Sunday, January 18, 2009

At last Obama's inauguration draws near...

It seems like an aon since the US general election. I wish they had a system like ours where the newly elected government took control the day after the election. The last three months might have been so different, from the point of view of the economy and foreign policy.

But still, on Tuesday 20th, Le Président du Mort, (whose death toll includes 2752 dead in 9/11, 1836 dead in Hurricane Katrina, 4227 Americans dead in Iraq, about 100,000 Iraqis dead, 640 Americans dead in Afghanistan plus unknown Afghans dead), finally exits the scene. Of course Bush isn't entirely responsible for all the deaths on his watch. But his incompetence made difficult situations worse. The ancients would have concluded that the gods on Olympus were displeased with him, and would have dispatched him a long time ago.

Obama, who symbolises hope, will finally take control. It's natural that expectations are running sky-high. And it will be natural that he will disappoint some people. But he seems to have the competence to make his own luck. Lets hope the gods love him and that his presidency is a success. He faces heavy-duty problems, but he just has to do better than Bush to be a success.

He comes to power with so much goodwill - according to Gallup, he has an 83% approval rating, compared to 68% for Clinton in Jan 1993 and 61% for Bush in Jan 2001 - that his mere presence in the White House is bound to have an effect on American confidence, which should immediately start to feed through to the economy.

Anyway, we are all holding our breath, and wish him well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Islamo-fascists killed most of those people; they will not stop now Bush has gone.