Wednesday 21 January 2009
As I start to write this out, I am sat in the library at a hospital in London. I'm watching the inauguration on this rather nifty facebook/cnn collaboration, and I am bloody loving it. As someone who has been following and supporting Obama since the beginning this is no surprise. What even I could not forsee is the reaction all around me. The library, normally completely empty is absolutely packed full of English doctors, nurses and even a few patients, all watching the exact same thing around the various computers.
Millions crammed into DC to watch the inauguration, another 3 million watched it live on Facebook, many millions more watched it on tv all over the world. It was without a doubt the most watched live event of all time. It is a fitting end for a journey that has been groundbreaking and history making every step of the way, and indeed a sense of near universal pride has overcome Americans everywhere, something they're not used to in recent times.
Indeed it is a proud day for us all. Bush is finally gone, and I think we can all say good fucking riddance. The only good thing about his presidency is that he has now so completely trashed the Republican party that the Democrats can look forward to a very bright and dominant future, and indeed it would seem to most observers that pretty much the entirety of the next generation of Americans has been so alienated by this corrupt douche, and so won over by Obama that the GOP is screwed for the foreseeable future, barring a complete image make over, a complete overhaul of high profile members and ideology, and some catastrophic blunder on Obama's part. And that of course is great news for the entire world.
Most heartwarming of all was to see Teddy Kennedy keep his promise to be here the day Obama gets sworn in and see the torch handed over to the next generation of inspirational Democrats. The only black spot of the day was Teddy's fatigue related collapse shortly afterwards, though we hear that he is ok now and alert again. There goes a great man, and one who hopefully will still be around for a while yet.
So the new world begins today. A world where science and technology is at the forefront, not hate and warmongering; a world where 'intellectual' is not a fucking derogatory term! A world where we work with our allies, not against them (i know, what an idea) and a world where we can finally admit that global warming is real and needs working on! A world where the national debt goes DOWN instead of exponentially UP (is it really a coincidence that it always goes down with a democrat in charge and always goes up with a republican?) A world where we realize that there are more important things than putting extra cash in the pockets of the oil tycoons, and that like it or not, oil WILL run out and we need to find an alternative. I could go on and on for ages such is the extent of ridiculous republican policy that we are now FREE from.
9 in 10 people across the world are deliriously happy today, I hope you're one of them.