6+Barack+Obama's+Election+and+Inauguration

[|**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-V2zLEzxKk**] (Watch up to 3:45) The election of Illinois Senator Barack Obama as America’s 44th president marked the biggest political event of the decade. On January 20, 2009, America inaugurated its first African American president, something that many did not think they would be able to say for a long time. “Obama [is]… the first African American to hold the office and the first Democratic presidential candidate to win a majority of the electorate since Jimmy Carter” (“Barack Obama”). Obama received a huge social response. The 2008 election had double the amount of 18 to 25 year old voters than the 2004 election, proving his popularity and approval amongst young adults.

Obama’s main topics of concern were all stated in the opening of his inaugural address. “That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened… homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many – and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet” (Barack Obama).

Obama stated that he would immediately work to create jobs in order to improve the economy, increase the quality and availability of health care, reform education and government spending, take steps toward bettering the environment, make amends with countries in the middle east, decrease the poverty and unemployment rate, and much more that would improve the quality of life for all Americans.