Obama's First Press Conference as President Elect

With wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Elect Obama did not field a question on the topic of withdrawal from conflict. He did however take a question pertaining to what schools his daughters will be attending and in what dresses.

The focus of the press conference was on the economy. This appears to be the Democratic Party's current tactic in an effort to distract Americans from the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It should be noted that the Democrats took control of both houses of congress in 2006 by pledging to end the war, a commitment they have not followed through with.

With regards to the economy, Obama pledged to rebuild from the bottom up. While this is a refreshing change from talk of top down economics, Obama is yet to state in more specific terms how his rebuilding plan will be accomplished. The only example Obama gave of economic relief while addressing the press pertained to extending unemployment benefits. While this will be useful to many unemployed Americans, it is not a solution that strengthens the U.S. economy.

Despite his talk of building from the bottom up, it is important to remember that Obama voted for the Wall Street bailout bill last month which sent $700,000,000,000 of taxpayer dollars directly to the companies who are largely responsible for the financial meltdown. $40 billion of that sum will go directly to the CEOs of the failing enterprises they oversaw. It is also of importance to note that the bailout bill did not provide any further regulation to prevent the same problems from reoccurring.

So while Obama talks of bottom up economics, his voting record shows that he is prone to being a proponent of top down, Reagan-era, economics. It will be the American people who Obama called on in his victory speech to help him lead for the change we need and believe in and to abandon the ways of the recent past.

Obama also fielded a question pertaining to a letter he received from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he was congratulated on his victory. Obama struggled to find the most politically correct words to respond with, but did communicate that he did not want to have a "knee jerk reaction" to the letter. Before finishing his answer, Obama stated that it was unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapons program - rhetoric that reminds us of what we've experienced for the last 8 years.

One would hope that this is dialogue which will not have to continue much further into the foreseeable future. However, just yesterday, Rahm Emanuel, an Israel hard-liner accepted Obama's invitation to be the White House Chief of Staff. Our support of Israel and their nuclear weapons program flies in the face of our shouting down of Iran's. Further, it is Israel's military presence and nuclear arsenal which provides Iran's reasoning for having a nuclear weapons program of their own.

Barack has the backing of the majority of the country currently. He now needs to have the political courage to undo the ways of the past and to help create a better tomorrow. Instead of pointing the finger at Iran, he needs to ask what we can do as a country to help resolve the tension in the Middle East. Instead of blindly supporting Israel while Palestinians are suffering and Muslims are in turn outraged, we need to revisit our policies and find a way in which all suffering is limited.

This is the change Obama has made us want to believe in. It is time to incur that change. It will only be accomplished through our participation in government. Barack Obama made this clear in his victory speech and we need to acknowledge his words and follow through with his request. Chanting, "Yes we can!" isn't enough. So pick up your pencils, pick up your paper and write your representatives, your senators and your president.