The Obama Inaguration

I watched the seconds in Spanish class until 11:45, hugely excited over the inauguration of Barack Obama. Finally I was able to anounce, "Necesitamos salir, es Obama tiempo!" (We need to go, it's Obama time). I walked into the gym and was expecting the speech of a lifetime from Obama. Almost immediately, Biden was getting sworn in. Then Obama was sworn in and I was hugely in anticipation of his speech. I then sat silently for a little over 20 minutes.



I felt sort of empty afterwords for some reason. I figured out that it was probably because I was expecting something like Obama's convention speech or Kennedy's acceptance speech. However, Obama's speech was very strong nonetheless. I was surprised by my feeling though. I liked the speech, but just felt empty somehow. When I got home, my mom said something very wise to me that changed my opinion, however. She said that it was time for us to "Stop looking to Obama for words, and start looking to him for actions." I then realized that I always looked to Obama's words of hope, and now need him to do actions that give me hope. I now no longer feel empty and am trying to not just focus on Obama's rhetoric going forward and to judge him on his actions most of all. Thus far, I have been very happy with Obama's actions for his transition team, and hopeful going forward that he will put his plans into action.

joe the war correspondent

After his 15 minutes of fame in the presidential election Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, just couldn't keep out of the spotlight. He appeared in a cable commercial. He also hired an agent to potentially start a contry music career. Finally, he was even considering a run for Congress. He also continued to voice his political opinion, saying that he never agreed with McCain but that Sarah Palin was "The Real Deal." Now, after saying on the campaign trail for McCain that a President Obama would mean "The Death of Israel," Fox News has sent Joe "The Plumber" to become Joe "The Reporter."

He is now in Gaza covering the violence there. He first got into an argument with an Israeli reporter:

JOE: The story here is people are being killed and the media's slanting it and trying to make it Hamas is, uh, as far as, that Israel's being bad. Do you believe Israel is bad?
REPORTER: Do I believe it?
JOE: Yeah, do you?!
REPORTER: I'm Israeli, so...
JOE: So answer the question!
REPORTER: No, I don't think Israel is bad.
JOE: Do you think Israel has every right to protect itself?
REPORTER: Yeah.
[pause]
JOE: You do?!
REPORTER: Yeah.
JOE: Have you said that on air?
REPORTER: I'm just a reporter.
(Courtesy of the Huffington Post)

We will see what is to come, but one thing is for sure: we will definetely continue to see Joe the Plumber around whether we want to or not.