He started his political career in 1997 and today he is the 1st African-American President (Elect) in U.S. history. If one was to go back and research the topic of race relations and riots, riots and other such confrontations have been going on as far back as at least 1908 when there were many killings in Springfield, Ill. As a kid growing up in that late 50s, 60s and early 70s, the riots in Watts, LA, Detroit, Washington DC, and Chicago are still a vivid memory as they were shown regularly on the evening news. My family would watch the “Huntley-Brinkley Report” as well as Walter Cronkite regularly. The TV would be full of images of the police beating the African-Americans or shooting them with water cannons and dragging them down the streets. The images of Martin Luther King standing up for equal rights for all were inspiring. Tragically, his life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet, but his vision lived on. All in all, I thought it was a very ugly time. Since then, there still have been many trying and difficult times and there have been many obstacles that had to be climbed and overcome. In my opinion, Mr. Obama’s election is a direct result of all those struggles and successes. Now that he has attained the highest office in the land, I have a hard time imagining the amount of expectation that is being heaped on him right now. It’s got to be mind numbing. It just seems to me that no matter how he performs these next 4 years, I can’t see how he is going to come out at the other end smelling like a rose with either party or the citizenry. I think that if he comes from the far left, the political backlash will be so great that the Dem’s will take a beating the next election. The same is true if he goes to the right. If he did that, he would loose his political backing in both houses plus piss everyone off that voted for him. Riding the fence might be his only option. Like I said, this is just my opinion and I am no political scientist so I may be WAY off on all of this.
Just a thought……….
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