Interregnum 8: What "Hope" and "Change" Mean

I'm confident that President-elect Obama will stick to his principles upon formally entering the White House. On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009, there will be millions of people on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to get a glimpse of history being made. After eight years of the Bush fiasco, we have been waiting for a day when we can once again have a president that we believe in again. The world's been waiting for this day too, because they also want America to succeed.
“Hope” and “Change” were campaign buzz words that Barack Obama used to great effect when he ran for president, but he needs to fulfill that promise. Those two words were used in a rather ambiguous way – I was left wondering what he meant by hope and change. Obama said that he will open up the White House to the people, but I don't know what that means. Maybe he'll curate the White House tours from time to time. Maybe transparency in government is what he really wants to bring to the White House. I'm not sure.
But I still have faith in Barack Obama. I have faith that he will lead us through these tough times for our country. Obama will call on the entire nation to make America great again. Americans need to hope for change, because we all want to believe in the promise of America again - an America that's not bogged down in two wars, not mired in a financial crisis, and unchained from the practice of politicians making a decision without thinking twice.

Interregnum 7: Blago the Putz

Rod Blagojevich is one of the biggest putzes in American politics. He's the Democratic Illinois Governor, if you don't know, and he is a thorn in Barack Obama's side. For real. The controversy that's currently in the news is that Blago has been "allegedly" trying to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat – a fucking travesty. How immoral is this guy that he thinks he can sell an elected office that actually belongs to the Illinois voters to the highest bidder? A new low, Rod.
There is so much speculation in the media about whether or not the Obama camp has had any involvement with the governor's Senate-seat-for-sale scheme. Just what Obama's transition needs, a pebble in its shoe. Blago's been governor of Illinois since 2003 and I'm surprised that he's been there for that long. Rasmussen Reports, the opinion polling center, recently named him as “America's Least Popular Governor.” Alas, his approval rating was only about 13% right before this current controversy hit. Yes, that's lower than Bush's approval rating.
He isn't the first Illionois politician to be extremely corrupt – there have been a handful of their governors who have been to jail before. The previous Illinois Gov. George Ryan is currently in jail. U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (you may know him for prosecuting Scooter Libby) is investigating Blago, so he's basically fucked. Before Blago was Illionois Gov. he held Illinois's 5th district seat for six years, the seat that Obama's Chief of Staff-desginate Rahm Emanuel has held. But I hope that Blago just gets kicked out of office so he doesn't appoint Obama's replacement in the Senate.