The reign of King George the Second has nearly come to an end, now it is time to fix the damage.

[Bjorn Against]

I have waited for this night for eight years. Tonight is the night in which I can finally say goodbye to the worst person to ever set foot in the oval office. By the time I leave work tomorrow the Bush regime will have finally come to an end and we will all be able to look forward to a new President who despite his flaws will certainly be a vast improvement over what we have had to endure these last several years.

Despite the fact that we are about to see the end of the reign of King George the Second however I have had a hard time celebrating this evening. I have a hard time celebrating because I know that the damage that King George has done will not be easily repaired, and I know that when I go to bed tomorrow night the people who were killed by his illegal wars will still be dead. I will go to bed knowing that many of the people who lost their homes under his watch still don't have homes, and many of them will be spending their nights on the streets. I will go to bed knowing that the Constitution has been shredded to such an extent that it is not going to be easily taped back together. I will go to bed knowing that people are still being denied equal rights. I will go to bed knowing that global warming has become an even more serious problem over the last eight years and to reverse its effects is going to be one of the biggest challenges our world has ever faced. Tomorrow I will go to bed knowing that Obama faces what may be the largest challenges that any incoming President has ever faced, and I am going to feel a lot of sympathy for a man whose position I would never want to be in.

Many people here may know that I have been critical of Obama these past few weeks, and I am not about to stop being critical when I feel it is necessary. I think I can speak for many of the critics on this site however when I say that we all want Obama's administration to be successful, and I promise that I will be there to help push for some of Obama's key policy positions.

I may disagree with Obama on gay rights and I will not stop expressing my disagreement until he stands up for full equality, but I can disagree with him on gay rights and still fully support his efforts to promote renewable energy. When Obama gets together with Steven Chu and Al Gore to develop a plan to make us energy independent and stop global warming I expect to be fully behind that plan. When Obama introduces his public works programs which will help spur job creation I will be there to put my full support behind many of those programs. I fully expect to be working hard to promote several of Obama's key policy positions over the next few years even when I am standing in opposition to him on different issues. I am confident that most people here on DU are essentially going to be on the same page when it comes to many of the big issues, and we will all support Obama together when he is clearly on the right side of an issue.

We are never going to be united on everything, and it is always important that we allow people to express their concerns without being accused of “poutrage”. While we will argue over our differences however, we also need to be able to come together and work on the issues in which most of us are in agreement. Most of us are in agreement that we need a new energy policy that will both reduce our dependence on oil and be environmentally friendly. Most of us can agree that we need to restore the Constitution and end torture. Most of us can agree that we need to end the war in Iraq. Most of us can agree that we need to improve our nations infrastructure and create jobs. While we argue these differences it is important that we never forget that our interests as human beings are essentially the same, and we need to work together to fight the right-wing which is working against those interests.

Those of us who have been critical of Obama are not going to stop being critical no matter how many times we are accused of “whining”, but most of us do want Obama to succeed on many of the big issues. If we want Obama to succeed on those big issues then we all need to work together on the things that we can agree on, and we need to do a better job of listening to one another when we can't agree. Over the next four or hopefully eight years we are going to see some some very good things happen, and we are going to see a lot of other things that are going to justifiably upset a lot of people. What we all need to recognize is that we all have a stake in what this administration does, and if we can work together on the things we agree with at that the same time that we respectfully debate the things that we don't then we will all be better off.

[Xipe Totec]

1. I thought it was George the Turd n/t

[Bjorn Against]

2. King George the Turd is pretty fitting so maybe we will just have to count Reagan as the first Bush.