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Ok first off, Gun Control is not one of the primary concerns of Obama. He's more concerned with budgeting for social programs and making the economy strong and of course, say it with me now... Foreign Policy.

Foreign Policy was the real deciding factor between Obama and McCain, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, The whole of the EU and the Middle East, all these places have issues with America and we're not particularly well liked in certain other places. Obama's main goal is to have American be treated as the world's friendly neighbor as opposed to the token grumpy old man of the world village. Pulling troops out of Iraq and closing Gitmo will most likely be his course of action.

After he figures out Foreign Policy he will figure out Economics. By that I mean he's going to say, "Sorry folks, those tax breaks that were promised are going away now, we're going to have the same tax rates we had in the Clinton Administration." And there will be a lot of groaning and gnashing of teeth but this is the only way he can afford his tax and spend economic system.

Beyond that, comes social issues. However laws pertaining to immigration, abortion, gay marriage and anything else with the word Law in it, will be done by the Senate and the House, which is why those races are important, especially in Minnesota and Alaska. The only thing Obama will do is probably repeal the patriot act via executive order and make flying airplanes fun again.

Obama currently needs to fix funding for Medicaid and Social Security, which have been severely limited due to lack of funds.

However being a Libertarian/Goldwater Republican, I've often championed scrapping the whole welfare system to improve the work ethic of Americans. I also champion getting rid of Affirmative Action and the NCLB act and remove health insurance as an industry and have socialized health care only pay for emergency situations.

You can debate with me all you'd like on that. I'll be waiting.

Obama's choice for chief of staff is Rahm Emanual, an observant Jew whose father was in the Irgun.

Cool, I guess.

They're all power hungry Tomo, that's the job. I mean aside from the vice president, the chief of staff is the President's right hand man.

Obama was not nearly as power hungry as McCain. Obama wants to change society for the better, not stay the course towards ruin.

lol. iknow it's a bit late, but just to FYI you all. Those boots are getting taken out of Iraq, won't be taken up, they will just be made civilian workers doing the exact same thing only getting paid three times as much... how do I know this. My dad is one of hte guys who is planning for this. And besides, they have tours (like years at war) planned. till 2010 anyways, so if he said boom everyboyd home tomorrow, EH wrong.

And anyways by 2011(ish) my dad thinks, the war will be over anyways, and our presense over there will just be support (much like troops in europe and asia)


sooo that just killed any military/war plans anybody had.

I don't like Palin (some of her comments and views are frankly disturbing), but I agree that Obama has become this idol that people love to talk about. "Change, change, change." That's a great idea, but I'm wondering exactly how he plans to do that. The government does not have the funds to support all these extra welfare programs. Heck, it doesn't have enough money to support itself now, let alone with more stuff to make society better. While I don't think the enormous income gap is good, I strongly dislike the idea of "spreading the wealth" and making everybody equal. Equal opportunity is great, but equal results? That's communism, which practically, won't work.

Sorry Neuf, but I think most people (if they're not completely self centered) want to change society for the better. (I think politicians generally don't fall into this category, but that's my cynicism) I don't know either of them personally, but I highly doubt McCain wants America to crash and burn.

I'll still hold off my full opinion on him until I see some action, but I am NOT optimistic merely because this glorified, inexperienced guy was elected.

But, I haven't grown up around much racism, so I can't fully understand how significant it is to elect an African American president. Either way, it's not like the process of electing this one man will change the world- it's his actions that count.

EDIT: And just to add some controversy/debate, I'll state another opinion. I think most affirmative action programs are reverse discrimination. I have no qualms if it's correcting a current injustice (ex: people not hiring women, African Americans, whatever), but in the case that I can't get into a particular college since it's so obsessed with having minorities, that's just ridiculous beyond words. Furthermore, to give people rewards for something that happened to their relatives decades or centuries ago is frankly ridiculous.

Cindy, when he said he wants to spread the wealth around he wasn't suggesting communism where everyone makes the same amount of money. Even if he did think that, he would talk about it. We all know Americans would rather be dead than red. I think that comment was HIGHLY misconstrued by the McCain camp because they started realizing they were running out of mudslinging tactics (not that Obama didn't have his share of childish moments).
This brings me to my next point: people would glorify a black man running for president. It's important and it makes us proud that we've over come so much in the past 60 years. That doesn't mean he's exempt from scrutiny. I completely agree that we should be examining this next presidency with a fine tooth comb, but absolutely people should be celebrating this moment in history. It will die down eventually.
I'm much less cynical about politics these days. Really I got tired of hearing myself complain about the same old thing. The man is bringing us down. The man makes every politician dishonest. The man first, citizens second. I've decided I just need to start working with the man because he won't be going away anytime soon.