I think its great that obama was elected instead of McCain/Palin (what a nightmare that would have been) but like so many people have said, some of the positions of Obama dont differ much than those of McCain. I think what is giving the world the kind of reaction that we are seeing is the realization America has changed enough to elect a President with a Kenyan father who lived abroad and one with a rhetoric of change.

I think it comes now to the american people to make Obama take the right direction, and if some of his election talk was just posturing not to get nailed on some progressive direction he wants to take america, he then needs a base of support to make these changes happen. If it was not posturing, the same kind of wave of sympathy that we had seen after 9-11 will die soon enough, it will be back to business as usual and another opportunity to build bridges will be lost. If that is the case, Obama must feel some pressure to walk the walk after having talked the talk from americans.

With the world responding positively the U.S. has a chance now to talk to other countries, especially ones we have traditionally "disagreed" with, in a constructive way. We could have done that after 9/11 but the Bushite neocons took the very wrong path. I hope against hope that we will begin to heal the wounds. Everyone's worried about the economy== it was supposedly the #1 issue this election. If we take some of the money that goes into the rathole of the Pentagon and put it into domestic programs, it will do a lot to heal our economy. Are people too stupid to see that? I can dream, can't I?

Let's get our missiles out of Poland. There's no need for them in the age of nuclear subs, and they're there just for two reasons: to rattle sabers (same as "pound our chests"), and line the pockets of the death merchants. Why provoke when we might cooperate? Missiles don't build bridges, feed kids, provide health care, create art or produce anything. The best thing they can do is rust from disuse.
The chest pounders are lying about "appeasement", the threat is what will be done in reaction to their being there -- what we'd do if they were in Cuba.
Finally, maybe, we have a leader who doesn't have to make political capital by shouting threats. Honey is much more effective than vinegar.

The US missile shield in Europe has only ever existed in support of a first strike policy. It is so small and of limited effectiveness that it can only be considered to work against the few remaining Russian missiles left after a US devastating first strike.

So its presence and the Russian response is merely political posturing. I hope Obama is a much better chess player than Bush.

HOOORAY!

Well, America finally came good! Now having made a start the hard work comes.

Obama can't do it on his own. He needs a new breed of Americans to help him, ones who forget all this nonsense about them being the master race, the world's policeman, the ones who were born to lead the world. What crap!

America needs to put its own house in order first: change its Constitution to stop Presidents becoming dictators, change its political system to stop it being run by pressure groups, change its economic system from being greed-driven, get religion out of its government, think peace not war. That'll do for starters.

My blog has a few helpful ideas.

www.dangerouscreation.com

I was at work on Tuesday night, and I had cnn's live feed in the corner of my charting computer. When it was announced that Ohio and then Iowa went for Obama, I danced a little jig in front of the nurse's station.

Right on, translucent. There'll be time later to press President Obama on a progressive agenda, but for GOD'S SAKE LET'S REJOICE at what just happened!

I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime. I'm 42, and I've been of voting age since 84, and have felt cynicism and despair lo these many years. This is the first time I've felt genuinely proud of my country in all that time. I'm allowing myself the indulgence of hope right now, and it does feel like a weight has been lifted from my heart. I was crying later on when I got home in time to see his acceptance speech in C'go. I was weeping by the end, and it felt so good, it felt so right. When his family came on stage at the end, my wife and I looked at each other and we we're just beaming through our tears. There was a black first family who'll soon live in the White House!

REJOICE!

Damnit, REJOICE! Everyone here. Just for today, let go of your ideological purity, and your conviction that you know you're right, and celebrate this moment. It is ripe with possibility and progress. We just elected a person of color to be OUR president. Barack Hussein Obama, who is 1/2 African and 1/2 Anglo American, whose father was Muslim is now representing ALL of us to the world. If someone had told you in the dark days after 9-11 that this would happen in 2008, would you have believed it?

Obama; The World Rejoices as CD bitches.

Must be nice to be smarter than everybody on the planet;

GreenIs: I suspect you are right about a confontation with Iran. Obama will be pulled in and manipulated, he won't be on point, but what difference?

Look for an American Naval Vessel to be "attacked' by the Iranian Terrorists.

Even Sunk. By Israel.

Under a Black Flag.

Signed, The Gulf of Tonkin.

Listening to John Pilger and others today on www.democracynow.org should help sober up the irrationally exuberant Obama hopefuls.

"World urges a Change of Tack", says the headline above. A change of tack is encouraged but a change in tack (if they're using a sailing metaphor), though seeming to change direction, does not change the goal or the desired destination, it merely facilitates reaching the goal faster. It's not the tack that needs to change but a serious reassessment and analysis of what the goals are and where we want to be going. Otherwise it's just business as usual, with smiley faces.