The Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” page is one of the coolest on the net … It’s basically recent news and events all in photos — BIG photos, not the normal small thumbnails or slideshows that you are used to seeing on news sites.
Their latest photos, of course, are of President-Elect Obama and regardless of your politics, you have to admit that the photos are pretty cool (I’ve always been into photography, so I appreciate great photos!)
One thing that sticks out to me in the photos are the huge crowds of 75,000 and 100,000 people! I guess I don’t understand why anyone would go stand outside among tens of thousands of people just to listen to a politician — and I’ve certainly never cried over a presidential candidate, or someone running for any office for that matter.
Personally I think that most people place far too big of an emphasis on who is president rather than who we have in congress. Democrats talk about Clinton having a balanced budget, but neglect to point out that was after Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America and the first time since the 1950s that Republicans had control of both the House and the Senate. Who controls congress is at least as important as who is in the White House, if not more.
Now the Democrats have a near super majority in the Senate, control of the House, and the presidency. So, after January 20 the blame-Bush politics will be out the window and the Democrats will have to be accountable for the policies that they enact.
Personally, I think the Republican party has only themselves to blame. They offered up the same thing that they have election after election. Nothing new or revolutionary. They shut out real change like that Ron Paul was offering to stick by their party politics and promote the same Washington-insiders year after year. It’s unfortunate because I don’t really think that either side of the aisle is for “less government” anymore — they simply argue on how they are going to spend our money, not whether or not they should be spending it or, heaven forbid, let us keep some more of it.
I probably won’t post too much more about politics because on balance it really doesn’t affect daily life — we all have to still get up and go to work, spend time with our family and friends, and live our lives. I guess this is a contrast between me and the tens of thousands attending Obama rallies — I don’t expect the government to put gas in my car or pay my mortgage and at the same time I don’t want them taking part of my “pie” away to give to others. I just want to live my life with as little government interference as possible — to run a business and be taxed as little as possible — and to be free to make choices in my life without much interference by government bureaucrats.
Certainly the next four years will be interesting…