Stephen - While the Bush image is funny...it's not really accurate. He would have been considered "fired" had he actually been running - and most certainly would have gotten crushed - and thus, "fired". But since we have term limits...it's not quite like he was fired. But still...I see the humor.
Mel - I'll do my best to guess at why some are afraid. First of all, as in any place, people here have varying views on how to address problems - both nationally and internationally. So any time that anyone is elected, the voters for the losing party are not happy (or afraid of) with what the winner will do. So there's no surprise there. In this case, I think it comes down to a couple of things.
1) Many people don't think Obama has the experience to hold the most powerful job in the world (perhaps that's arguable...but for now I think it's still the US Pres is the most powerful job in the world). In terms of his experience, it's true that he's never held an executive role and he's only been in the US Senate for one term. Will that be a problem? Who knows...but that's one fear.
2) A lot of people simply do not agree with his foreign and domestic agenda and approach. Some of the specific things that people are concerned about:
- Being weak on security issues as he has a drastically different approach to foreign policy than Bush (and some people feel that Bush has been keeping us safe). They also think that if there is some major international incident, Obama won't have any clue what to do and he'll screw it up. (Yes...I know what you're all thinking about Bush right now...I'm just saying...)
- He'll raise taxes, grow government programs, and turn America more into a Socialist/welfare state. In large part, Americans don't look to the government to solve our problems because it's often inefficient and bungles things up. Among many other things, America became what it was though a capitalist approach to things. (I also realize that right now we're reaping some of the painful realities of capitalism gone-wild). People don't want the government taking more of their money and spending it on potentially crappy government programs. As a general rule, we don't like the idea of socialism...and some see him as one who will lean more that way.
I'm sure there's more to it than that, but that's my best effort at a short summary of some of the fears. I'm not trying to say if there is or isn't validity to those fear...just listing what they may be. Perhaps someone who's actually afraid can post a better response.
From my point of view - we don't really know what we'll get from Obama. He's said a lot of great/inspiring/hopeful things, but the truth is that he doesn't have much of a public record in terms of what he'll do. Also, no US President has actually done all that has been discussed/promised while campaigning. Sad as it is, they say what they need to in order to get elected...then reality sets in....or things change. For example, in 2000, Bush made it clear that he was against the idea of nation-building and imposing our will on other nations...then came 9/11 and since then that's all he's done. In my opinion, Obama has promised quite a bit - if you listened to his convention speech 2 months ago he pretty much gave the impression that he'll fix all the problems of America and the world. It's great and inspiring, but also largely unrealistic.
I'm hopeful that we'll see good things...but unfortunately he's coming into a tough situation both in the US and internationally. It certainly will be interesting.
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