Liberation Day

This hasn't been a dictatorship the past eight years. George Bush was 'elected' twice, but it feels like we, the American people, are being freed. A man ruled us without our will and without our popular support for at least the past two years. We've been waiting and waiting for some real leadership and it is finally -- FINALLY -- here.

There's no use going through all the transgressions and sorting through the rubble the Bush administration will leave at our door at noon today. Those morons have left a huge, frat party mess for us and you can read all about anywhere you want. I'm just glad someone is finally here to clean up.

I'm not sure whether to happier about Bush leaving or Barack Obama coming in. Way back when he gave that convention speech in Boston, I started following this guy, seeing if he would actually run for the White House. Yeah, just after one speech. It was that good. Sometimes you can just tell with a person. He oozed something that night. "I'm not like any politician you've ever seen." The fact that he'll be the leader of the free (and not so free) world still amazes me.

I'm also amazed at the jubilee most of this country is feeling these days. Americans feeling happy and hopeful despite all that awaits us, the whole buffet of shitstorms and quagmires ... it's something to behold. I see a lot of people bemoaning this. It's fine for people to take the streets after a sports team wins a championship. It's fine for thousands to attend a concert, but for an inauguration?

"Stop the hero worship!" they say.

It's not hero worship. It's competent leader worship. The same people who foisted a nearly illiterate rich boy and his roving gang of cronies on this country can't complain now. They were wrong about everything this decade and frankly, I think they should shut up for a while. We're happy because now we can watch the president on TV and believe we're hearing the truth ... in full English sentences. We can believe that our government will respect the simple things, like facts and science. We can believe that they actually have policies and not every move is designed to win a few hundred votes from NASCAR dads in Ohio.

Call me an Obama fan boy. You can even call me a liberal. I voted against George Bush twice and I supported Barack Obama. Those weren't always 'properly American' in many eyes, but I will be proud of those things for as long as I live. Being a fan boy is a small price to pay.

So if some of us act a bit happy, they should understand. We need something to believe in. Who will it be? Tim Tebow? The Jonas Brothers? I don't think so. How about the president? Sounds good.

And it's not that we want Barack Obama to succeed. Or that we'd like him to succeed. We need him to succeed. And I think he will. He won't be perfect. He'll piss many people off, but he'll be way, way better than his successor. And for now, that's the most important thing. There's just no other choice but to succeed. We certainly can't afford to fail. George Bush has brought us to that brink. Realigning America FDR style can wait a week or two, for me anyway. The clean up is the first task.

In the meantime, at least I know I've got a president who I know is ten times smarter than me. And I'll never have to listen to or care about what Bush and Dick Cheney think or say ever, ever, ever again.

So excuse me if I feel a bit liberated today.