I am an old and cynical person, especially when it comes to politicians showing emotion. I always suspect that such displays are rehearsed and aimed to achieving some goal. But I think this clip of Barack Obama getting emotional when thanking his campaign workers the day after the election is genuine.
It sounds like an impromptu speech and is quite moving, especially because he is focusing on them and their future, and not on him and what has just passed. He is humble and you seem him get teary, which is a side of him that was never shown during his campaigns and he has nothing to gain by it after his last campaign for office.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
— one of the Proverbs of Hell of William Blake.
I am still cynical. He was always good at making speeches. I am sure the one above is sincere but I would like to see him actually do something over the next four years. Enough of the speeches!
I second that!!!
That man is fucking awesome, I wish we had someone half as amazing in Australia, really I do. But he can only achieve what the system will let him achieve, and your system seems specifically designed to stop anyone achieving anything that the rich don’t want done.
You are so right , I wish India had someone like him too.
He and his wonderful family seem perfect in the White House.
I don’t think its possible for him to achieve everything, he can only implement the will of the American People, and honestly even with the elections showing that the majority voted Obama, there is a huge extremely conservative wing, well represented in the House of Reps.
Obama has many challenges, but yes I do wish he achieves a lot more this term.
The 18th-c. version was unquestionably designed for that purpose, but it was also designed to have a lot of inertia, which makes it impossible to turn on a dime, as a classical parliamentary system can do. (IMHO that is a feature, not a bug; however, the irresistible pressure toward two parties and away from coalitions is a major flaw. The two parties were themselves coalitions until the civil rights push in the 1950s-60s--which did not do what the rich wanted--broke them up [see: Southern strategy].) But the real current problem is gerrymandering: Obama got a majority of the popular vote but the composition of the House does not reflect this, so the lower chamber, which was supposed to represent The People, does just the opposite. We now have gerrymandering by computer, and the algorithms are pretty good. (E.g., I live in a recently gerrymandered district that just got a Tea-Partier to replace an anti-choice Dem: from frying pan to fire.)