If you could go back in time

and tell yourself 8 years ago that the next Dem President was going to be an African American by the name of Barack Obama, who would win the Nobel Piece Prize in his first 9 months in office. What do you think your past self's reaction would have been?

And yes this is all you can tell them (no changing history!)

not this one, where my parents would still be here and my dogs and I would be happier than a drunk monkey in a banana factory.

I'm very glad that I would have been wrong about that.

.... we knew ......... from the moment he walked off of that stage we knew. And you can tell by the audiences reaction.

the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta (polite applause)

the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; (polite applause)

the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too! HUGE!!! THUNDEROUS OVATION!!!!!

... and 15 minutes before, no one knew that skinny kid even existed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fMNIofUw2I (at the 14:30 mark)

ETA: notice in that clip, a man who appears to be Sikh standing and cheering.

So, deep down inside, we knew ........... the surreal shock we all felt .... at various stages last year .... was reality ..... history ..... destiny ..... the fundamental TRUTH that Americans really CAN do anything we set our minds to ....... that we really are better together than we are apart ....... that emotion was that basic tennant of our society battling with our own self doubt.

Here's to HOPING we never let that doubt come back!!!

"gee, I wonder if... you don't suppose that... " you know, when you're sitting there and wondering if you just saw someone speak - who's going to be President someday. I remember thinking exactly that! I remember thinking - "Holy shit. A star is born." And then I remember thinking - "I wonder if we're looking at the first black President?" It was a really cool, hopeful feeling. I was so impressed, and so moved by that speech. It was a world-class debut, alright! And look what became of him!

:headbang: :patriot: :kick:

That we had just seen our first black President. I sent the speech out in my emails, which I almost never do. I didn't expect it to be in four years though!

at the Democratic Convention, I knew deep down Barack Obama would be President, as sure as I am sitting here typing this. I knew it. I just didn't expect it this quickly. BTW, same gut feeling: He will be an exceptional President. That is yet to be seen.

I told my daughter (21 at the time) that he would be our first black President. I didn't dream it would be this soon--especially because as he was sworn into office, he smiled and told us he'd be "sharpening pencils for a while". Huh--he didn't do that for long, did he?

I figured it would be a ways off, but here we are.

What a crazy trip.

I was torturing my family on vacation by watching the convention.

I just never thought it would be so damn quick!

I was figuring 2016 or something!

She was an old-style Republican as a protest vote in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, where there's a lot of petty corruption. But she had an interest in politics, and she saw the speech by Obama at the 2004 convention. I called her, and when I mentioned his name, the first words out of her mouth were "He's going to be President!" I was pretty surprised, but she was right, wasn't she? :-)

And I had a momentary sense of relief from the Bushian nightmare we were living at the time. And then I thought, "Nah, this country could never do anything as great as electing this man president."

that. I didn't see the speech at Kerry's Convention..it's too weird how I stumbled on to supporting Obama.

I tell ya one thing if I had read that October 2002 speech he gave against Bombing Baghdad I would have been on board sooner than December 2007 when I gave my first donation to the Obama campaign.

Because of that speech. Didn't think he would be prez in 2008, thought it would be a bit later on. But that speech was indeed amazing.

nt

... that he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

(I sleep with the tv on, MSNBC of course, and so what I was hearing was mixing with my sleeping mind. I woke up to Joey Scar saying to Chuck Todd "I hear there's a lot of awards being given out where you are these days..." and thought, "nah, that cant be it" ... and drifted back to sleep.)

And I think I probably agreed with him at the time. Nope, wouldn't believe me. :)

There's no way I would have been able to stop myself from trying to prevent shrubs selection. Since I live in Florida I would have been perfectly placed to raise hell about the butterfly ballots. Made sure every old person in West Palm new how to avoid wasting their vote on Pat F'ing Buchanan. Made sure everyone I spoke to knew that Al Gore's claim to the invention of the internet did not include the phrase, "Single Handedly". And for damned sure, I would tell every African-American in the State to double check that their names hadn't been removed from the voter rolls.

I realize that there is a really strong possibility that Barack might not be President today were it not for the complete and total incompetence of George W. Bush. W dug this country into such a deep dark hole that he forced the American people to make a choice.. either overcome their prejudices, or get four more years of pure hell.

Would I make that trade... yes.

Don't get me wrong, I'd vote for Barack again in a heartbeat, but if I had to choose between having him as President or undoing the damage done in the last eight years, I'd go for the big reset button. There's no guarantee that President Gore could have prevented 9/11, but everything I've seen about the Clinton/Gore response to the attack on the U.S.S. Cole leads me to believe that Bin Laden would have been dead by March 2001. 3,000 lives might not have been lost that day, as well as countless recovery workers who are now dying as a result of exposure to the asbestos that hung in the air above Manhattan for weeks afterward.

Thousands of US military men and women would still be alive were it not for their deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands of men women and children might still be alive if the director of FEMA had been someone who knew what the fuck he was doing when Katrina devastated New Orleans. Thousands more lost everything, and were then scattered to the four winds.

And don't even get me started on the economy...

n/t

lame duck. No real harm done. Man...

Imagine being married for four years to an alcoholic. Yeah, it's only four years...
:scared:

And EVERY SINGLE DAY was WORSE than the LAST ONE for the earlier 8 years - with EVERY NEW OUTRAGE that happened!!!

THAT's what I will ALWAYS remember...and I felt similar, but not as strongly during rayguns Regime...

So, while I'm IMPATIENT - oh so VERY impatient - for things to be FIXED and CHANGED, I still go to sleep at night smiling and wake up smiling KNOWING that Obama and the Democrats - however imperfect - are in CHARGE of THE WHOLE THING now!!!

It was like, there wasn't enough rage to cover even one day of Bushco's evil doings, let enough eight fucking, horrible, nightmarish years.

would be wondering when my future self started using drugs.

Obviously my future self was on some dynamite stuff.

and said so at the time.

I knew he was destined for greatness, but had deemed the 2009 peace prize completely out of bounds due to the deadline date for nominations.

I was wrong on that count.

In related news: Anybody got any ointment?

delete