He is, finally, the 44th President of the United States. He has been sworn in, and has delivered his Inaugural Address. He has escorted the former president to the helicopter that leads him to retirement.
Sometimes, long-awaited events can be anti-climactic when they actually occur. But I have no such feeling today...this is the moment that so many of us have waited for over the last eight years. First, as Democrats, we remember the pain of what seemed to be a theft of the presidency in 2000. We suffered after the narrow result of the bitter 2004 election. But in 2008, we watched as our candidate soared to a mighty victory in every region of the country.
While it is necessary for the new president to appeal to all Americans, as he did not just today but throughout his campaign, I personally won't apologize for feeling that my beloved Democratic Party has finally gotten the victory it deserved over the other side. As a liberal/progressive, I take pleasure in the defeat of conservatism, because I think we're right and they're wrong. Therefore, like many other Americans, my love of the entrance of Obama is equal to my joy in the departure of Bush. This should hardly be a surprise...
With Obama's rise to power, there will be a return to the kinds of ideals that conservatives seem to believe can only come from capitalism and the marketplace. Obama knows - as FDR did when he was first inaugurated in 1933 - that the engine of government has to be active to help solve the economic crisis. Only the central government has the power to take the kind of action that can create a wave that's large enough to move the economy.
That's why Obama will invest in America, through job-creating programs, middle class tax cuts, and a rejection of the arrogance and hubris that marked the foreign policy of the previous administration. There will be a new day both in economic and foreign policy. Voters really did select "change," and now they will get it.
It's clear, too, that many Americans, even many of those who voted for Sen. McCain, are ready to welcome the new president and even support him. As Inauguration Day began, it was reported that Obama had the approval of 78 % of voters as he prepared to enter office. Most Americans are ready to give him a chance. I remember granting that deference even to Ronald Reagan; most Americans seem of the same mind.
It's heartening to know that: the war in Iraq will finally end; Gitmo will be closed and torture is out as official U.S. policy; we will at least talk to nations before we decide whether to attack them; we will make the effort to establish new and lasting forms of energy; we won't sacrifice our liberty for notions of security; we will respect the non-faith of non-believers as much as we respect the rights of all religions.
This is a fascinating time in which to live. Not only have we made history with the first African-American president, but we have rejected an ideological mindset that brought us unnecessary war, political extremism and a swaggering approach to the rest of the world.
Barack Obama has the potential to be an undeniably great president. Only time and the reality of events - many of which he won't be able to control - will tell whether he becomes that.
But today has indeed been a joy. I'm glad to have been one of the many millions who has chosen hope over fear.
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