to all those who have something bad to say about obama, why dont you go out there and see if you can fix the world, cause at least he's trying, so dont hate on him, grow up and realize that just cause he is black doesnt mean he cant fix anything. who messed it up? he's just one man like all the other presidents, can you at least give him a chance? gosh people these days ready to bad mouth someone cause they're not perfect, no one is. — jameka

This guy knows what he's talking about.. "1) Voted for Fisa bill (destruction of the fourth amendment) 2) Voted for the TARP banking bailout ($700 billion of taxpayer money to prop up disgusting banking institutions) 3) Repeatedly threatened air strikes against pakistan (death of innocent people) 4) Wants American troops in Irag repositioned in Afghanistan (more dead women and children) 5) Kept Robert Gates as Defense Secretary (the guy is a fuckin war criminal. Period.) 6) Appointed monsters like Rahm Emmanuel, Hilary Clinton, Eric Holder to prominent cabinet positions (change? hahaha) Give me a break. Obama does not represent a rebirth of anything. He is a stooge just like Mccain, Bush, Clinton, and the rest of the hacks trying to sell you the same old bull. Just please do me a favour. When Obama doesn’t provide the change you wanted, hold his feet to the fire and don’t justify corruption, death, and taxpayer theft. Democrat or Republican, its two sides of the same coin. Keep the Change, Obama." — ihrgfiegf

Hah. This 'Bothrops' character says "..I swore off politics. It is too depressing. It is too depressing to know the truth. I got rid of all my political books/magazines, deleted my blogs, and stopped visiting my favorite political sites...right now I am just going to enjoy life and stop being depressed about something I can’t change by myself". To you,'Bothrops', that is the most rediculous thing i've ever heard. So politics, and the truth is depressing? Take it. Becoming a complete ignoramous is not the solution to your complete lack of integrity or resiliance. To some extent i agree that "ignorance is bliss", but you really can't turn back on knowlege. People like you, people who enjoy life mindlessly/ignorantly are the reasons politicians are unaccountable and why the system of propaganda prevails..It's the powerful people in this world who want you to give up and who want to make America a nation of thoughtless sheep. — Chriv'

People in this thread avoid stating the obvious: there is no person who would pass the Adbusters litmus test who could actually be electable. Dreams and visions are great-they're what keep us going. But if they're not remotely attainable, then what's the point? Is Obama a perfect choice? No. Is he a panacea to all problems? Absolutely not. But he is the most liberal president we've had in a long time, and the national energy and hope he has generated can be put to good use. He's a sight better than John McCain, if nothing else. You guys can keep moaning about how Obama is "just another puppet" or "represents nothing new" and sit and mope and cynically sneer until you turn blue. Or, you can go out and make sure things change for the better by taking your future into your own hands. I mean, isn't that what adbusters is about? Or did I miss a memo? — Anonymous

I'm not well educated concerning much of anything, but I believe that the colour of this man's skin isn't going to help anyone. Mr. O is just going to be another colour in our deck, another face. I highly doubt there's going to be an ace anytime soon. How could he get into the whitehouse if he was going to change anything for the better? We are controlled via chaos. — Emega

I like to be an optimist. Leaning on the side of optimism, WE will remember that WE are the central party in the term "Yes, WE can." My fear is that when the mass of people chanting "Yes, we can" do so, they are thinking "Yes, HE can." If the voters made this fatal miscalculation, then Mr. Obama will find himself let down by an American people who feign their activism and willingness to participate to feel a part of something and then let "others" handle the rest. I hope that WE can stay strong and make this presidency work. I would hate for such an emotional and historic presidency to fall by the wayside because the American people let themselves down. He may be a great man, but he is just a man. — Nico

"Politics are the entertainment branch of industry" -Frank Zappa "Politics are the shadow cast on society by big business" -John Dewey I spent election night in a bar in the lower-east side of Manhattan watching 60 or so teary-eyed sheep chant "Yes We Can!" to a TV image while waving fists. I thought, "Can What?". Realize Orwell's inside vision? Allow ourselves to be duped again, on a greater, more emotional scale? Elect a war-non-war president? Believe what we're told by our cult-like addict-like consumption of TV reality? Yes, we can. But I can't. And I won't. — Anonymous

Here is how this whole thing is going to work, if we want it to. This whole election of the first black man into the White House will be a complete waste of all of the honest, loving, and good-willed energy that got him into office if we do not take the time to press our concerns on him as he takes office. For instance, should we all just sit by and say "OK, now that Obama has been elected, we can sit back and he'll fix everything." That is a complete fallacy. Without constant reminders to the contrary, Obama will be completely corrupted by the powers in Washington until he becomes the same or worse than any other president. What will prevent this from happening is if there are enough people willing to defeat the insiders and lobbyists at their own game. For instance, instead of allowing a blank check to be spent on generalized "infrastructure improvements" (which probably means more roads as we head into the end-game of oil) we should be demanding things like high-speed trains and more intercity local rail connectivity at reasonable prices (For instance, I live in Rhode Island and it currently costs me $54 each way to take the train to New York City. This costs about $40 per person round trip for 2 people in an old beater car with poor gas mileage at $4/gal gas). Another thing that could be done is the re-tooling of Detroit's auto factories to make things other than cars. For instance, perhaps it would be wise to convert some of the capacity of the automobile industry to producing wind turbines and sterling engines for solar thermal power plants. They have many parts that are similar to those in cars, but are infinitely more useful in tackling global warming, oil dependence, and pollution. If we are to survive the next 50 years or so with some sort of a technological civilization it just might behoove us to think about ideas like this. Sure, it will take a greater effort than the Manhattan Project, but perhaps the potential outcome of a livable planet in the next 50-100 years just might be worth it. With all this talk about Zeitgeist and the "New World Order" and the like, there is one fact that the many conspiracy theorists do not seem to get. Even if these scenarios are true and Barack is just a black face on American oppression, there is still a requisite complicity of the populace to make it happen. If people are so afraid of such an outcome, why aren't any of them in the streets protesting this around the clock? It is simple, really. Most of the young, middle to upper-middle class people in this country are lulled into complicity by their self-induced hipster somnambulism which prevents them from affecting any real change due to sheer laziness and apathy. I should know, as I recently turned my life around from heading down that path to genuine hard work as an ecologist, as I did not want to have to explain to my children why there are no animals left and why all of the poor on earth are dying like the flies our apathy mutates them into. We have simple choices over these next couple of decades. Either we learn to live as a species in tune with the planet, or we enter a period of suffering unseen in all of human history. The choice is ours to make, but let me assure you in no uncertain terms that if we neglect to make that choice, it will automatically be made for us. — Anonymous

1) Voted for Fisa bill (destruction of the fourth amendment) 2) Voted for the TARP banking bailout ($700 billion of taxpayer money to prop up disgusting banking institutions) 3) Repeatedly threatened air strikes against pakistan (death of innocent people) 4) Wants American troops in Irag repositioned in Afghanistan (more dead women and children) 5) Kept Robert Gates as Defense Secretary (the guy is a fuckin war criminal. Period.) 6) Appointed monsters like Rahm Emmanuel, Hilary Clinton, Eric Holder to prominent cabinet positions (change? hahaha) Give me a break. Obama does not represent a rebirth of anything. He is a stooge just like Mccain, Bush, Clinton, and the rest of the hacks trying to sell you the same old bull. Just please do me a favour. When Obama doesn't provide the change you wanted, hold his feet to the fire and don't justify corruption, death, and taxpayer theft. Democrat or Republican, its two sides of the same coin. Keep the Change, Obama. — Anonymous

I think it is hopeful that Obama can provide a message that echoes, at least, somewhat, to the revolutionary spirit of the '60s, however, I also think that in some ways, his is a message of blind optimism, though I can relate to that, in some respects. Like all people--be they individuals or groups, cliques or Communists--we all want, need and desire improvement, betterment in our lives. Obama, I think, refers to that as 'change.' One of my reservations is that I am far more in tune to small business and not being under the watchful eye of anything that harkens back to George Orwellian 1984--in other words, overly, overtly nosy people or, for that matter, the opposite extreme--radical revolutionaries like what's been happening in Greece (though that situation is a legitimate reason to be angry, I don't think that the answer is inciting violence to quell violence) and from what I've seen in the news and from what I've read, Obama is a supporter of the concept of Big Government. There are many things that I don't agree with in regards to Obama's political thinking--one thing that comes to mind, in particular, is that I recall him having said something about getting volunteers together and, although I realize that the economy is failing and the world is, quite literally, a financial, war-torn and utterly disorganized mess, I think that expecting people to volunteer for work that should receive payment--and all work should be paid work, unless it is considered of an extracurricular nature or an attempt to gain a foothold into a certain field--is like asking people to survive on eating sand. It's impossible to survive in the world without making an income, especially if you have goals and ambitions and you make or have shown effort to improve your life circumstances and you want to improve your life circumstances, as I'm sure we all do. Obama is an excellent orator. So is John McCain. They both have, as many public figures do, the gift of speaking somewhat eloquently, in a public forum. But, like in the X-Men (and I'm not a big supporter or fan of sci-fi, but I refer to it for the purposes of this comment), Obama, in some respects, has wound up in the Mr. President role, meaning he's got a lot of questions to answer and he's going to have to come up with solutions that please a lot of people who have a lot of differences. The subtle differences are not the ones that are concerning. It's the ones that are extreme that are going to be the most difficult. Among other things that concern me--and there are too many to mention--is that there is always this group of concerned people who seem to be almost in some sort of a vacuum like the Bermuda triangle. Our voices are heard in these forums by each other, but are our voices heard by anyone who really cares? And if we're busy trying to resolve issues and solve problems, what are they doing--pilfering our solutions as though they came up with them; going to parties and eating fancy food; traveling the world; thinking that they should travel the world while we sit at home, or wherever, doing all the problem-solving, or at least, trying to; using people for reasons that they're not fully aware of or that they don't fully comprehend; probably making more money than they should be; perpetuating our nightmares, and then pretending that they care about the world's disenfranchised and the world's poor and the middle class, and acting like they should be this year's or next year's Oscar winners? Rush's Geddy Lee might have sung that "we are all merely players," I think, a play on Shakespeare, and Tuesday Lobsang Rampa might have thought that we're all actors and to some extent, each of us is, but that isn't a reason to be blatantly dishonest about things that could hurt people to some great extent, nor is it a reason to pretend, particularly when the world has reached an all-time low. Is that really an excuse to party and turn a blind eye? Isn't it about time that the world and all the people in the world learned that if "we are all merely players," then there should be a hell of a lot more of us playing better roles and taking acting lessons on what it really means to be good, honest people? We don't have to be Mother Teresas or Ghandis or Martin Luther King Jr.s or Jesus or Mary or God or gods, teachers, students, or some hero--pretend or otherwise, living or dead--but did anyone ever think that it would help, at least a little, if those who aren't truly suffering in some way, inside or out, and those who actually have the resources to obtain the best care, acted more responsibly, more honestly and less deserving? Wouldn't it be an improvement if people didn't take what's not theirs to take and wouldn't it be an improvement if the answer to the world's problems wasn't to create more problems, only to pretend to find solutions? I'm waiting--sarcasm intended--for the world to end, so that I, too, can be a faker and pretend I'm in that Ultravox video for the song, 'Dancing with Tears in My Eyes.' By the sounds of things and the way the world is--lack of opportunities for those of us who are capable, honest, interested; people--quite often, those who have more wealth--who steal from people whose circumstances aren't that great; people who thwart people for the most innane, ridiculous reasons; an insane amount of disparity to which the answer isn't Communism; people who simply don't understand how to help themselves no matter how often they're helped and by that, I mean, given what they want. To top that off, there are all the wars, pestulance, greed--sounds like Revelations, or something out of the Astrology reading for my Astrological sign, Aquarius, from the year 2000 issue of NOW magazine, or a very diconcerting episode of that TV show, Millennium--anyway, by the sounds of things, it seems like there are a lot of people who want to be in that video, or think that's actually cool and totally missed the point of it. What's the world's population? It's like that's how many pretentious, fake, lying, thieving, canniving people there are in the world. If I were Barack Obama or any politician, or anyone who cares about human rights or themselves--and I thank God or what the hell, God is probably some jealous, disgusting loser (though I use that phrase, 'Thank God' very loosely, sometimes), I honestly don't know who to thank--that I'm not Barack Obama or a politician, I would start by weeding out all those fakers, all those users, all those abusers--and I mean abusers and users of people, people's property, people's belongings, people's rights. I sure hope that he--and his helpers, for want of a better word--isn't one of them. — Anastasia Silva

the zeitgeist movement is the answer — Anonymous

Obama is a sign of what America can accomplish. I hope he can bring us back to where we need to be. — Anonymous

Honestly, Obama isn't the best thing since slice bread. Secondly, this man with little history i mind you, is going to take this country more communist unknowingly. We're saying we don't want government to take complete control of our lives. Yet all the dumb fucks that voted for him, don't even know what the party values are. Or what does voting even mean for a presidential candidate mean. I know that these readers do. But to those of you who don't. Republicans have more of a lassier faire policy. The Bush dictatorship has turned the party into something completely different. RIght along with his co-host Dick. Who has made such a substantial amount from this "benefiting war". Honestly, it's not a rebirth, But a turn in the road. Because no one has the fuckn' slightest clue as to what's going to be the future of a country that has the most fuck'd up foreign policy. Obama has both hands full. He's a better face to look at. And he won't be able to overcome all of the daunting tasks. But, his successors will. This country will hit rock bottom before we can actually continue. It's inevitable. We've become militaristic. To actually derail from this. We all have to jump off. It's going to be a total complete mess. And I give him props. 4&8 peace — R. Josef

I expected to see more counter-culture here - thoughtful, varied, independent voices. I'm surprised and a bit saddened that so many of the comments here speak in the same tone: mainstream culture as seen on TV, cynical, blame-oriented, name-calling. I expected more creativity, originality, perceptiveness, and individuality here. I expected a different culture. — Anonymous

Oh, and "American democracy" has never existed. Outside of cases in Catalonia, Argentinia and Bengali India, democracy has never existed full stop -- even those exceptions were fraught with apprehensive quote marks and problems of their own. When Tocqueville remarked about democracy in America, he was doing so from the point of view of a 19th Century Frenchman in a world strangled by despotism and absolute monarchy. Even then he was reaching. — Anonymous

Jesus, the furor surrounding Obama is absolutely unbearable. He's a horrible rightist stooge with reprehensible personal views (just read The Audacity of Hope, a watershed in terms of whitewashed 'history') and the only surprise he gave me was how much worse he's turning out to be than I first expected. Rahm Emanuel? Larry Summers? Clinton? Please. I wouldn't've championed him even if the Lothario did rush in a cabinet of progressive angels -- a social democracy is still a global imperialist and oppressive system -- but this is pathetic even by liberal standards. — Anonymous

If people really wanted change they would have voted Ron Paul into power as president. I think that Obama is just another puppet, put into power to keep a vail over the eyes of the american public while the people behind the curtains pull the strings. He's here to keep the new world order going and to bring out the amero when the american money value drops to nothing, maybe I'm nuts and maybe I dont know what I'm talking about, but there won't be any real change until the federal reserve is stopped and the corperations are brought back under control. How can a man help a country that's perpetually in debt because of intrest that can never be paid off with out borrowing more money. Anyway, it's a change from Bush, but my 3 year old son would be a better choice next to him. — Tyler R

The only thing that will save the planet and this shit hole of a country is a complete collapse of society and western civilization as a whole. Obama is related to Dick Chaney... Also, look at the extremely corrupt way the Illinois government (by the dems) is run. I wish it were as easy as just "voting" away the problem. This problem that we have is like cancer or some other terminal illness. It just can not be simply wished/"voted" away. A little while before the election I swore off politics. It is too depressing. It is too depressing to know the truth. I got rid of all my political books/magazines, deleted my blogs, and stopped visiting my favorite political sites. Even activism will get us no where at this point..... Sometime we will get to the point though when things will really change. I hope it is in my life time. Then I will be interested in politics again. for right now I am just going to enjoy life and stop being depressed about something I can't change by myself. — Bothrops

Despite a political system that screws us out of true democracy by only providing 2 parties to choose from- i.e. tweedle dum or tweedle dummer- and turns elections that should be on issues into popularity contests between competing cults of personality, I am heartened at two factors in the 2008 American elections- 1. 80% of the electorate participated- particularly underrepresented minority groups which have felt so disenfranchised in the past as to opt out of our democratic process. This is the first step to restoring real democracy in America 2. And we have at least elected a leader who has started a dialogue about our INDIVIDUAL responsibility as citizens in building the kind of a society we really want to live in. His speeches introduce the ideas of responsibility, sacrifice, work, and patience to an electorate too long happy to put our society and government on autopilot so we can carry-on, doing what we damn well please to the detriment to the world around us. He firmly places the responsibility of OUR nation in OUR laps, where it belongs. He may only be a figure head- and his ability to create true change remains to be seen- but as the voice of America, maybe he can reframe the American mindset and introduce a new era of civic and governmental participation that will help our transition into this new era of post-American world domination. We shall see. — whoa!

Obama is another good puppet now starring in the new season of the grand, serially hollywood produced jem: American politics. Now the facts that the series is in it's like 50th season and that the last season's plot sucked, a revision had to be made of course. Since Reagan (who is the first U.S president I can remember since having been on this earth), the major brush strokes of the script have been thus: A republican dude who fucks up but makes money for the country is followed by a democratic dude who reinstates "American" ideals of free speech, prosperity, democracy, freedom, civil rights, etc., so the perpetual dual image of the U.S as both a controlling, belligerent leader and the humanist, democratic, liberty loving saviour are forever retained. Obama is only a blackface in this forever going tragedy. He is not black, he is a character brought back from the movies of the 20's: A white man, painted in black, acting his part of the clown. in other words, the u.s fucked up bigger than assumed with bush so she had to cover up with a clown cuter than clinton this time . — Zeynep Aksoy

New World Order. Forget the superficial gloss. The 'economic slowdown', a 'new' president. Does this magazine actually want to discuss the real agenda? Or are you a a friendly liberal magazine that only wants to chat about hip-topics to humour our pseudo-intelligence? — Anonymous