Firstly, the headlines proclaiming him as a Saviour of America are very annoying. He may well be a very charismatic, gifted orator, but it will take nothing short of an absolute miracle to get America and the rest of the worlds Economies out of the mess they have been allowed to get into, not to mention the two wars they continue to fight.
Yes, he could save them BILLIONS of dollars by pulling US troops out of Iraq, but he has already said in pre-election interviews and debates that he personally feels another troop SURGE is needed in Afghanistan, so where there will be a saving, there will be another loss.
Secondly, all the people who said his election was a victory for democracy, was it really? I'm sorry but you can't hide the fact that there were more black people who voted than in any other time in their history (there was another black candidate before Obama, I can't remember his name, he did not gain many votes) so you cannot say that in many of the so-called "Swing" states this didn't influence the result? Come on. Yes, people voted in their millions, but people who otherwise wouldn't have bothered voting for a Democrat WHITE senator put their considerable weight behind a BLACK senator.
It was a result of a feeling of oppression that clearly still runs very deep in the African American psyche that they felt they had to vote now or lose their chance of a black president for another 4 years minimum. The fact that they got a candidate who was both Eloquent and Charming was a bonus. I honestly think that he could have had half his charisma and still been elected.
He was also helped, let's not forget, by the low-level his opponents set him. John McCain, an all-round decent bloke but ageing faster than the speed of sound and his inept-but-loveable sidekick Sarah Palin, who truly it appears, was the result of putting lipstick on a pig and a pitbull and then letting them mate. She was, to put it mildly, horrendous. As a politician she lacked experience, as a person she lacked charm, and as a candidate for the vice-presidency she lacked overall appeal.
McCain would have had a fighting chance with nearly anyone else. Democrat cynics rightly (for once) I feel picked up on the fact that she was picked almost solely because they wanted the feminist vote. Poor timing given that in a straight sprint there will always be more racists than misoginists!
Again, he wasn't exactly replacing Abraham Lincoln either, it was George W Bush Jnr. OFFICIALLY the most denounced and hated president of all time by many accounts, and officially with the title of Lowest EVER approval ratings for a president leaving office. Then there was the itch factor, the fact that a republican had been in office for 8 years, so many people will just have fancied a change and voted democrat whether it was Barack Obama in the hot seat or not.
All that aside, I very honestly have to wish him well for us forthcoming presidency, really I do.
I hope I'm proved majestically wrong and that his term will be remembered as one of new hope and promise, where old mistakes were righted and new policies greeted with cries of approval from all around. But I feel I will not be reading this is 4 years and thinking I was completely mistaken, because I think there is far too much pressure being put on President Obama's shoulders right from the start, stirring though his Inaugural speech may have been.
JK
