Hello, Mr. President

So our favourite African American (after Michael Jackson) is having lunch with 200 guests in Washington DC at this precise moment. Among those guests are his erstwhile enemies, harshest critics and those looking to use him to get what they want - and of course those who genuinely and enthusiastically supported his bid for the Presidency.

In his 18 minute speech that, in my humble opinion, slightly lacked (VERY slightly, microscopically so) the sheer awesomeness of his post-election acceptance speech on November 4 that moved Jessy Jackson and millions of others to tears, he had two important things to say to the enemies of his country - 1) Don't fuck with us, 2) If you really want to fuck with us, let's discuss the terms first.

Therein lies the difference between Obama and practically every single US President of late, most significant of them being George Walker Bush. Obama will have his gun loaded and ready, but he will not pull the trigger unless he really has to. He'd much rather try talking to them.

While the conservative media led by Faux News tried to paint him as a sympathiser and even worse, an appeaser, of global terror in the run up to the elections (he was actually called a "terrorist" by overenthusiastic McCain supporters at at least one Republican rally, largely ignored (if not egged on) by that nightmare of a VP candidate, Palin). Obama appears to have silenced those critics now and today, in true American fashion, he told their "enemies" in no uncertain terms that they need to be watching their asses. "We will defeat you," he said quite convincingly. If I were an Al-Qaida dude, I'd start looking for a place to hide right about.. NOW.

BUT, he also said that he's willing to work together with the Muslim world and work towards building trust and understanding based on mutual interests (read oil).

Well, something's better than nothing, right? There's enough shit going on in the world right now. Even at the risk of letting the ice caps melt, the West and the Middle East need to CHILL, and if that means more oil politics, then so be it. Just enough with the fuckin' violence already.

And then there's Gaza, as I said in one of my previous posts, this is one issue on which Obama's stance has been... ambiguous, at best. But according to CNN he has expressed a personal interest in getting involved. Dunno how factual this is, though. If it is then, great.

But then what can he do? He's just one powerful man against a much more powerful Jewish lobby. His Chief of Staff is Rahm Emmanuel - enough said.

Anyway, let's wish the man all the best. At least he'll do a better job than his predecessor.

Oh and by the way am I the only one who felt kinda bad for Bush Jr today? I mean I know he's responsible for half the shit that's been going down and all, but I dunno... I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy as he sat there, his expressionless face staring into nothingness as he listened to that left wing black guy make some veiled references to some of his supposed blunders. "How dare he?"

I dunno. I thought Obama should've cut him some slack there. It was Bush's last day in office after all.

Oh well. Just my two cents.

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Image courtesy Wikipedia.