cabinet confirmed. At the end of his term (or two, more likely), historians will rate him at least in the top 50 percent of American presidents to date.

(Admittedly, he will be competing against presidents such as Pierce, Buchanan, Taylor, Tyler, Hayes and Harding.)

Zachary Freier said...

I'm appalled that you put the incredible Zachary Taylor in your sarcastic list of presidents Obama is competing against. He was a great man, damnit!

Rainier96 said...

I started listing them by first and last names, but then dropped the first names specifically to avoid offending you. :-)

I'm willing -- in the spirit of post-inauguration good will -- to drop Taylor and substitute the ever-popular Millard Fillmore.

Zachary Freier said...

It's no surprise you're willing to compromise your values; you are, after all, an Obama supporter.

Rainier96 said...

Exactly. You can't insult me by that route.

Bush's inability or unwillingness to negotiate and compromise was one of his worst traits.

You could almost say that compromise IS one of my values. I might fight harder to ensure processes that facilitate compromise than I would for any particular policy objective.

But, as always with me, the above is only partly and sometimes true. :-)

Zachary Freier said...

Compromise is one thing. Compromising your values (i.e., forgetting all about them) is another, and not a good thing.

Rainier96 said...

Of course not. But that's not what you're accusing Obama supporters of doing. I hope.

Zachary Freier said...

No, I was accusing Obama of it. The man has no backbone. I've been convinced of that since June, when he voted in favor of the FISA bill (even Hillary Clinton voted against that farce, for Christ's sake, and you still believe Obama has your best interests at heart?).

Then there was his complete reversal on Iraq. At first it was, "This is an unjust war, and we must abandon it" (said during the primary season, where he gained prominence by capturing the left end of the Democratic party). Then he decided it would be better for his general election campaign for him to say something more along the lines of, "Well...we need to get out at some point, but I give no promises as to how soon!" (recall, again, that even Hillary Clinton's position on Iraq was more liberal than this; during the primary season, when Obama was giving vague statements that he could easily back away from later, Clinton made the concrete statement, time and again, that she would have a full time-table for withdrawal drawn up and well underway within her first six months in office).

He was the darling of the liberal base, and made every effort to appease them - until he didn't need them anymore, and instead needed to appear moderate. Then he jumped to the right of even Senator Clinton.

This is why I have no faith in him.