Hope We Can Believe In

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
-Niccolò Machiavelli
The first time I heard of Obama was in mid 2007. I had never heard of the man, and he was on the cover of Time magazine with a caption like: Obama says he will change politics. I was intrigued, to say the least. “Who is this guy,” I asked myself? And, most notably, he’s black. Before Obama I couldn’t even name a black politician; and he’s supposed to change politics. But after that I didn’t hear or read about him for another year or so, until he ran for president. Then, I was really impressed.
I couldn’t believe we elected Bush twice. To be honest, this is a truly evil man we’re talking about here. Two wars -- one unprovoked -- a recession like no other since the Great Depression, and the infamous Bush Doctrine*; truly one of the great boogey men of our time. It comes down to that fact that things had gotten so bad in our country we elected the first black president, which just 10 years ago would never even been considered a serious option. Figures like Colin Powel, who definitely could swing the white vote wasn’t as seriously considered as Obama was. It took the biggest screw-up in American history to get our heads straight and finally get someone worthy of saving us from ourselves.
It’s still early in his presidency to give a meaningful analysis of what he’s actually done. But one has to understand the dire situation that we expect Obama to be able to handle and clean up. He’s handling two wars; one of which is increasingly being considered unsalvageable. More people have died in the last two months than at any other time of the war. In addition, an economy that a year ago looked like it was on its way to crash and burning. Last year this time, people were saying we’re heading for the next Great Depression. Look at it now, everything is up and rising. He’s managed to turn things around for us in less than a year amidst receiving great criticism, domestic and abroad. Whether you like him or not, the man is respectable, intelligent (which is not so much you could say for the last guy), and, most importantly, I think he cares.
As of late, Obama has been the most influential public figure in my life. I really admire the man. I mean I have two posters of him hanging in my room. I can tell you, this is the first time in eight years that I can say I’m proud to be an American. Bush brought such shame to my country. But the fault cannot completely fall on him. We are the ones who gave him power. We elected him. We put up with his atrocities abroad, and most disgracefully, at home. For the first time in eight years I think the world respects us for more than fear of being deemed terrorist harborers. It goes to show, when we go from something like that, to a Nobel Peace Prize winner, I like to think America has, in some way or form, returned to the hearts of the world, at least in a small way because it has returned to mine, and it’s thanks to him that it has.

*Bush Doctrine: a phrase used to describe various related foreign policy principles of former United States president George W. Bush. The phrase initially described the policy that the United States had the right to secure itself from countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups, which was used to justify the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Later it came to include additional elements, including the controversial policy of preventive war, which held that the United States should depose foreign regimes that represented a potential or perceived threat to the security of the United States, even if that threat was not immediate; a policy of spreading democracy around the world, especially in the Middle East, as a strategy for combating terrorism; and a willingness to pursue U.S. military interests in a unilateral way.