Barack Obama (Democrat-Illinois)
44th President of the United States
2009-
UPDATE: A very classy, inspiring and gracious concession speech by John McCain. That’s going out with style.
UPDATE 2: “Bending the arc of history.” Great, great speech. I could get used to having a president who can speak in complete sentences.
The Local Crank
I wanted to stay up and watch Obama’s speech, but I think I’ll have to catch it online tomorrow instead. I’m too old and tired.
And good for Obama. As with all new presidents, I wish him the best of luck. He has a bigger mess to fix than any president in my lifetime ever has.
“He has a bigger mess to fix than any president in my lifetime ever has.”
Yeah, no kidding. God help him.
My favorite little tidbit of the day: Maverick County went 78% for Obama.
Now comes the fun part of predicting his cabinet choices. Let’s start with State. Who will it be? Bill Richardson? George Mitchell? My personal favorite, Colin Powell redux?
Colin Powell, sadly, had his international credibilty completely destroyed by publicly advocating Bush’s fraudulent case for the Iraq invasion before the UN. I think Richard Lugar would be a good choice, but he’s apparently not interested.
I think Powell’s credibility was temporarily damaged, but I think the combination of his well-known and disregarded warnings within the administration that Iraq would be a mess, and his subsequent departure and breach with the administration on several key issues, culminating in his endorsement of Obama, have probably repaired most of the damage. The perception now seems to be that he was a decent guy who was treated badly and misused by the Bush White House. But, all that aside, I suspect he’d be happy to stay retired.