My Thoughts on the Inauguration

I'll be doing my best to catch bits and pieces of the Inauguration at work. We have flat screen tvs in the conference rooms at our new office. I'd like to watch the swearing in and listen to Obama's speech. I bet (because of no tv, internet, etc) at the time that even FDR didn't have as much pressure to fix some big mess that the country is in. Although I think that Obama is doing a good job so far assembling his cabinet and such that at least part of his high poll numbers are due to that fact that "he's not George Bush". Bush has got to be the absolute worst president in history.

I think the first 100 days will be quite exciting. I hope that Obama will role out ambitious programs to get this country back on track. I think it would be more dangerous to not "go big enough" than to go "too big". I feel excited because we will be living history. I'm sure Obama will do a lot of symbolic (and important) things during his first few days like closing Gitmo, proving funding for stem cell research, and many other things that he can accomplish by presidential proclamation.

Even though the Democrats made some big gain in Congress this past election, I'm more worries about *them* than I am about Obama. I fear there's going to be too much bickering and things won't get done quickly. I'm sure the Republicans will try and throw wrenches in the works. And I'm sure the Democrats will continue to suffer from lack of organization, leadership, and backbone. Sometimes they just need to grow a pair.

Selfishly speaking, I hope that the government designates a lot of funds towards making our schools and public office building more modern and energy efficient. A lot of our clients have projects on hold. Some are designed and are waiting to be built. Others have a definite need and are waiting to be designed but lack the necessary funding. I hope that Obama uses his head and puts more of the money towards projects that have a long lasting and POSITIVE impact instead of building more roads and bridges that only encourage people to drive more. I'm all for fixing up the potholes and repairing the bridges too, but no more new roads please.

I wish President Obama the best of luck. I hope that Congress, state, and local governments work together with Obama to craft solutions to our nation's problems - protecting our environment, providing quality health care, restoring our rights as citizens, and most importantly getting our nation out of this financial crisis and back on the road to recovery. May President Obama have the guidance he needs to right our ship and steer it in a new and better direction (someplace besides the bottom of the sea where we're currently heading).