A New Precedent

This morning I woke up and went about my normal routine, grabbed a bowl of cereal, a glass of water, and checked my social media sites. And, judging by the posts I was reading, an outsider may have thought a meteor was rocketing toward Earth . "God help us" and "Hope is lost"... Now some of the people that posted these things did not shock me, but some were a bit alarming. My goodness people, let's put things in perspective here. We still have our health and our jobs and things could potentially be looking up. Obama was up against a lot when he first came into office and, no, perhaps he did not do as much as other Presidents have in the same situations, but I really like to think it is about what Obama CAN do. In my opinion that is a lot. Now he is facing only what he has created for himself and my guess is that he will do very well and he has nothing to lose. Of course no one will really know for sure until the next President takes all the credit when the U.S. starts doing well in 2017.

After seeing all of the social media posts I began to wonder what news headlines were going to say. I was curious what Fox would say versus what CNN would say, and I assure you, there were no surprises there. The only surprising thing, and I can honestly say I am a little ashamed about this, is that Fox News and the Republican party (this started since last night mind you) has begun to use a natural disaster as blame for Obama's doing so well. In the last week the East Coast faced a terrible disaster that goes by the name, Sandy. And the Republican party has the audacity to claim that Romney was actually doing better in the polls until Hurricane Sandy hit. I know I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to politics and I don't pretend to be. I don't keep track of the polls and other such statistics, but I personally find this appalling. When I left the voting booth yesterday and cast my ballot, there was no doubt in my mind that Obama was going to win no matter what. But boy would I have never thought to myself, "Thank goodness for Hurricane Sandy"..... 

CNN on the other hand put together a tasteful montage titled "Challenge No. 1 'Forward'". This video was a collection of both Obama's and Romney's speeches from last night, and I have to say I liked it very much. It is almost as if they had the same speech writer because they both talked about what is next in a very similar tone. They talked about working together as parties to create jobs and starting to work toward a better economy, together. This was also the first time I can say I was remotely impressed with something that Governor Mitt Romney has had to say. But speaking of moving forward, there were also a lot of BIG changes last night.

Two states legalized same-sex marriage and two others did the same for recreational use of cannabis. Keep in mind though, the use of marijuana is still against federal law, so this fight is far from over, but it goes to show that Americans are taking steps in the right directions. I personally would not be a user of marijuana even if it were legal for me to, but I can't see how drugs like caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol have stayed on the market for so long while cannabis, one of the most harmless and non-addictive drugs, has gone prohibited for this long. Legalizing marijuana use and introducing it to the mainstream economy, in my opinion, could potentially have great effects on this country. It will create jobs, allow for taxation of the product, and minimize it's effects on the legal system of America. In essence, people will be able to focus on the bigger issues all around.

So let's put on our happy faces and prepare to take some big steps forward in the next four years, because I think Obama has some big plans and we all have to be on board if we will ever see the change that we so desperately want.