Would this country survive? With all the anticipation for the president elect, and the optimism everyone seems to have about the "new" direction of the country, would a failed administration destroy the hope this country has for itself and the world? Not to mention if Obama fails, what that would do for African Americans as a people, they may be worse off than they were before. And the Democratic party itself would likely be out of the picture for years after which could change everything. Now that i think about it, Obama must not fail.

If?

Did you ask this 8 years ago?

I don't know how one could compare the circumstances 8 years ago to today.

what do you mean by this?
and doesn't the idea of failing fall into strictly subjective thought? I mean, there's a bunch of people that think Obama has failed simply by being elected President, and the country is already 'lost' because of that.

I think it's fine to ask questions about leadership, but you really need to clarify exactly what you're looking for in response in this case.

Unless of course you're just trying to bait people into talking about Obama the savior and second coming of Christ so you can point some mental finger and go "ah ha! koolaid drinking lemmings! I knew it!"
in which case, good luck and all, but the opening premise is too vague to really go anywhere in that regard.

No baiting involved. Just thoughts.

i think that the majority would consider the Bush administration as a "failed" administration. We can just look at approval ratings for this. So that could be a measure of the new administration failing.

Obviously, this country will not collapse, but it may no longer survive the prosperity it once had. At some point we are going to have to live with that, i'm just wondering if its going to happen sooner rather than later.

I just beg the question because i could argue that at no time has this country been so vulnerable. I'm just saying that it may not be just another failed administration, but one that could happen at the worst time, and could happen to the worst type of person (african american) that may make it worse than it already is.

The circumstances aren't markedly different for mankind...privilege for a few hundred million westerners, misery for the other 6 billion. Nothings changed.

From that view nothing will ever change, that's how mankind operates.

Ok, That's a bit more valid.

The problem in this case is there's no clear way to determine what needs to be done to 'fix' what's wrong right now in this country.

Sure, sure, there's a lot of blow hard talk going on in the economy thread from the resident experts, but when you come down to it, they don't know what will happen any better than any other average person in this country so their ideas are merely that- idea, thought, opinion, conjecture...
And were you to ask them, basically anything the incoming adminstration is apt to do in regards to the economy will fail, so they will label it as such regardless.
And my thought would be there are many people who are just as willing to label action by the incoming administration as failure in any number of other subjects too- the war in Iraq, foreign relations, whatever- I think there's a lot of minds that were made up the moment it was announced he was elected president and many of them will not be swayed no matter what happens.

The real question, in my opinion is what would be considered 'success' by this administration?
You've just stated yourself that things have never been worse in many regards, so does the prospect of things getting "somewhat" better in the next couple years but not completely fixed sound agreeable to you?
What if unemployment goes down a couple percentage points? What if we begin to successfully employ alternate energy resources that will not only help the environment but also begin to loosen our addictiion to oil?
What if black and white americans begin to not be such jackasses to eachother all the time as a result of the Obama's being in the White House?
What if there's some international respect regained for the USA, thus making it easier for the USA to accomplish some additional foreign objectives?

For myself, I don't see anything getting better quickly, but I do think it's necessary for there to be a strong motivational factor behind any efforts being made in the country to overcome the kinds of problems we're faced with right now- the ability to inspire is not only admired but I think it's required in getting people moving. Strong societies are built on strong foundations, and strong foundations are made from people with strong wills to get things done, and done right. That's what really made this country great, the ability of the public to recogonize the greatness it could bring about in themselves- and again, in my opinion, I don't think that ever even BEGINS to happen unless you have someone there motivating people to behave this way.
And since I'm sure there's about a dozen people dying to "ah ha!" at me, I'll tell you that I think Obama's ability to present that motivation is what ultimately got him elected in the first place.

No you couldn't.

Sorry...I had a brief moment of misanthropy

sure i could, we are suffering through largest financial crises in this countries existence, and that just the beginning of things. One could argue the civil war as well.

One way to measure success is approval ratings. I don't think anyone expects a quick fix but more of "going down the right path" would be more appropriate. I just fear that a failed adminstration right now means a lot more than any other failed administration. I feel it's an all or nothing kind of situation for the country.

Yeah, one might argue that the Civil War was worse. The time in which half of the country was actively trying to kill the other half, and vice versa. Or one could argue that the depression, in which unemployment topped 1/3 of eligible workers and the government was shooting war veterans in the heart of the capital, was worse. Or in 1812 when invaders sacked Washington and burned it down. That could possibly be worse than now.

I don't envy the man.

But then of course I'll be stuck paying for his retirement so maybe I should envy him.

One could argue, and i'm sure people would. A time where the country is suffering the largest financial crises in its history, a time where American appeal is at an all time low, a time where terrorist are making it known that they will attack the country, a time where america is completely dependant on countries with oil, that's pretty vulnerable too.

The depression was a much larger financial crisis than the one now.

Edit: If you don't believe me, Ben Bernanke just said it during a Q&A at the Chamber of Commerce.

That won't be the case a decade or two from now.

you see into the future too?

yeah 3 months in.