Welcome Mr. President

After what seemed like decades of campaigning, debating and discussion, Barack Hussein Obama has finally been sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Even though we were all confident of his win, the reality of the situation just took effect today as we saw Obama (the third US President from Chicago, after Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln) place his hand on the same bible used by Lincoln in his inauguration and recite the Presidential Oath.
The man who was once criticized for not having any experience or skill to run a successful campaign, was able work consistently on the hard path towards the Presidency. But today that journey is over as Obama, with 2.5 million of his closest supporters showed up in Washington to become the change that America has been looking for.
While on his campaign, Obama had faced large amounts of criticism by many people, even from Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden (who are now his Secretary of State and Vice President, respectfully).But he was able to rise past these challenges and make his campaign into a successful one. The campaigning that he has done is also a very different one from all campaigns to date because of his refusal to take any form of contributions from lobbyists or public donations(whose main objectives is to basically 'buy' candidates by donating large amounts of money). Instead the only financial support he got was from contributions by private donations, with the maximum amount donated per person being less than $200. Even though he was bashed for choosing such an unaccustomed method of fundraising, he went on to raise more money for his Presidential bid than any other campaign to date. In the month of September 2008 alone, he went on to make $150 million dollars for his campaign.
Even though many people said that his skin color benefited his campaign, Obama ran his successful bid by not once referring to his race, and by showing America that race and racism are things of the past. His appeal to the people came in the fact that he was willing to accept his criticism and learn from past mistakes to work towards benefiting the future. And by not playing the ever-present race card in his campaign, he proved to America that anybody, of any race or background, has the ability to surpass the limits put on people concerning race, sex or class.
Another form of appeal that Obama has is his regular guy attitude, and by proving how in-touch he is with the American people, whether it was the close relationship he shared with his family, or his friendly attitude. He has shown time and time again that he is a very regular guy, even playing a pickup game of basketball with the US troops stationed in the US, while on the campaign trail.
Another vice that Obama has is his skill as a public speaker. The only other US Presidents that I know who have possessed this skill are John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, both who were fantastic Presidents who had their office time abruptly ended, by an assassination and political scandal, respectively. During his campaign he has given many great speeches that will talked about for years to come, my personal favorite being the 'More Perfect Union' address he gave in the wake of the Rev. Wright scandal, and immediately after George Bush gave his final (and worst in my opinion) State of the Union address. Jokingly referred to as "the speech that cured racism", this speech highlighted what the Obama campaign was about, the refusal to accept the old racial divisions and classes made in previous years, and the coming together of Americans to work towards democracy.


And after overcoming all these obstacles and criticism, Obama was able to build a successful campaign, a modern campaign, that used the internet as a main source of communication with his supporters, sending text messages and emails almost daily (I still receive emails to this day), and was able to make us ordinary civilians feel as though we were part of the policy making. This is one of the reason that more people in the 18-30 demographic voted for him than any other President to date. He actually won over almost every demographic except for the middle class white women and older white male demographic, who were leaning more towards McCain.
His victory over John McCain was almost unprecedented, with him earning 52.9 % of the popular vote and earning a whopping 365 electoral votes. This was basically a landslide victory, but Obama once again excercised his humility by meeting up with McCain several times, weeks after the elections, to discuss important matters such as the War in Iraq.

With his slogan 'Change we can believe in' Barack Obama was able to motivate millions into believing that much needed change can come to to America, and the time to earn it was now. Obama's popularity was once again confirmed today as 2.5 million people showed up to see him get sworn in, making the 400,000 that attended Bush's inauguration in 04 (half which were protesters anyway) seem dismal.

Even though we all know that all the problems being faced by Americans are not going to be solved overnight, we were able to see the beginnings of a new movement in America, a much needed movement towards democracy. The problems Obama will face after taking office (the Economic disaster, the failed war in Iraq) are colossal and will require many years of work, but at least we are seeing his will to work towards fixing or hopefully eliminating these problems

Today was a bright day in American history and I am glad to have witnessed it, and would like to say Welcome to the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussien Obama.