Obama!

Obama has been sworn in as the President of The United States of America!
In hindsight, I have to say Bush wasn't as bad as everybody thought he was (Ahh using the past tense about him FINALLY). I mean he was divisive and incompetent but he wasn't evil. That role was filled by the person I am equally happy is out of office; Dick Cheney. I welcome Joe the Vice President into office as well. I think that he is a decent person whose presidential hopes were marred by his uncanny ability to put his foot in his mouth at every opportunity. Thankfully the Vice President has less chances to do just that and so I believe he will be effective in the traditional role as VP; that is to say Biden will roll back the changed portfolio of VP that the power-mongering Dick in office before him created.
The inaugural speech was very articulate. I daresay that Obama touched on everything that I hoped he would. From the social justice side, he discussed the reform of the education and health sectors. This is just one instance where it looks like he is willing to go forward with all of the sweeping changes he argued for from the beginning despite the current financial crisis. Others include the entitlement programs needing to be revamped. I really hope that he can fix these programs soon since the unpaid portion of liabilities in these programs are rising very quickly.
When dealing with these topics and others he was very much different than Bush in his attempt at being bipartisan; discussing that we should not worry about big government or small government but good government.
He discussed his plans for proper, peaceful, diplomacy; that he will open up to any nation who attempts to bridge the gap and show an end to their militant ways. This reaffirming of the need for so called soft power is a welcome change and will hopefully raise America's status in the world. He also discussed that terrorists are destined to fail if Americans refuse to let terrorist actions affect their lives.
On that note he echoed the sentiment of people like Locke and Paine in saying that America must not deal in its liberties to help keep the nation safe. To me it sounded like freedoms in America may be increased during the Obama years and perhaps Guantanamo will be closed very early during his presidency.
On the economic situation he argued that there will be some difficult times in the near future but people must let go of the paranoia the markets have inflicted upon them to return consumer expectations to where it should be.
Finally Obama discussed the need of developed nations to aide the development of the South. That we cannot sit back while other countries starve. That we can no longer ignore science with respect to things like climate change and that it is the developed world's responsibility to curve greenhouse gases. He foretold of a world where we harness the sun, wind and land to power our homes and drive our cars. It looks like Aide to disadvantaged nations and helping the environment will be two pillars of the Obama foreign policy plan.
Of course it is a little early to draw so many far reaching conclusions about the next 4-8 years of American governing but with the Democrats in serious control of the house and Obama being so very different than Bush one cannot help but get swept away in the moment.