Obama Wins!

[topcropper]

A wonderous thing. Never thought I would see it either. Could be a real turning point in the world.


I remember a TV show, and a movie, that had a black president.

The TV show was '24', with president Palmer, with jack Baurer looking after him.

The movie was 'Deep Impact', with the president being Morgan Freeman.

See ya's.

 

[lizzie]

Obama already received SS protection much earlier than any previous candidate. (

we're looking after the president? oh poop - where did i bury those guns?

only joking ... but not joking ... apparently the black american's didn't even have the right to vote when obama was born. quickly moving times.

 

[steveadl]

we're looking after the president? oh poop - where did i bury those guns?

Ha, that one didn't even occur to me! The one I was waiting for someone to come back with was Hitler's SS troops.

 

[geoffw]

got a link to the speech?

Transcript here

 

[Pushka]

Transcript here

Written is good but watching his actual performance made it much more powerful. Especially after Bush.

 

[sash]

Liked his speech so much...I have taken one of the lines he used alot for my signature panel!

 

[boomtown]

People watching the screen at work were almost in tears his speech was so moving.

The "yes we can" is very Bob the Builder though

 

[Nathan]

i actually thought mccains speah was better... there was lots of praise, and he spoke like a gentleman regarding obamas victory.

IMO they were both good people, just mccain didnt look so good, because bush stained him.

 

[lizzie]

just mccain didnt look so good, because bush stained him.

i thought his speech was great too - but during the whole process he looked stiff and old, never raising his hand above shoulder height and not sustaining his smiles, compared to the swaggering and dynamic obama.

geoffw - thanks so much for reminding us how much "history" we have seen in the making. so much is forgotten because so many world defining events keep happening.

i remember getting up at 5am to watch the first space shuttle land - that was a big moment too.

the continued freedom of china will be interesting to watch in years to come. it has made huge steps to join "the rest of the world" already - but just needs to get over the hurdle of being a communist country trying to operate in a capitalist market. it will get there imo.

 

[steveadl]

It begins. Behind bullet proof glass for the acceptance speech.

 

[depreciator]

Bizarrely, I caught the train home yesterday and sitting beside me was a huge black American guy - sorry, I'm never sure whether 'black' is the politically correct term. He was about 40 years old, very good looking and wearing the whitest of white business shirts. I knew he was American because he finished a conversation on his phone just as I sat down. He was looking forward with a fixed face. I turned and said to him: 'It's okay, you can smile.' He looked at at me. I said you can jump up and down and squeal if you'd like. He laughed and loosened up and a few of us near him started chatting with him. It was like the Olympics, or World Youth Day - strangers (mostly me) talking on a train.
Scott

 

[Aaron Sice]

nice one scott - that's a good memory to have and tell the grandkids about.

 

[MichaelW]

got a link to the speech?

Anyone still looking for a link to the victory speech, here it is in full on YouTube with acompanying video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jll5baCAaQU

Very inspirational stuff!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[geoffw]

Written is good but watching his actual performance made it much more powerful. Especially after Bush.

I agree.

Maybe it's just me, but I thought he'd been taking some oratory lessons from martin Luther King's stuff. The cadence sounds much more like MLK than some of his earlier speeches.

 

[Aaron Sice]

Maybe Because It's A Victory Speech...

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

I wonder how much discussion there would be if he was 100% white. What exactly has his skin colour to do with his ability to be a great President or even a good one?

Mark

 

[lizzie]

What exactly has his skin colour to do with his ability to be a great President or even a good one?

for us liberal modern australians - not much - but for the ingrained polarised older americans - a lot.

remember it was only in obama's lifetime that segregation and the right for blacks to vote came into effect. for the older generation - and those of the younger generation looking to place blame everywhere but at their own feet - they had half a lifetime being taught that it was okay to hate and denegrade (and even kill) ...

 

[BayView]

I wonder how much discussion there would be if he was 100% white. What exactly has his skin colour to do with his ability to be a great President or even a good one?

Mark

In my opinion; nothing to do with his ability to run the Country. I think he will do very well simply based on his character and intergrity.

I don't think his lack of experience means zip. Look at what previous candidates with "experience" has got them. He hasn't been compromised by the Washington "machine" yet.

But as a black man, he is VERY important for the ongoing improvement in racial issues, the attitude of the blacks (which is generally very poor) towards everything except themselves, their self esteem, their attitude to education and drugs and so on.

The blacks have a very strong victim mentality over there, so hopefully he can slap some sense into them and get them to think at a higher level.

There is lots of racial tension not just between the blacks and whites, but also the blacks and Hispanics.

He will have a pretty large influence on the Hispanics (for the better) as well due to his skin color being non-white.

 

[units4me]

OK. The world's celebrities Oprah etc and media have gotten the sentimental favorite over the line. Yee ha.

From over here, bugger all was spoken of their abilities or policies, unless or course they were belting the hell out of Sarah Palin.

Seems to me that a prerequisite to winning an election these days is getting the media onside.

 

[geoffw]

OK. The world's celebrities Oprah etc and media have gotten the sentimental favorite over the line. Yee ha.

From over here, bugger all was spoken of their abilities or policies, unless or course they were belting the hell out of Sarah Palin.

Seems to me that a prerequisite to winning an election these days is getting the media onside.

I think the big one (at least before the recent financial bailouts) was getting out of Iraq.

McCain supported staying there.

Obama wanted to withhdraw.

I think GW's biggest mistake was Iraq. He wanted a quick vote winning victory like his dad did in Kuwait. He thought Iraq was a quick fix.

It turned into his Vietnam.