What exactly did you have in mind if you voted for Obama based on "hope and change?"?

I was hoping we had a president that wouldn’t embarass us to other countries by making up words. I was hoping we would return to the basis of this country, and denounce torture and illegal wiretaps. I was hoping America would once again be seen with respect.

We have done pretty well. We still have a ways to go.

Hoping he wouldn’t be W.
Appreciative for the change from W.

There’s no way he can live up to the hype, though. Anything he accomplishes will be diminished by the grand ideas of some amazing utopia the campaign created.

I am a social voter which, I have been told, means I’m a bad voter, apparently and I voted for Obama because I thought he would enlarge civil freedoms for Americans and preserve those we already have. He is making a conscious effort to remove the glass ceiling for women and increase diversity in this country. Also, even though he is a Catholic, he made it very clear that he would not be a Catholic president, but a president who happens to be Catholic. He does not care about what is legally defined as obscenity unlike dear ole Dubya and, despite how much rich conservatives whine, I’m glad he made it so that every American could have health insurance.

I wanted him to regulate the actions of Wall Street that brought about the Recession, and he passed far-reaching legislation that reigns it in.

I wanted health care reform and he got it passed. Health care coverage for the poor and the children of this country has been expanded.

I wanted education reform and an energy bill and those were both passed.

I wanted the economic stimulus package passed and it got done. It has since been declared a success at stemming the recession and saving the economy.

Obama isn’t Catholic, unless I missed some conversion while my cable’s been out!!

PS Who told you that made you a bad voter?I’ll fight them!!!

I was hoping that the country would work with a brother. This country did not get f%&ked up over night and it can’t be fixed over night. I resent those that now will try to claim credit for the turn around that is slowly (but surely) taking place.

I agree with all of the above (except for Obama being Catholic) and feel that he has accomplished much although it hasn’t been “sold” effectively. I was hoping for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don“t Tell” and the closing of Guantanamo and have yet to see those hopes realized.

@SundayKittens: I know he’s Christian. I just assumed that meant Catholic. I was told I am a bad voter because I focus mainly on social issues rather than economic issues. Don’t know why eschewing civil liberties makes me a bad voter and hoarding money makes them a good voter, but, hey, my guy still won. :)

I think that makes us good voters!

He’s a UCC member, unless he changed affiliations when they moved to DC.

@SundayKittens: I had no idea UCC was a whole separate denomination. I think that’s where the confusion lay.

@KatawaGrey You must not have grown up in the American south! ;) There are dozens of denominations! It’s all good.

1. In the Bush days, funding for science was such a disaster that everyone I knew was in danger of losing their funding or afraid of it. Obama changed all of that. We get to do experiments, now.

2. Obama got rid of that stupid fucking stem cell funding ban.

3. Health care reform.

4. Timeline for getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I’m happy with what he’s done. Have you seen this? http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/

@nikipedia I love that site!

I honestly didn’t know as much about the election as I should have, but I did know a fair amount. Basically I voted for Obama because he seems like a genuinely intelligent person, which in itself is a change. McCain just seemed too safe of a choice, and sometimes you gotta take a chance on something new.

Also, if I had to hear “maverick” or “you betcha” for four years I would have gone insane.

I was hoping that finally we would start to build a safety net for the most vulnerable among us. I never dreamed the Republicans would use the filibuster in such a way.
I’m wondering if the Dems will have the courage to use the filibuster to block damaging legislation that the repubs will propose.
I hate to admit it, but it appears the Dems are just to nice in this cut throat environment.

I was hoping as a nation we would finally begin a dialogue about our systemic racism and sexism, and I was hoping Obama would be as good as his campaign promises of “yes, we can” and that we are the people we’ve been waiting for. When Obama appeared on The Daily Show a week or so ago, Jon Stewart came straight out and asked him if we weren’t the people we’d been waiting for?

I didn’t expect a messiah, as so many did. I don’t have naivette where it comes to the power of the president or who pulls his strings. He would have guaranteed his assasination if he’d kept his promises, but he might have kept one. The Guantanamo closure was a joke, gay and lesbian soldiers were sold out, there’s been no viable exit strategy for either of the wars we’re fighting, and George Bush is smirking his way through a book tour, admitting his war crimes. The only sanity I’ve heard recently was that protesters in the UK moved Bush’s book to the crime section.

The only thing I’ve personally received for my voting for the man was a summons for jury duty. And as an independent voter, I’m thinking we’re as ripe as we’re ever going to be for a voter’s revolution where we throw the whole damn lot out.

What @KatawaGrey said. I saw McCain as a “George Bush: Part Deux” and his running mate Sarah Palin was an absolute deal breaker. I was mainly concerned with a lot of social issues – I haven’t been very pleased with the “war on terror” and Obama seemed to be the only candidate interested in finding a solution in the mess. He seemed to be proactive about dealing with a number of social issues in our country whereas McCain only seemed to be proactive about engaging in more warfare, etc.

I wasn’t exactly motivated by “Change” other than the cut and dry immediate changes.

I wanted someone who would embrace science, work to ensure equality for homosexuals and women, stop torture, and end the war in Iraq. Not bad, so far.

I was in the UK and couldn’t vote but I wanted Obama to win as he seemed a decent man with principles. In that regard he has not let us down and he has undone some of the evil of his predecessors.

The mantra of change did not really sway me at all. Although, I was hopeful the country would change course, and it seems it has to some degree. I never really feel a president will accomplish everything he sets out to, or wants to, but for me it is about where his head is at, the basics he feels is right for America and moving in that direction.

When Bush was elected I felt strongly my America was in jeopardy. Mostly, my concern was domestic issues, social issues, as @KatawaGrey mentioned (true he is not a Catholic, he is Christian, maybe you are confused because people have compared Obama to Kennedy). I am socially left, and fiscally moderate I guess? I used to say fiscally conservative, but I guess that does not quite fit. Clinton had taken care of the deficit, so I was focused on women’s rights, equal rights in general, the right constantly trying to outlaw late term abortion, and scientific research, and Bush seemed to be the antithesis. The only good thing about 9/11 and the war (it is difficult to write good and 9/11 and war in the same sentence) is I think it distracted Bush a little from really doing catastrophic damage to civil rights and the scientific community.

@nikipedia as much as I am in favor of stem cell research, I think Bush only stifled government research, private sector was still allowed to obtain new embryos and pursue research.

Obama has pretty much lived up to my expectations. I actually wanted Hillary. I preferred her statements about healthcare during the primaries, and felt she had way more Washington experience than Obama; for this I felt Obama would struggle with trying to make friends across party lines; of course Hillary would have had trouble with that too, but she would have been better at anticipating the Republicans I think, had better strategy.

@JLeslie: Most science is funded by federal money (everything I’ve ever done in my career has been); banding federal funding for stem cell research was tantamount to shutting it down.

@nikipedia I agree. A point I make myself to other people who go on about how the private sector can do everything better than government. I just think many people think Bush made it illegal altogether. Similar to the people out there who think making so called partial birth abortion illegal made late term abortion against the law.

The incidious evilness of the Bush administration. I probably would have voted for McCain if choosing Sarah Palin wasn’t so insulting to the intelligence of women in this country; he could have chosen Kathleen Parker. The man was thinking with his dick.

@BarnacleBill – So… you’re saying that McCain came to that limp decision too quickly?

Oy.

I didn’t vote for Obama. I voted for Nader in 2008.

As far as a major party member, it could have been worse. We’ve got a minor healthcare advancement.. And the Lily Ledbetter Act. We still don’t have sensible drug laws, equality for LGBT people (nor will we with Obama, who is someone that does NOT support gay marriage), or an end to corporate personhood (which will never happen with a major party candidate).

But like I said, as far a major party candidate is concerned… I mean, at least he legitimately won the election. He’s done about as good as you can expect.