January 20, 2009 11:07 PM

As many other bloggers are doing, I am writing about my experiences on this historic day in the United States. Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President. My kids are born into a new world, and by the time they are my age, this may be a more common experience for them.

I enjoyed his speech, as it supplied a dose of reality along with hope. Setting expectation is important at this stage. Too many people who don’t understand how our government works expect a lot out of a president, when in reality, it’s really the Senate and House of Representatives that are truly responsible, but the people hold the President accountable.

The current budget crisis here in the California is a perfect example of this. Our state assembly is holding up the budget, and is not willing to make tough decisions. President Obama gave an example in his speech regarding workers being willing to take a pay cut in order to avoid a friend from losing their job. This is a call for action and sacrifice in order to help the country get through this economic crisis. Governor Schwarzenegger has already begun doing just that within California’s state agencies. http://cbs5.com/politics/state.pay.cuts.2.792888.html

At least Governor Schwarzeneggar is willing to take action to help the overrun expenditures instead of just wait around for a bunch of politicians to come to agreement and let the state run in the red.

I hope that President Obama is willing to take similar actions to get the USA back on track.

In technology news, President Obama is establishing the first Chief Technology Officer position in his cabinet. 2 executives that work for Cisco are up for the position. http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/19/1557211&from=rss

I think it’s a great idea to have a CTO. With the convergence of many technologies, it is even more important to understand how to best deploy technology within the government to maximize return on tax payer dollars.

~rb