As you have heard, today began a new era where I live with President Barack Obama.

This brings new hope for everybody, especially with all these crises that we are currently in.

Remember that there will still be lots of challenges ahead, but eventually a better world will be made out of it.

President Obama has a huge task ahead and I wish him well.

I hope a better world will come out of the change of Presidency.

I sincerely hope that things do get better but everyone puts their trust in presidents and PM's etc but they are only pawns really they don't ever get to make the choices, it's a democracy and eventually they are all over ruled by their government etc "in the interest of the public/economy/health etc etc" TBH what can anyone really do? As much as I want to think that Obama can and I believe he will try I think he will be tied by PC

I agree Alex.

I'm glad Obama won over John McCain [Mainly because of Sarah Palin!] and because Obama also had quite a positive attitiude. However people saying that there's going to be a new world now... Not exactly. It might be a new leaf for America, but Obama won't be able to sort all the world's problems. I don't want people to get their hopes up too high, because anything can happen.

Barack Obama is certainly a better person to lead the USA through the next few years than George Bush in my opinion. He's not going to change the world instantly and hasn't claimed to do that, but I think he'll do a lot of good to the USA and to the world as a whole.

I would have to agree with the Obama/Bush comparison and that Obama has certainly made himself look like a better person to lead America through the next 4 years at least. However, America is not the world and, though Obama has been made out by many to be some sort of superhero, unfortunately this is not the case and, after all, he is only legally permitted to sort out America's problems. Anywhere else he is a mere immigrant, like Polish plumbers over here. Only, there's one of him and one billion of them.
I am sure Barack Obama will do a reasonably good job of tackling some of the problems America has, but these problems are an area I can't go into since the longest I ever lived in America was two weeks. But I have heard, and am pretty certain that he will cope with the post of President.....quite a bit....better than Mr Bush.

Lastly I do agree with Cookie in that people need a jolt back to reality - as I say, Barack Obama is not some superhero and (much as, I'm sure, any President of any country besides perhaps Israel would like to) he can't fix all the problems in the world and make everything right again. But in my opinion, what he will do is bring a heck of a lot of this "change" to America over what is certainly the next four years, possibly the next eight years. I think all we can do now is wait for some major event to crop up and see how he fares in that. Unpredictable really, at such an early stage.

True, but America often has an effect on world events - hence why it's known as one of the "superpowers". Obama seems to be capable of being the leader of a superpower, but I guess we'll really see what he's made of in the next few weeks / months / years.

I wish Barack Obama well. He has some good ideas, but with America in such economic turmoil, you can't expect them to do too many favours for other nations, and it wouldn't be easy for any politician to sort out their crisis. In fact their national debt is in such a mess that only divine intervention can stop them from losing their superpower status. Exactly how much debt are they in?

See this: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/