Obama Inauguration Content
Obama Inauguration
Like any political citizen of the world, I follow US politics; e.g Guy Rundle’s daily Crikey reports have been great. We are in the wonderful city of Rotterdam, in the Hotel New York, and like billions all over the world soon to switch on CNN, to watch the inauguration (and looking out for some Washington political friends at the inauguration and at the balls.)
For us, it was first the Obama concert Monday night on Dutch TV as we arrived in Amsterdam from London. We stocked up on alcohol, coffee and food for our Hotel Victoria (park Plaza chain opposite the station) room from a local supermarket. There I heard the word Obama and gave the thumbs up to two black men shopping and rapping on Obama.
I support the new Obama messages but want to see what happens after the first year. They wanted eight years, but left grinning with thumbs up.
We partied to the Obama concert live. Wow to the music! It was very good. We loved the speeches.
I liked the politics of Dr King and equality. It has to happen. 
In Rotterdam, we watched CNN Live in the SITUATION ROOM with complete coverage every step of the way of Obama …speaking at a school – it must be inspiring for those young Americans – at a homeless centre and replaying his campaign lines and speeches and interviewing many African-Americans. Obama! Everywhere! Millions are in Washington partying and the Democrats deserve to celebrate this dream come true, this historic yes we can time, hope.
And it takes time for change we can believe in with new policies from his political agenda to be put in place – let alone start to impact on the capitalist financial crisis, stop the redundancies, create jobs, respond to the environmental crisis, get through health care reform, pass the Employee Choice Bill pushed by Obama to ensure ‘US labour is on the rise’, implement educational reforms, start on poverty and homelessness and the inequalities…let alone all the other challengers. But the crisis is so bad and deep, quick decisions have to be made.
I was wrong when I said in the past with Bush that the American Empire was over, sinking fast, and that China and India have risen up to take over being the leading world Empires. The American Empire is alive and coming back… the PR is sensational. I hope as one of the foot-soldiers of real change on all fronts and optimistic for some form of New Deal politics as neo-liberalism is wrong and ineffective as a response. I hope with the grass-roots political organising and mobilising the millions who rallied for Obama will do so against the corporate interests…at least some centrist changes to the Republicans policies.
A key issue is going to be equality. We loved when in Washington last March 08 and excellent play on Dr King his politics and the drama with first rate actors playing King, the actual arguments with LBJ on Vietnam and political issues, his leadership group and his wife, his opponents, and of course the politics resonating with the US political election cycle.
I was at the Progressive Take Back America Democrats conference the day Obama made his speech on race, with conference delegates watching it live on TV. I was later with an AFL-CIO leader talking with Jesse Jackson. They were excited over Obama. Jesse Jackson had given an interesting analysis of King and what has happened at that morning’s session. Although at that time, the Obama/Clinton race was still close (and the conference organisers had to have one speaker from each camp on the issues), it became clear to me that the republican time was up, dues to the politics of change over the environment, over the Iraq war, over health care, over workers’ rights and the recession was starting to bite.
As I was later in the Teamsters Office, I picked up a poster Teamsters for Obama, probably the only person in Canberra with this sign.
Obama
At the Old Vic theatre in London was a world premiere of a powerful American political drama ‘Complicit’ by Joe Sutton and directed by Kevin Spacey. Set in Washington after 9/11, a famous journalist who speaks out against the Bush regime’s torture policy is called before the grand jury to disclose his sources and the drama unfolds as a three hander with him, powerfully portrayed by Richard Drefus and his lawyer, played by David Sucheet advising on how to respond as all about the law (or then how the law was to drive the trashing of the civil liberties). Whether or not the journalist will submit to the pressure and betray his journalistic political beliefs of freedom of the press and ethics of not diclosing sources or give in, with debates with his wife on marriage and responsibilities to his family was the drama’s tension. At the time when the pressure is on President Obama to live up to his promise to reverse US breaches of Geneva Conventions on torture, this drama is powerful contemporary theatre. Opening in London, it is only now there is some the political space in the US for the characters to say what the US establishment did to suppress freedoms through the judiciary and the prosecution process, and Bush’s crooked US Attorney Gonzales saying the repression was legal.
In the European newspapers it is all Obama, the opinion pieces in magazines and what people are talking about.
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