It is finally over. We braved the waters of yet another tumultuous campaign season and a winner has surfaced. The Obama family will remain in the White House and the country lies in wait of the promised move “forward.” With the president sitting in for his second term, the Famuan staff reflects on his journey thus far and predicts what lies ahead.
After jumping the hurdle of many “anyone but Obama” supporters, we predict that the president will have one more obstacle to face. Obama is well known and highly commended for his efforts in bipartisanship. However, the party leaders in the House of Representatives, who just so happened to be Republicans, sometimes canceled out these efforts. If the party leaders in our legislative branch remain as they have been for the next four years, we’re in trouble.
When it comes to sheer experience, we felt that Obama was the more qualified candidate. His views on social issues seemed a bit more realistic than having “binders full of women.” Obama realizes that we can’t all ask our parents to pay for our education and that a 65 year-old man should not be making decisions about what goes on inside of a woman’s body.
Outside of the great strides the president has made in bipartisanship, he has made some missteps.
As a news publication at a historically black institution, we have had our fair share of people requesting endorsements for various campaigns, not just political ones. Sometimes the Obama campaign seemed to feel entitled to the vote of most African-Americans. While statistically, many African-Americans typically lean toward a Democratic candidate, assumptions such as this should not be made. The public should be able to make its own decision without regard to something as superficial as race. This is, after all, the open-minded attitude that got Obama elected in the first place.
We are hopeful for the next four years and comfortable with the decision that many Americans have made. Even though the hype of having the first African-American president has simmered, we hope that Obama approaches his second term with the same, if not more, fervor. When it comes to college students, Barack’s got our back.