Monday, January 19, 2009

A Few Words On The Inauguration








I haven't had a great deal to say about the coming inaugural,but I suppose I should...

As my regular readers know, while I'm certainly happy to see Dubya ride off into the sunset (and I will definitely have a little something to say about that later) I did not support Obama for the presidency, and as things shook out, I was once again placed in a position where I had to hold my nose and nerve myself up to vote, and if it wasn't for Sarah Palin I might not have managed it without a lot of Bushmills finest to steady my nerves.

But like the song says, that's all over now.

Tomorrow, Barack Obama takes the oath of office as the president of these United States, and I wish him the best of luck at the job. He certainly worked hard enough at getting it.

In a way,he reminds me of the old story about the dog who ran for miles chasing after a car and finally caught it - and then had to figure out what to do with it. Hopefully he'll make some wise choices. I have my doubts, but I'm willing to wait and see.

Unlike the Angry Left, I actually am a patriot. And because of that, I understand that President Obama's success will be America's success,just as his failure will be America's failure. We have only one president at a time, and you won't see me throwing tantrums over Obama's ascension to the Oval Office or running around with cute bumper stickers saying 'Don't blame me, I voted Republican' the way the Angry Left did during the last two election cycles.

If some Arab creep throws a shoe at President Obama, you won't see me make cute little jokes about it...because I'm smart enough to realize that those shoes are directed at the whole country. That's just how it is.

In spite of all the brew ha ha, I don't regard this as any more historic than other inaugurations.

I'm sure the media are going to milk the 'first Black president' riff for all it's worth,but I find it borderline offensive. Perhaps even the president himself may do so,although I hope not. Unlike many of these people, I find Obama's race to be of supreme unimportance because I've always had a better opinion of America and its people than they have. And I never thought that Americans would turn away from a Black presidential candidate solely because of his race.Some Americans undoubtedly did,just as a large number of Black folks voted for Obama out of racial solidarity...but not enough to make a difference, in either case.

So the idea that America has somehow 'redeemed' itself somehow because we voted to put a half-Black President in office is a fantasy of the same sort of guilty leftards who, deep down, are downright nervous and uncomfortable around Black people unless they're some kind of abstract cause rather than sitting down in the living room next to you.

So I won't be watching the inaugural coverage tomorrow as some kind of historic must-see, although I may listen to the speech or watch a video of it, just as I would for any other president.I already know Obama is capable of giving soaring speeches long on platitudes and oratory and short of substance (CNN has, believe it or not already had its Chris Matthews moment, writing in a 'news' article that Obama's speech tomorrow will be "something people will want to chisel in granite"...I kid you not).

I'm sure whatever Obama has to say will be well phrased and delivered with his usual flair in that modulated baritone of his. But now that the doggy has caught the car he chased after so hard, I'm much more interested in what he plans to do with it. And time will tell.





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