You’ve probably already seen this, but…. Remember the year 2000? When our biggest worry was the millenium bug and where does Monica Lewinsky get her clothes drycleaned? When the main political news was Al Gore going for Tipper’s tonssils? When “watching the game, having a Bud” was a perferctly legitimate way to spend your time?
Well, thousands of billions of dolars, eight years, two wars, one drowned city, one Wall St. meltdown and one severely failed presidency later, things are just not the same on the other side of the Pond.
True.
Unless of course disaster happens.
1/ History repeats itself.
2/ I hope Obama survives the elections.
3/ I’m afraid the Americans will get their hopes way up too high and think electing Obama will bring immediate heaven on Earth status to the US, in which case they are in for as hard a landing as the economy is now experiencing.
Wassup?
Good question!
True…
I don’t think people are expecting overnight changes, but they will want to see some results. Soon. Even with those expectations, I’m not sure why anybody wants this job right now. 🙂
I remember quite vividly the mood after Clinton’s first victory, coming on the heels of 12 yrs Regan/Bush I. There was a very palpable, quantifiable energy, particularly among those under 30. He was hardly a wild-eyed leftist revolutionary, but he was something new; certainly different than the previous 12 years.
Obama has made this a very inclusive campaign. Registration fraud allegations aside, the numbers of newbies getting involved really is unprecedented. If he wins, there will be tremendous momentum that he’ll have to capitalize on. Then again, after the longest campaign in history, everyone’s pretty tired of it all.
Best suggestion I’ve seen is that –assuming he wins, of course– he immediately get to work, cancel Congress’ Holiday vacation, and figure out what they’re really going to do with all that bailout money.
True… 🙂
Agree with pirano. Wish C would comment.
C as in Bill C.?
sorry… C as in Camille
Aha… True… 😀
P, you’re much too agreeable. 🙂
I think Mr. P is trying to lulls us into a false sense of security and then strike hard. Like the other day when he came out and mentioned he was a republican…
@dr. fil: What is this, spin room? 😀 Twisting my words like that… Ts, ts, ts…
@pirano: what can I say? Hope “Big O” wins, but I’m certain that little will change in the short term. I like to think of the US as a tanker ship. After the captain enters new coordinates, it takes a while for the course to change.
I just found one of those sick f&#@ers’ MySpace pages. Clever title: “I’ll Slap You With My Balls”. (No, I’m not making that up)…
You mean the guys who were arrested over the assasination plot?
Yup:
http://pirancafe.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/assasination-conspirators-myspace-pics-and-pages/
Whew! I made it. Am I too late?
@dr. fil – I totally share your concerns and absolutely concur. As Žižek said in a recent speech: “What we should be asking McCain and Sara Palin is ‘Who is your Donald Rumsfeld?'” and indeed I wonder about that with Obama. People like Nader have made claims that Obama is in the pocket of big business, and indeed he may be. I definitely don’t think he is the second coming and this sure aint the REVOLUTION, but he seems like a sensible dude who wants to do the right thing.
@pirano – An old professor used to say that America like the Starship Enterprise, no matter who is at the captain’s seat, the ship is still set up to do the original (white/male) captain’s mission.
@Camille: For you, we’ll extend the party 😉
Having raised half a billion, Obama definiterly has the big business’ good ear. Or maybe it is the other way around. But since Wall st. turned into quicksand, the new Prez might have a bit more manouvering space in relation to his big donors.
And (to continue with your Star Trek theme) perhaps the big business found out that “Ferengi rule of acquisition no. 35” is no longer applicable.
To see what Ferengi rules of acquisition say, click here
just a quick correction.
Žižek asked about dear old Karl Rove, not Rumsfeld.
Here is that talk, by the way.
@camille- And I had an old professor who suggested that we always vote for the lesser of two evils, and keep our expectations low while doing so. 🙂 He ran for congress in Ohio a few times in the last 60s and early 70s as a Socialist –a real one– so he did temper his cynicism with a dash of idealism. 😉
Yeah, saw this a day or two ago. I swear that this election can’t be over soon enough. And regardless of the woods, my repatriation to the Balkan side of the woods won’t be coming for another two years or so, which I means I just have to “deal” with the outcome. Sorry rest of the world, but next Tuesday, I will be doing my best and voting Obama. Beyond that, I can’t help it if my country takes a dump on your country. True…
Hudin
PS – Also a good read since I know everyone is tired of hearing about our damned election.
True… 😀
However, speaking for myself, I must say that beingo on the oustide looking in on the US election brouhaha, it’s a nice break from Slovene politics.