Was Barack Obama's election the greatest historical event in your lifetime?

Capt'n Midnight · 05-07-2014 09:07PM

RFOLEY1990 wrote: »

Hasn't he just been voted worst president ever so dunno where you're getting that he'll go down as greatest president ever.

The biggest event, nothing great about it was probably 9/11 so far for me. Still can't believe that was live television. Madness.

The worst president poll could easily have been named the most recent president poll because that's how the results went. Nixon only got 8% of the vote.

9/11 was a PR event. At most it was the US waking up and smelling the coffee. More people died in The Troubles. US foreign policy didn't change much, just there was a different excuse to invade countries. NSA / TSA etc. just an extension of the military industrial complex as per Eisenhower's 1960 speech

Renegade Mechanic · 05-07-2014 09:10PM

World Trade Centre for me, I think. Ignoring everything before or after regarding it, the event itself was massive.

Stereomaniac · 05-07-2014 09:15PM

The most significant day in world history during the course of my lifetime has been 9/11, surely.

Capt'n Midnight · 05-07-2014 09:28PM

Greater events

Eradication of Smallpox.

near universal mobile phone ownership

The Euro and EU enlargement

The wars in Yugoslavia

Iranian revolution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Habyarimana_and_Ntaryamira

The assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on the evening of 6 April 1994 was the catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide. The airplane carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali, Rwanda. The assassination set in motion some of the bloodiest events of the late 20th century, the Rwandan Genocide and the First Congo War.

And in turn led on to the Second Congo War. All told that assassination resulted in the death of one person per thousand globally.

SaveOurLyric · 05-07-2014 09:31PM

SEANoftheDEAD wrote: »

What was so great about 9/11?

I wouldn't class that as a great event.

People have different views on it. He is entitled to his. To some it was a great success.

SaveOurLyric · 05-07-2014 09:37PM

Obama's election wouldnt even get a flicker of the historical event greatness meter needle for me.

Moon landings by a big margin.
Biological organism increases complexity over millions of years and then uses parts of its environment to blast itself hundreds of thousands of kilometers into space, land, explore an orbiting rock, and bring itself back home again.
All the rest has just been flotsam and jetsam.

bitemeluis · 05-07-2014 09:38PM

Nelson Mandela released from prison - top o the list

K4t · 05-07-2014 10:08PM

Diego Simeone wrote: »

I think that's extremely unlikely.

Top 10. Easily.

To answer the Op, 9/11.

SaveOurLyric · 05-07-2014 10:41PM

To those citing 9-11. Whats the rationale ?

What distinguishes it from other mass deaths due to terrorism or war during your lifetime ?
The number of deaths from the single attack ? Murica being hit on home ground ? The crystalising in most westerner's minds that there is still a serious West-MuslimWorld conflict ? Or whud ?

SaveOurLyric · 05-07-2014 10:48PM

bitemeluis wrote: »

They're Taliban

Sound logic. I see what you mean.

Hande hoche! · 05-07-2014 10:55PM

SaveOurLyric wrote: »

To those citing 9-11. Whats the rationale ?

What distinguishes it from other mass deaths due to terrorism or war during your lifetime ?
The number of deaths from the single attack ? Murica being hit on home ground ? The crystalising in most westerner's minds that there is still a serious West-MuslimWorld conflict ? Or whud ?

The finding of a new boogie man to replace the Soviet Union.

Harry Palmr · 05-07-2014 11:17PM

Greatest event in my lifetime was man landing on the floor of the giant warehouse in 1969, or to be serious its the collapse of Soviet Communism in 1989 - that changed everything, the much lauded events of 11th September 2001 would not have happened had the cold war stasis remained. There would have been no "western" wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nor war the Balkans either, hard to know if the Soviets would have given up on Afghanistan and if so when.

Skylinehead · 06-07-2014 12:52AM

mrkiscool2 wrote: »

People like FDR and JFK were far better presidents than Obama ever will be.

Roosevelt, yes. Eisenhower, Clinton, Reagan (depending on your views), yes.

Kennedy? Awful president.

Iwasfrozen · 06-07-2014 01:10AM

nuxxx wrote: »

The greatest event? I can't even recall the year he was elected nor do I care. America =/= Ireland

What's with all the little Irelanders around here? The question was what was the greatest event in your lifetime. That's obviously going to be outside Ireland...

speedboatchase · 06-07-2014 01:27AM

Oh jeez, that's an embarrassing thread title. Bi-racial man wins US election. Big whoop.

To answer the question, it would probably be 9/11, if we boil it down to a single day. Otherwise, it would be the rise of the smartphone, which has changed relationships, societal conventions, killed entire industries.

Gallowglass · 06-07-2014 02:12AM

I recall the famous Joe Brollys brother was my teacher at the time, he was obsessed with it so everyone had to listen to him, he rants just like Joseph.

No, I would say Pat Butcher dying in EastEnders was or Derry winning the All-Ireland.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 06-07-2014 03:47AM

Jeb Bush 2016. This great family's tale hasn't yet been fully told.

meoklmrk91 · 06-07-2014 04:10AM

For me it's 9/11 unquestionably, I was a kid and really couldn't make sense of what I was seeing. I think the reason it resonates with people so much is because it was the beginning of a new era, new buzz words, instead of the Good Friday Agreement and Slobodan Milosovich it was George Bush, Bin Laden and the War on terror. It led to the war in Afganistan and the war in Iraq. The legacy of 9/11 will be felt for decades to come especially in the Middle East but around the world.

While I was delighted at the time that Barack Obama was elected, after 8 years of George Bush, I feel he has been a very lacklustre President, I realise that the republicans have blocked a lot of what he wanted to do but that seems to have defined his presidency, the only real long lasting impact he has had will be Obamacare. Not only are US troops still in a Afghanistan, they will be for a long while to come. He failed to pass gun control legislation after Newtown, again I realise that it was the Republicans but the back and forth between him and the house has defined his presidency. Personally I find his use of drones deplorable and he never delivered on his promise to shut down gitmo. Lots of talk, very little action, I have become less and less of a fan as time has gone on.

plasmin · 06-07-2014 06:33AM

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Remember that iconic moment back in november 2008 when Barack Obama got elected? The first African American president ever to hold office?

There's a good chance Obama will go down as American greatest ever president by the time he leaves office in 2016, not that I agree with that, but just the sense of how popular he is within the world and the media that many can't help but call him that probably I suspect.

Would you regard Obama's election the most historic event you've witnessed in yourlife time? For those old enough, was it greater than the fall of the Berlin wall or man on the moon?

R u running a PR campaign for Obama?

Zamboni · 06-07-2014 07:27AM

Higgs Boson find could be the greatest. Time will tell.

The frequent mention of the twin tower attack is hilarious.
The US is not the centre of the focking universe people.

flas · 06-07-2014 07:45AM

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

What's with all the little Irelanders around here? The question was what was the greatest event in your lifetime. That's obviously going to be outside Ireland...

What about the good Friday agreement?

DeanAustin · 06-07-2014 08:04AM

SaveOurLyric wrote: »

To those citing 9-11. Whats the rationale ?

What distinguishes it from other mass deaths due to terrorism or war during your lifetime ?
The number of deaths from the single attack ? Murica being hit on home ground ? The crystalising in most westerner's minds that there is still a serious West-MuslimWorld conflict ? Or whud ?

A lot distinguishes it.

The US, the most powerful country in the world, was brought to its knees by 16 or so men armed with nothing more than boxcutters and fake bombs. That was unthinkable.

Two symbols of capitalism came crashing down and devastated one of the greatest cities in the world. The thought of those towers not being there on September 10th 2001 was, again, unthinkable.

It played out on live TV. No other major event of that kind, with that sort of spectacular shock value, had ever played out on live TV before. We also saw people, who did nothing more than go to work that morning, have to jump over 100 floors to their deaths on live TV. We saw it and we heard that horrible thudding noise wondering what we would have done in their position.

Terrorists flew commercial planes into buildings. That had never really happened before. Hijackers usually made a number of demands and most passengers usually got out of that situation alive. Now we had the concept of suicide pilots on commercial airliners.

What followed was two wars, America becoming far more insular and a massive change in how we travel. It was a massive, massive event. Yes there have been higher death tolls, worse disasters and arguably more significant events in recent history. But to deny the impact of 9/11 on the world is being contrary for the sake of it.

Capt'n Midnight · 06-07-2014 08:26PM

DeanAustin wrote: »

What followed was two wars, America becoming far more insular and a massive change in how we travel. It was a massive, massive event. Yes there have been higher death tolls, worse disasters and arguably more significant events in recent history. But to deny the impact of 9/11 on the world is being contrary for the sake of it.

Does anyone here think that the US wouldn't have found a new "threat" anyway.

Look at how North Korea was promoted for the "Axis of evil" despite having a military budget smaller than the budget of the New York Police Department. If the North were to start a full scale war, the South would finish it.

Lots of other events happened live, but weren't give the same blanket coverage by the media. Look at the collapse of the Soviet Block.

Imagine the news reaction if Tanks fired upon the White House ?
http://rt.com/news/parliament-siege-yeltsin-timeline-691/

Hande hoche! · 06-07-2014 08:44PM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Jeb Bush 2016. This great family's tale hasn't yet been fully told.

Never know... could be Rand Paul.

Was Barack Obama's election the greatest historical event in your lifetime?

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