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Obama Elected! Now What?
Obama made history when he was elected the first African-American President of the United States. In the third week of January in 2009 he will take office from the most unpopular president in history. Bush's disapproval rating is 76% and may well grow before he leaves office. At least Obama and Biden are not the gruesome twosome. The new President needs to put together a strong team to address the serious issues plaguing the USA. There is a recession or perhaps depression would be the correct terminology. The USA is engaged in 2 wars. Iraq was a mistake from the beginning it was not about 9/11 or WMD or any other theory the neo-conservatives used to justify the folly in the Middle East. The leader of those responsible for 9/11, Osama bin Laden, remains free somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan and more efforts were placed into Iraq than Afghanistan. Saddam Hussein never invaded the USA. He didn't fund the men that flew planes into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. Many countries saw the difference which is why several, like Canada, fought in Afghanistan while refusing to join the coalition of the willing to fight in Iraq. The USA's Department of Labor reported in October that "over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 2.8 mil- lion, and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.7 percentage points." Recently German Delivery Company DHL Express announced they will cut 9,500 jobs as it opts to discontinue air and ground services in the United States. "Given the current background of unprecedented uncertainty and risk in the global economy we feel that it is critical and prudent to take additional measures to combat what we believe will be an extremely challenging 2009, and to do this ahead of time." said John Mullen, Global CEO of DHL Express DHL's main US hub is found in Wilmington, Ohio: population 12,000. The 3,000 who work at the hub will lose their jobs. That will have a massive impact on local business. It isn't only DHL employees that are affected but their families, those whose services they purchase and stores they frequent. This will have a rippling affect across Wilmington and the surrounding area. In the USA there is an added kick for losing one's job: it may cost the employee their health benefits. The USA does not have universal health care; so over 47 million are uninsured. Millions are insured through their companies and the cost of paying for their own health care can be prohibitive.
These are just a few of the serious issues that face Barack Obama and Vice-President Elect Joe Biden. Yet most of the coverage since that historic election has been over a puppy; whether Michelle will re-decorate the White House; the selling of free tickets to the inauguration. For 21 months the American and other MSM subjected viewers to 24 hour coverage. Scrutiny of all candidates in a federal election is important. Obama won. The scrutiny is turning to who will be on his economic team, national security team, cabinet members and let's not forget the pooch.
This isn't an episode of Seinfeld. |
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