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Even if people make that unfortunate error, any fact-seeking media should refer to Obama as "our first BR (bi-racial) president!" I very much enjoy the nearness, beauty, centeredness and centrist bent of his incoming administration. Let's ignore already the color of his skin.

Isaac #1,
You nailed it. A centrist. I think a lot of crunchy "progressive" types are riding for a fall. Here is what I hope for: I saw a fleeting moment of real truth telling in Obama's speech in Philly back in March. If he can have the political courage to tell us how things really are going forward (unknown right now if he will), then that really will be a huge change and I will be willing to go to the ends of the earth for him. And I was not an enthusiastic supporter to start with.

I got my greencard sponsored by my company just a month before I was laid off. It was a long and arduose process. While i was still at work during Obama's campaing I volunteered recruiting independent voters in PA. I feel very very hopeful that there is a job for me out there but the most important feeling is that even though I still not able to vote, Obama, the person I believe in and contribute with my little piece of stone, is now on his way to face the toughest job there is right now, and that itself is an inspiration to me, to stay positive, gear up and do the very best to find another job. Mr President I know you will pay attention to immigration and give the same oportunities to people like me who call the United State of America, home.
Congratulations I will be watching your inauguration on TV.
Jorge

I'm very proud to be called an American and excited that the Obama presidency will lead this country out of a very dark passage. I am happy to say that for the first time ever, I was involved in the campaign both as a donor and as a voluntter.

My excitement is tinged with concern however as tomorrow is the first time since I arrived in the U.S. that I will be filing for unemployment insurance, something I am somewhat loathe to be doing.

I'm worried that tommorrow will not only be the inauguration of a new President, but the birth of the United Socialist States of America.

I voted for Obama, but now I wonder if I made a mistake. Really, his insistence on "change" taking as long as a year is unrealistic -- it will take YEARS, decades. Change is a life-long process, and telling us that it'll only take a few years is naive and fallacious. It's an outright lie. Don't lie to us, Mr. President. Don't lie to us!

I am worried.

I am worried that too much is being put on Obama. I am worried that is is hard enough to be a good president, to say nothing of being a great president. And being the savior of the world, as so many people are expecting...well that's just too much.

I worry that if Obama is merely a really good president, the left and the center-left will bail on him for failing to meeting their expectations -- which is part of what I think happened to President Clinton.

I worry about whether Obama can even sleep, given the weight of expectations that people have for him.

There is a bit too much schmaltz here but that's okay today as long as it goes away the day after tomorrow. Let's keep our fingers crossed for Isaac makes some good points. Mediocre and center are pretty close in origin.

I remember sitting at the Thanksgiving dinner table in Nov 1969--I was home from my first semester at university--and hearing my father pontificate about how blacks were a major root for all that was wrong with society (and in 1969, his generation thought a lot was wrong!). I went into the kitchen and started to cry because I knew that nothing would really change until his generation was dead--I was mourning the death of my parents as a precondition for the change for which my generation (the "Boomers") was clammering. Now, most of his generation is gone and change is possible. I hope and pray we Boomers do not stand in the way.

Just do not want to be a sucker. President Obama is centrist at best and I feel that with all his attempts to build consensus he will abandon important social initiatives. He has asserted his inclusisve politics throughout the last year, however I feel that he has used the spin of the juice of MLK day to spin and assert his left of center credentials which do not really appear.