Today is finally here

Happy Inauguration DayImage by BIG_Slow via FlickrToday, the Presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, is finally here.  I feel as though I have been waiting 8 years for this.  The Bush administration stood for everything that I do not.  On one hand, there is something satisfying knowing that I knew all along that this administration was going to leave this country in chaos but on the other hand ( the bigger picture ) is it incredibly upsetting.  Happy to see people who were hard core Republicans see the light.  There is not a person in this country, regardless of their loyalties to either party, that want to see Obama be successful.  Our future really depends on it.

I hope that our Government, our elected officials, can put their egos, their pet projects, their way of doing business in the past and pull up their boot straps and get to work.  We are going to spend a huge amount of money that will put our country into an even bigger hole financially but this money must be spent on projects that will actually create revenues and jobs and put us into the 21st century.  Not a little here and a little there that selfish Senators and Governors will use towards projects that are politically motivated.  We need to all think big picture. 

The Republicans have to stop whining about spending too much Government money.  Bush left us with a larger deficit than any other President ever.  If we need to spend more than we thought to move this country in the 21st century particularly in terms of brick and mortar, bridges, tunnels, transportation, parks, etc., then let's do it.  There needs to be an entire new way of thinking.  There also needs to be a total face lift.

When new companies start-up, they can go through lots of cash before they fine tune the model.  Sometimes young companies get started and before they know it there are millions of users but they are still losing money daily.  But eventually, if they have smart people, and a really smart entrepreneur, they figure out how to make money with all the users and make the business profitable.  A few years down the line of paying back the debt is fine because in the long run, the upside is huge.  That is how we need to look at the huge amount of money our Government is going to spend.  We will get it back, it will take time, but the money spent now needs to execute on a vision, build a brand and grow the user base. 

I do believe Obama knows that.  I hope that the egos in Washington will get behind him.  Nancy Pelosi who made a stink because she wasn't consulted about Leon Panetta is exactly the bullshit I am talking about.  Everyone in Washington needs to roll up their sleeves, think out of the box and get to work in a new and different way.  A really smart entrepreneur knows that if the business model is not
working at 11am on Tuesday morning, then at 11:01 on Tuesday morning,
changes must be made immediately.  I think Obama is that type of leader
but our elected officials who seem to be uninnovative and set in a mode
that is incredibly stagnant, need to think differently too.

Today is a day for a fresh start on so many levels.  The fact that Americans took the bold step of electing an African American to be the leader of the Western world because he was the best candidate of this time is remarkable in itself.  He represents change, he represents new thinking, he represents the youth (our future), he represents community, he represents family, he represents collaboration and he represents intellect. Yes, intellect is a good thing.  Not only should we applauding that the change today is hopefully a change in America's future, we should be applauding ourselves as a nation that we took the bold step of electing the first African American to be the 44th President of the United States. 

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Comments (Archived):

  1. Noah David Simon

    the fear is not that we will owe money. for sure it is a concern. the fear is how the money is spent and who we will owe the money to. many of the things we need to cut out you can’t say in public… but we can’t move forward in an information culture with an educational system that is basically a big baby sitting service. pull the plug on the public schools and get the teachers union out of politics. then we can talk about all that money we have to spend on healthcare for the old hippie frumps of the 60s who were complaining about Bush for 8 years. Get every kid an internet connection and *NO MORE BOOKS, NO MORE TEACHERS DIRTY LOOKS*Bush spent the money on these schools at well, but if you are really looking for solutions you will see that Bush was a huge social spender and that was part of the problem. stop blaming our need to defend ourselves as contributing to debt. there will be more debt if we just allow ourselves to be bombed like Clinton did. Let us remember that the economy crashed the moment Bill and Hilary left office. There can be no future for anyone without sincere elegant spending and not *more* spending.also let us remember the failures of the WPA. We do not want to relive Robert Moses. If Obama wants to spend the money on roads then we need a better system then putting all the power in the hands of one man for half a century.finally stop the cult of Obama. We need to question a man who is asking for the amount of money that he is. The GOP was asking for regulation on the loan industry and the Donkeys turned them down because they knew America’s failure was good for them. So now that you have devastated our country… we have them in charge. our worst nightmare now controls our destiny, but they will lose power in four years if there is still Democracy left if they just borrow us out of a hole. We are watching! the short term bubble of Clinton I don’t want to relive.

    1. John

      Mr Simon’s deeply negative take on the promise of Obama is in striking contrast to the expressions on the faces of millions of people yesterday as the inauguration went forth. In those huge crowds, nobody was frowning, smiles were universal. The devastation in America came from Bush, who really had no idea why he was president or what he was supposed to do with the office. Rather than cut Obama short in four years, democracy may just assure our bright new president eight years in office.

  2. jsteig

    You suggested everyone wants Obama to succeed. Actually, Rush Limbaugh for one has explicitly said he wants President Obama to fail because Obama’s success would be a success of liberalism and Limbaugh hates liberalism . . . there is a perverted logic there. Unfortunately, the dogs behind Limbaugh are just straining at their leashes . . .And to comments about the “cult of Obama”, I’d prefer a cult around a man (44) who believes in rational thinking over a cult around a man (43) who believed in faith based decision making. But in general, this whole “cult” and “coronation” thing is an invention of the Right.And I just love the logic that eight years of Bush weren’t enough to erase the “disaster” that the Clinton years produced. That’s just such magical thinking it deserves its own place in some nursery-museum.Comprehensive Economist review of the last eight years, titled “The frat boy Ships out”. http://tinyurl.com/6vv7dg

    1. marshal sandler

      Listening to Rush Limbaugh is like taking swimming lessons from a drowning man ! I would rather hear the new tune based on A” Note of Triumph!” , Mr Limbaugh and his crew are as dead as Custer and Radio ! Let’s educate our kids so they will ignore Semantic Jazz and grow up with a clear conscience !The part of the superego in psychoanalysis that judges the ethical nature of one’s actions and thoughts and then transmits such determinations to the ego for consideration

      1. jsteig

        You sound like a Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle! But I use Dr. Bronner’s every day.

        1. marshal sandler

          Soap cost’s to much ! I just shower annually and dust my self with corn starch HEH

    2. Gotham Gal

      Great article in the Economist. Thanks for linking.

  3. Gotham Gal

    Transparency would be a welcome change.

  4. ellen

    Let us just hope that replacing the infrastruture will not end up like the Boston big dig? Way over budget and the incompetents actually killed someone in the Ted Williams tunnel and water pours in every time there is a thaw. Let us hope that by improving our health care system does not mean paying doctors and hospitals a bonus for throwing very sick people out as a way of “cost cutting” now that Blue Cross’s alternate plan contract doing as it is trying to sign up providers as fast as possible. Providers sign because they will get end of year bonus money for not providing care..We all want Obama to succeed but we must do public business with more transparancy..