Barack Obama the President

Barack Obama Background
Hometown: Honolulu, Hawaii
Age: 47
Religion: United Church of Christ
Education: Harvard Law School, J.D., 1991, Columbia University, B.A., 1983
Candidate Website : www.barackobama.com
Candidacy Status: Formally declared candidacy Feb. 10, 2007, Elected president Nov. 4, 2008.
Political Experience: U.S. Senator from Illinois, 2005-present
Illinois State Senator, 1997-2004
Professional Experience: Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School, 1993-2004, Attorney, Miner Barnhill & Galland, 1993-2004
Family Information: Spouse: Michelle Obama, Children: Malia Ann Obama, Sasha Obama

Time Says:

"It is not clear that the economy's bottomed out," he begins, understatedly. (The morning newspaper trumpets the worst unemployment spike in more than 30 years.) "And so even if we take a whole host of the right steps in terms of the economy, two years from now it may not have fully recovered." That worries him. Also Afghanistan: "We're going to have to make a series of not just military but also diplomatic moves that fully enlist Pakistan as an ally in that region, that lessen tensions between India and Pakistan, and then get everybody focused on rooting out militancy in a terrain, a territory, that is very tough — and in an enormous country that is one of the poorest and least developed in the world. So that, I think, is going to be a very tough situation.

"And then the third thing that keeps me up at night is the issue of nuclear proliferation," Obama continues, sailing on through the horribles. "And then the final thing, just to round out my Happy List, is climate change. All the indicators are that this is happening faster than even the most pessimistic scientists were anticipating a couple of years ago."

Score that as follows: one imploding economy, one deteriorating war in an impossible region and two versions of Armageddon — the bang of loose nukes and the whimper of environmental collapse. That's just for starters; we'll hear the unabridged version shortly.

Economists.com says:

What chance success?

Mr Bush (see article) had a simplistic tendency to see the world through ideological and partisan spectacles. He hung on to bad advisers for longer than he should have; he divided the world too often into good and evil; and he plotted to establish a Republican hegemony although he had sold himself to the electorate as bipartisan. In economic matters, he was too prone to sacrifice the long-term good for short-term gain. He seemed curiously incurious about vital details, such as the conduct of the war in Iraq.

Mr Obama seems to be different. By offering the most prized cabinet job to his rival, Hillary Clinton, and by keeping on Robert Gates, the defence secretary, who has done a good job, Mr Obama has shown a determination not to surround himself with cronies. He has put together a team which has impressed almost everyone with its calibre and its centrism. He has been tough already, dispatching blunderers and being prepared to admit to mistakes. He has repeatedly warned Americans that he will have to do unpleasant things.

The next four, or eight, years may be a disappointment, a triumphant renewal or something in between. Mr Obama is inexperienced, and right now the world looks especially forbidding. But he is a respectful and thoughtful man, and that is a good start.

Pravda says:

The importance of improving U.S./Russia relations cannot be understated. Most commentators agree that Russia and the U.S. have vested interests in avoiding further antagonism. For this reason, the U.S. has maintained dialogue with Russia open even in moments of great crisis. For instance, during the Georgian aggression, top U.S. brass met with Russian generals to discuss security and related issues. Even in an election cycle which saw the Georgian war politicized, and under an administration which had little to lose by further alienating Russia, pragmatism trumped politics.


The new US administration should realize that Russia needs no more than to be treated as an equal in the global economy. In the past, America has had vibrant diplomatic relations with Russia--from the 1930s with American Ambassador Joseph Davies, to the height of the Cold War, and throughout the transition period. High-level talks are old hat for the U.S. and Russia; they also carry none of the political baggage Obama faced when discussing diplomatic talks with adversaries such as Iran without preconditions on the campaign trail.

Guardian says:

I had assumed that Krispy Kreme's plan to give a free doughnut to anyone visiting its US stores on inauguration day was just another of the countless commercial efforts to jump on the Obama bandwagon for financial gain. As the company explains: "[We are] honouring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day." (Brits can get a free coffee -- not a free doughnut -- by going into one of Krispy Kreme's UK locations and saying 'Yes we can', and thereby looking like a bit of a fool. The offer ends tomorrow.) But apparently it's much more sinister than that, according to an important and thoroughly persuasive press release from the American Life League, which campaigns against abortion, and also doughnuts:

Celebrating his inauguration with 'Freedom of Choice' doughnuts - only two days before the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to decriminalize abortion - is not only extremely tacky, it's disrespectful and insensitive and makes a mockery of a national tragedy.

The press release is headlined "Krispy Kreme Celebrates Obama With Pro-Abortion Doughnuts", and the logic would seem to be that any reference to the word "choice" is automatically a reference to the issue of reproductive rights. However, there is a hole at the centre of this logic. [Miami New Times, via Wonkette]

Bloomberg Says:

For Barack Obama, the question is how long his honeymoon will endure and how much of his ambitious agenda he can achieve before it ends, perhaps -- if history is a guide -- as a result of his own actions.

“New presidents abort their own honeymoons,” said political analyst Charlie Cook. “There’s a residual goodwill that comes into office with them, and it stays with them until they end it by making mistakes.”

Presidential honeymoons provide Americans a first in-depth look at their newly elected leader while granting him a chance to set a tone and style that is likely to carry long-term consequences for the country and his presidency.

“First impressions tend to be lasting ones,” said Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, a research organization in Washington. “Mistakes made early can certainly weaken a president -- not necessarily destroy his presidency but slow him down.”

i am says:

Welcome Barack Obama, Never Give up...