Congratulations Barack Obama!!!!!!!!!!

[Thedy B]

Where were you when you heard the news?

Were you surprised he won?

What does his winning mean to you?

[Promote the world! *Latasha]

when I heard the news I was at home on the couch biting my nails. when they announced Barack Obama as the president I NEARLY lost my voice. :) I was sooo Happy.

I really wasn't surprieed because When I found out he was running I knew he will win no doubt BUT when the election day came I had my doubts. when Mccain votes went up I got REALLY scared. At the end BARACK OBAMA became president. when he did his First speech to run for president I knew he was going to win, how I know that Because look at the votes, He was in NO competition.

what does his winning means to me it means WE made history, it means anything is POSSIBLE, it means when I graduate college with a degree I will find a job NO DOUBT, it means a C.H.A.N.G.E has ARRIVED. It means Barack Obama is the PRESIDENT.

Promoter Latasha When We stick together a change is and WILL be made :)
Congrats Barack Obama! :)

[Chenyelu Bomani]

I was at home (Detroit) watching the election coverage transpire when it was announced around 11p.m. of Barack Obama taking the popular and electorial vote to become the President Elect of the U.S.A.
Suprised...no! Why? When McCain chose Palin as his running mate it threw up a lot of red flags and their campaign was full of counter politics which did not display unity between the two. Orchestrated...hmmmm! But nonetheless Obama applied political pressure at the right times and remained in control of his campaign!! Also, youth brought a new thought process to the political realm.
His winning means a great deal as an African American. It speaks volumes about the struggle of a people to be recognized as human beings and it finally dispels the eugenical stereotype projected upon us in a very big way!! Like others before him that broke the race barriers e.g. military,sports, etc., there will remain a struggle despite this high achievement but as with the other forerunners in various fields of endeavor the foundation has now been laid for others to follow.
Does it destroy the racist element within America? No, enclaves will continue to exist and will take time to totally eradicate!

[Thedy B]

yep, Obama was cool calm and collected at times I probably would have not been, especially while Hilary was running for president and the last wave of attacks against him.

He was also always respectful to Senator McCain.

Oh and I agree: I was HOT when they chose a woman just to get Clinton's votes and then WHO they chose really bothered me! That's just wrong.

[gifted compositions]

When I heard the good news I was in the comforts of home.

To be honest, I wasn't surprised or had doubt that he would win. I was more apprehensive about voter ballot issues or a drawn-out election than anything else.

Obama's victory means a lot to me. As African American, it shows to me the sacrifices made by my predecessors from slavery to the Civil Rights movement to now have have not gone in vain. It is truly a sight to behold at how Obama garnered the support of people from different ethnic backgrounds. While the color of his skin was an issue, it shows me that America is willing to look past racial divides for the best man suitable to lead this great country of ours.

I truly hope that the moment in history is not looked upon lightly and becomes novelty. It also opens my eyes to the fact that my brothers have no excuse not to succeed... because the saying: There will never be a black president is dead and irrelevant.

And we still have a long way to go... this is only the first step.

[Thedy B]

I don't think this will ever be taken lightly.

I also hope that history will be repeated! I hope he does well and will get elected for a second term! I think he's going to need it in light of everything he is up against in this country.

I agree about there being no excuses.

And looking pass skin color was something that really encouraged me - that the efforts we have made too as a people helps others to see we are fully capable of being in charge.

[Suspectre]

I was at my mother's house, anxiously watching the election coverage with her.

His win did not particularly come as a surprise to me, it was only a slight disappointment -- I was one of the silent many hoping for the miraculous John McCain victory.

Despite my disappointment it is reassuring to see an African-American man as the president; it is indicative of our forward-thinking leadership as a nation and shows the rest of the world that we have moved beyond the racial divisions that separated us only a generation ago when Jesse Jackson tried for the presidency in 1984 and 1988.

That said, however, I am not thrilled that the Democrats are seizing control, I mean I suppose it was inevitable (the current administration has done too much bungling for its own good), however I am concerned about Democratic economic and foreign policy. My fear is that we're going to see the creation of a pseudo-socialist form of government (i.e. income redistribution/Robin Hood economics) that rewards laziness and punishes success, and furthermore our world standing will diminish in power, leaving us open for another possible attack from overseas--I really hope it doesn't happen, for our country's sake, but I fear the worst.

Barack Obama is a remarkable politician but I am concerned by his lack of executive-branch experience and I worry that his political ineptitude could lead us into trouble.

For our sakes though, I hope that I am wrong.

Congratulations Mr. Obama, may your presidency be marked with peace and distinction.

[Thedy B]

You make strong assumptions when you say that you think his policies will reward laziness and punish success. When he accepted the Democratic nomination, he spoke of individual responsibility as well as mutual responsibility which suggests to me that he will not reward laziness.

Plus, we can't assume that every now who doesn't have a job doesn't have a job because they are lazy!!! Are you serious??? With all the company layoffs, closings, downsizing, housing problems, etc., you really think ppl don't have jobs because they are too lazy to get one?

Two, he would not, in my opinion, be punishing success but greed. Sure those on Wallstreet were successful in robbing people of their 401K, sending jobs overseas, etc., but they were also greedy and in my opinion, some of their actions were criminal.

Three, a Robin hood mentality is one in which you rob from the rich to take care of the poor. I think the selfish attitude in which some display has gotten our country to where it is now. If his policies foster giving and stop giving huge tax breaks to the rich, then I'm all for it! I mean if you gave someone a stimulus package for example for the purpose of boosting the economy and the person doesn't do that. Why keep giving it to that person? Same with tax breaks.

We made progress with this election in terms of race but considering the fact that there were outspoken racists in this campaign, subtle racial/religious statements made throughout the campaign, I feel we made a step in the right direction and I'm proud of my country for that, but we still got a ways to go in my opinion.

[Suspectre]

Well said Thedy, but I will refine myself a bit more...

The topic asked for what Obama's win "means to me," and this is my response.

I disagree with you on "not punishing success but greed" - when Barack Obama speaks of a $250,000+ tax bracket and "income redistribution" he is literally talking about taking money away from the wealthiest Americans and spreading it to the middle and lower classes. This is a socialist ideal and while it will indeed hurt the 'greedy' people, it also affects so many other successful hard-working Americans who do not deserve to be taxed more just because they've climbed the ladder of social mobility.

((I will also make my bias, or lack thereof, completely transparent. I do not fall into this 250k tax bracket, my family is a family of small business owners and we sit right around the 50k tax bracket, and are in no way directly affected by this income redistribution plan... yet))

Furthermore, in my opinion, just because more money is flowing into the government, it does not equate to national prosperity, in fact I would say I feel quite oppositely. I would stake that for every 4 dollars the government receives, only 1 dollar actually goes into helping citizens, and the rest is tied up in government bureaucracy.

My second point is that the collapse on Wall-Street is something that the Democrats and the Democrats alone are responsible for, not the Republicans. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Christopher Dodd were all the biggest financial beneficiaries of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Obama himself received rather large sums of money for campaigning from employees of both! Pushes for these shaky loans began back in the Clinton administration and are something the Bush administration lobbied to reverse, however, seeing as Congress has been controlled by Democrats it's something they weren't able to accomplish.

Furthermore if Obama manages to spike up business taxes like he's been saying he plans to, that's going to introduce another completely detrimental set of consequences. The United States already has the highest corporate tax rate in the world by a massive 7% margin and in order to stay competitive globally, we should be reducing that rate so that businesses here can compete with those overseas. If more financial burdens are placed on businesses, those businesses are going to pass that cost on to the consumer through products, which nobody needs in this time of economic crisis.

Now, it's not that I'm a backwards thinker, or that I am in love with the way things are (I certainly have got no love for G.W.), but I am an artist and as such I am obligated to glean my own take on the world and think independently, and this is how I see things. You asked what 'it means' to me, and this has been my response.

I feel uneasy about the prospect of an Obama presidency, but there is little I can do about it now, so I will just have to wait and see what transpires.

[qdaiman]

if you look at the socialism take why not ponder this if capitalism prevails in the country who do you think is going to handle the banking collapse. if you have not guessed i will interject, foriegn banks. our country will be ran financially by foriegn companies. also did you know that the air force has sent their military contracts to france. guess who was responsible for that, you got it john mccain. you said that the democrates benifited from the freddie and fannie failure, true, but who deregulated and created the system that was used to destroy americans biggests dreams. you got it the republicans under g.w.

the tax system that obama is pushing is the same one that worked for reagan's first term. he is a reagonomics protege. alot of people do not know this.

his other stance is in the area of offshoring mccain wanted to continue what g.w. bush started it would have decimated our economy beyond repair. if you send more jobs overseas what is the cost. you are an artist, can you imagine no middle class to buy paintings, sculptures or anything else. our country is centered around the middle class. mccain also wanted to step up our military presence around the world making us vulnerable where we need security most, at home.

everyone is so focused on taxes that it has shroudded the core of our problems. any time a government gets behind you have to tax. anytime a government is redeveloping they have to tax. we want everything to be done for nothing. why don't we just give the major corporations the helm as chief executive and see how you like it.

capitalism only exist in a bubble or communist government which one do you want to live in. our country is ran on checks and balances to suggest a change is to suggest we change over from democracy. and that is backwards thinking.

when i heard rupert murdock talk about the policies that obama stood for and why he did not support him, it brought things into perspective. he will bring the checks and balance back into play that reagan (2nd term) and bush (both) slowly tore down. do you know that we do not even regulate monopolies closely anymore. do you know that the reason the dot.coms, enron corporations, and housing market collapsed you got it deregulation.

what else do you want to deregulate education, government, health care you name it will crash also because big business only care about one thing, you got it money. the easiest way for them to get big cash is to extend till it bust, cash out and retire i.e. dot.coms, enron and housing.

another thing i don't understand why are you so concerned about the taxes if you will benefit. that does not sound like artistic thinking it sounds republican and close minded. do you know right now if you make $100,000 to $245,000 you pay out almost the same taxes as millionnaires. the percentages drop the higher up. so your essentially robbing from the poor and giving to the rich. that's communism. i know you think that's not true. that's what alot of people thought till gates and many others explained how they're taxed and how much they actually pay and the numbers were astonishing. i've also worked with and befriended millionaires and they all agreed that the tax plan that obama suggests will put more money into the hands of the consumer.

[Jigabod]

Thank you for sparing my intervention here. Because, while I keep hearing Republicans talk about poor people receiving things they don't deserve, I can't help but wonder why Republicans don't acknowledge how many rich people don't actually deserve the wealth that they've accumulated; like exploitation of the poor is okay, but taxation of the rich is an abomination. It's okay to take advantage of the bottom to GET to the top, but it's not okay for the top to be taken advantage of on behalf of the bottom? It's okay to step on the poor for the rich's leisure, but it's not okay to bring down the rich for the poor's survival? Please...

As for the topic at hand, I was watching Steven Colbert and John Stewart--- the real American heroes of this election--- and got the news from Stewart himself. Comedy Central has been the most reliable source of news thus far, so I figured I'd spend election night with them, lol...

[Thedy B]

well now I agree to a certain extent but I personally wouldn't take it too far .... I mean we can't assume that every rich person robbed some poor person in order to get rich. As we all know, there are plenty of rich people who worked doggone hard to earn every cent they have WITHOUT messing over poor poor people. There are rich people who give and give and give, all the time. So I wouldn't want to punish those folks. Like you said,the corrupt ones, however, deserve to be punished.

And not every poor person is poor because they were robbed by some rich person. And I don't know that giving a poor person money all the time is the best thing either. You've seen stories of ppl who won the lottery and in a few short years were back broke because of poor money management. Again, that's not all poor people... we are in a recession... so now there are more poor people than ever and it's not due to poor money management...but some folks are broke because of their poor decisions and not due to anyone else's fault.

but in cases where there's clear cases of poor money management, is taking money from those who have it and giving it to them, the answer? hmmm, I don't know.

essentially what I'm saying is that being broke is not, and should not be, in my mind the only qualifier to give money to that person. Or if it is, it should come with some type of money management class If it's shown the person needs it...

I just saw this guy strolling down the street the other day with a cane in his hand and he was upright, no real limp, nothing; every day on my way from home, he's outside with a cup, bent all over like he is too crippled to work. Not everybody who says they need money needs it...

[qdaiman]

i had just walked in from the in-loves and i made my wife and daughter sit down in the living room and watch for well over an hour together history. my daughter was patient while me n wifey were very emotional shedding tears here and their (even now). this was greater than watching my daughter being born.

i was not suprised, i knew he would when after finding out that many blacks had not even heard of him but the white democrats chose him to lead them out. people don't know that the clintons were look at as tyrants amoung their democratic party members.

everything my daughter can marry a president, my son or grand son can be president. it is like wear a mask for 33 yrs and finally being able to take it off. i'm still overwhelmed with elation and emotion.