My Inauguration and Obama Presidency Thoughts

Even as someone who didn't vote for Barack Obama this inauguration ceremony was a must watch for obvious reasons. It only happens every 4/8 years, and most of all Barack Obama is the first African-American President in U.S. History. But I have to admit the reason why I enjoyed this ceremony most was not because of President Barack Obama, but because of George W. Bush.

Bush

To me Bush leaving office was more significant than Obama becoming President primarily because I believe (and others also) that he posed the most danger to the world. But of course there was a bittersweetness to that. I'm still not that happy that Bush was able to leave office in the fashion that he did. He was able to valiantly be escorted to a helicopter by Barack and Michelle Obama when he really should have been impeached and removed from office a whole lot sooner.

Regardless of how Bush left the presidency it meant the era of the worst President in U.S. history was over... which was really 1/3 of my life. This may not bear much significance to the older generations, but for people in my generation this is big. This was the era that introduced to me the art of protesting. While I'm proud that my courage to protest grew on me during the last 8 years it was done under circumstances that should have never happened. If there was anything mildly positive about Bush's presidency that I can think of it was that. As I was watching the inauguration ceremony I heard commentators talk about how they believe George W. Bush's presidency will be viewed in a more positive light in the future like other former presidents, but I honestly don't think so. Because of all the times Bush has gotten away with crimes watching him fly away in the helicopter was a "see it to believe it" moment for me.

President Obama

Watching President Obama get inaugurated was a nice thing to see because of the historical nature surrounding it with him being the first African-American President in U.S. history, but I had mixed feelings about the whole day and the coverage. I thought it was a very well done ceremony. The camera shot over the National Mall was great to see the millions of people there for such a historical moment. I didn't think President Obama's speech was as good as some of his previous speeches but I liked his "New Era of Responsibility" message when he was said:

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This to me was the most significant message in his speech. I know millions of people listened to the speech, but I am not convinced that many people will follow through on that. We'll have to see...

Where I had problems with the ceremony was the overall tone of the coverage of the ceremony as well as crowd opinion. Not to diminish such a historical moment, but I think I was able to figure out that President Obama was the first African-American president after the 1,635,565th time of it being mentioned. Furthermore, based on crowd reaction interviews it confirmed to me what I suspected all along that voting for the first African-American President was more of a determining factor for their vote than the issues which I can't support at all. People were saying things like "I couldn't pass up the opportunity to vote for the first African-American president."I'm a firm believer that votes should never be based on race, gender, religion, or ethnicity whether you are for or against. It's just not right. It should be issues first and then if that candidate happens to be the first African-American President then great. Not the other way around. Many people will say that Obama being African-American was more of a negative than a beneficiary during the election, but I believe the latter.

The coverage itself was very over the top particularly during the limo ride down Pennsylvania Avenue when Obama kept going in and out. "WHEN IS PRESIDENT OBAMA GOING TO GET OUT OF THE LIMO?!"...Hold on a second I have to turn down the volume on my T.V. Keith Olbermann just had another O-gasm... A little much. And then of course the nonstop news coverage of the Presidential balls. It's good to know that the world stopped for President Obama.

I guess to sum up everything in a nutshell I thought race was played up way too much to the point where it was sickening.

As I said in my previous posting I don't regret not voting for President Obama, but I believe those who didn't vote for him should give Obama a chance to prove himself. That being said, he's already done a few things that I don't like; appointing Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Rahm Emanuel makes my skin crawl, but appointing Hillary as Secretary of State is the most puzzling asinine decision Obama has made so far. Remember Obamamaniacs, any diplomatic screw up by Hillary is on Obama's watch. Plus after all the "one President at a time" excuses by now President Obama I'm still waiting for his forceful stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict. **crickets**

President Obama has done some good things so far though like ending torture and closing Guantanamo Bay. I have to give him credit for that.

In conclusion I will say that I'm not euphoric about Obama being President, but I'm glad it's not McCain. After watching the inauguration ceremony I'm just not sure that I believe many Obama supporters will be fair and objective about his Presidency. Will they criticize him when he screws up? I'm not sure, but what I can say is that I expect some 'buyers remorse'. For those that expect President Obama to govern from the far left you will very disappointed. For those supporters that knew he was a moderate (and in my opinion on the conservative side) you voted for him for the right reasons and you will probably see what you expected. It's really hard to detect what Obama supporters expect out of President Obama when they expect non-substantive things like "Hope" and "Change", but I guess that question will be answered in 4 years.

That's all I have to say about this subject right now. I hope President Obama proves me wrong, but so far he hasn't done anything that I didn't expect to happen.

Dre

Superbowl XLIII Prediction

After 17 weeks of continuous football picks w/ spread I ended up batting .515 (132/256).

Let's see how I did with my pre-season playoff predictions...

NFC EAST - COWBOYS
NFC NORTH - LIONS
NFC SOUTH - SAINTS
NFC WEST - SEAHAWKS
WILDCARD - GIANTS, EAGLES

AFC EAST - PATRIOTS
AFC NORTH - BROWNS
AFC SOUTH - COLTS
AFC WEST - CHARGERS
WILDCARD - STEELERS, JAGUARS

Superbowl Prediction
COWBOYS vs BROWNS

Superbowl Winner: COWBOYS

As you can you see I did pretty bad in my pre-season playoff predictions. Some I got half right, but the wrong slot. I thought the Browns were going to be a top contender with the acquisitions they made in the offseason with Derek Anderson at QB. They fell flat....The Cowboys fell flat also. (And boy was I wrong picking the Lions to win the NFC North)
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Rather than picking the playoff games week to week I'm just going to make this a little harder and give my Superbowl pick with the teams in the playoffs....

NFC - As much as it pains me to say this it seems that Philly teams are getting a lot of breaks this year. The Eagles are now playing solid football and seems like all the "Get rid of Andy Reid/McNabb" talk has gone away. The Eagles will soar all the way to the Superbowl and in the process knock off the New York Giants. Giants fans will realize the hard way that Domenik Hixon is no Plaxico Burress on the football field.

AFC - The AFC seems to be much more competitive, but I see the Baltimore Ravens as the dark horse this year. The Ravens defense is great, and Ed Reed is having a great year along with rookie QB Joe Flacco. All year long I have told myself "The Steelers are overrated", but for some reason they just kept winning games. I see the Baltimore Ravens going through Pittsburgh and edging out a "Big Ben Concussioned" Pittsburgh Steeler team in a tough defensive battle to make it to the Superbowl.

Superbowl - So there I have the stage set for an Eagles/Ravens Superbowl. As many New York Giants fans will remember there was a point when they wanted to run coach Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning out of town...until they turned it around. I believe we will see a similar situation with the Eagles. Most of the time it's "defense wins championships", but I believe this time it will be Veteran vs Rookie QB. McNabb has been to the Superbowl before, but Flacco hasn't. I see Flacco wilting under pressure and Brian Westbrook running through the Ravens defense like the New York Giants did in the regular season. In the end McNabb will remember that Superbowls don't end in a tie and play the game of his life sending the Eagles to a Superbowl victory.

Superbowl XLIII Champions: Philadelphia Eagles