I, for one, am going to Give Hope A Chance...

[obreaslan]

I will wait until Obama is inaugurated and takes office before I decide whether or not he has let us down as president. I will first let him have the power to act on his campaign promises before I decide that he has gone back on them. I will wait to see how his appointees will act under his authority before I judge their actions. Since it has only been 21 days since the election, and still 56 days until the Inauguration, I am still willing to Give Hope A Chance...

[wyldwolf]

1. ... all we are saying... is...

[mentor1]

2. I, for one, going to give hope a chance

I think that all the optimists living in America or living
beyond the American peripheries are pragmatically bound to
give hope a chance since the President-elect Barack Obama has
assured both the Americans and the world community regarding
his futuristic commitments in terms of peace, harmony,
justice, democracy and security in the world.We must ardently
believe in his serenity of thought that he would try his level
best to bring about the change in the world.

[NYC_SKP]

5. mentor1:

Welcome to DU!

:donut:

[obreaslan]

6. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[me b zola]

3. Count me in

:fistbump:

[Junkdrawer]

4. Yeah. The Right can have all the advisers and key cabinet posts they want...

I'm happy with pretty speeches...

[obreaslan]

7. I'm not talking speeches, I'm talking actions...

Obama has no authority to act right now, so yes, all he can do is make appointments and speeches. But I'm not judging him on a presidency that hasn't happened yet.

As for the appointments. In the end, once he becomes president, he has the final say not the people in his cabinet. Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com put it pretty well in his article today here: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/obamas-agenda-difference-between.html

The initial Bush cabinet contained a number of people who could be described as moderate or center-right, including Colin Powell, Tommy Thompson, Norman Mineta, Christine Todd Whitman, Paul O'Neill and arguably Mitch Daniels and Ann Veneman. Obviously, this was balanced out to some degree by the Rumsfelds and the Ashcrofts, but it is not clear that Bush's 2001 cabinet was any more right-wing than Obama's 2009 cabinet is left-wing. Bush ran a very conservative government -- but the authority came from the top down.

All I'm saying is I'm giving him a chance. His appointments don't mean anything, it's the results. He has no results yet. Plus, Obama's stance on issues is still to left of center, and I think that's how he will govern. We'll see. Nate Silver also included a handy chart in the article too, outlining Obama's stance on the issues. Very interesting.

[CADEMOCRAT7]

8. Amen ! Hope got him elected. I am right there with you.

I have great hope, and continue to see how extraordinary he is. I am seeing he has a vision, and believes he can be a transformational president. I am incredibly impressed, until otherwise proven.