When president Bush invited Barack Obama to the White House, it was a tipping point for the chorus over at Free Republic. One poster even stating that "I vomit in my mouth at the thought of Michelle Obama in the White House."
Yesterday, Bush and Obama met in the Oval Office, and we got this historic photo.
President Bush must be spending some time reflecting these days - thinking about what could have been. The country has never been as down in the dumps as it is now, with only 16% stating they feel it is on the right track.
Bush got a potentially limitless mandate on 9/11-2001, and immediately proceeded to squander it, leading his party and his country, as well as the world, down the wrong path. And through his delusional ways, and absolute inability to admit a mistake, Bush now finds himself loathed, detested, shunned by his own party.
A president Defect in name and action - whose absolute mismanagement of his mandate has resulted in a destruction of the USA that Al Qaeda could only have imagined in their dreams, but which Bush and Cheney turned into reality, with a healthy helping from their NeoCon buddies and New Europe.
Now we get this photograph - a dejected and defeated Bush seated next to Barack Obama. The two couldn't possibly be more different. The first time Obama met Bush, the latter signalled an aide, who spritzed his hands with a sanitizer after he shook hands with Barack Obama. Bush was also eager to impart advice to the junior Senator, as to the ways of Washington.
Here's a sampler as to the ways of Washington D.C:
Dean Rusk submitted his resignation to Lyndon B Johnson when his daughter announced she was marrying a black man.
Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House, and received a deluge of criticism for having "bespoiled the place."
The Richmond Times wrote:
"It means that the president is willing that Negroes shall mingle freely with whites in the social circle -- that white women may receive attentions from negro men; it means that there is no racial reason in his opinion why whites and blacks may not marry and intermarry, why the Anglo-Saxon may not mix negro blood with his blood."
We have come a long way, through an improbable path. The forces arrayed against President Elect Barack Obama's success are formidable, many are hoping that his administration will be as unsuccessful as his predecessor's. But we who support Obama are numerous and equally formidable, if we keep our eye on the ball. Already, the Dem's are fragmenting into their various factions, disputing, arguing and second-guessing - long before Obama's inauguration. This doesn't mean we shouldn't invite debate and discussion, but most of all we'll need to support the man to the right in this photo to the hilt, because with him go our hopes for a better world, one where might only rarely is right.
Over at change.gov I saw Barack Obama's organizational chart for the Government of the USA, and I got a strong sense that matters may turn out for the better now. He placed the Constitution above the offices of state. Linked here: http://directory.presidentialtransit...
The man to the left of this photo forgot that. Maybe he hasn't even read the Constitution, which he twice swore to uphold. He definitely doesn't understand it, or maybe he does now: that lonely election night vigil, where he could consider why he was shunned and despised by a nation, may have reminded him that there is something incomparably greater than president Bush, and that's the will of the people, when it is freely expressed.
To the left we see absolute and utter failure. The Bush presidency could have been a marvel - if he had used the mandate that 9/11 handed him in a just manner, in accordance with the Constitution.
To the right we see amazing potential, as yet unrealized. Let's hope for the best, and then do our best, with audacity!
Remember, to the left in this photo we see all that is small in us, all that is petty and fearful. And to the right we see the best in us, what we can become when we dare challenge ourselves and overcome.