President Obama

It's looking like a 2-3% victory in the popular vote totals for Barack Obama, just about what the sane opinion polls predicted.  He has well over 270 electoral votes, so the election is over.  (Continuing vote tallies now indicate a 5-6% margin of victory.)

Anyway, certainly not a landslide, and a slim enough margin to make it difficult to declare a "mandate" -- although Democrats managed to declare a "mandate" with less than a 50% majority in 1992 and 1996.  To Democrats, any victory is a mandate.

Recent history shows that Americans don't like one party rule, yet we are currently headed for a repeat of 1992-1994 "hope" and "change" (i.e. bigger government and higher taxes) except with a far more liberal president and far more bitterly partisan Congressional leaders. Oh, wait ... they promised us that one party rule will be more bipartisan, didn't they? What was it that Rush Limbaugh always said -- "bipartisan" simply means Democrats are unopposed.

If recent history is reliable, the American people will give Obama about two years. I don't think that he will reflexively announce an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq.   Troop withdrawals are already ongoing, spearheaded by the Bush administration (although I'm sure the press will give Obama the credit  -- "if Obama hadn't pushed for withdrawal, Bush would still be dragging his feet..." or something like that).  I don't think that his foreign policy will be immediately disastrous, although I believe that Obama could very well make a major foreign policy or military blunder during his first 24 months in office.

What I think would will really hurt Obama is an immediate juggernaut of hard-left domestic policies -- deliberate over-regulation of energy that drives energy prices through the roof, crippling tax increases that slow down the economy and depress the stock market, massive government spending that results in out of control debt and deficit increases -- those will mean a huge Republican congressional landslide in 2010, essentially a repeat of 1994. Continued poor performance (like Carter in 1979-80) will mean a one-term presidency and perhaps President Palin or President Jindal in 2012. Or maybe president Hillary if Obama is extremely weak and the country isn't ready for the GOP in the White House.

On the other hand, Obama could actually stay in the political center that he has so carefully crafted during his campaign. As such, his presidency would very likely resemble that of Bill Clinton, sans the philandering. Clinton did not cave to his party's radical left wing after he was elected.  An Obama who actually listened to the people -- especially opinions that differ from his own -- and worked to bring disparate groups together in order to find solutions could be a great leader.  However, the temptation for Obama and Congressional Democrats to simply roll a radical liberal/socialist agenda over minority Republicans "just because they can" will be great, and Obama does not have a history of challenging his party.  Further, Obama had a lot of "guardian angels" in Chicago and in the national Democratic party who looked out for him and, probably to a greater extent than most people realize, made it possible for him to be where he is today.  They will demand to be rewarded, with both choice political appointments and guaranteed consideration of their pet agendas.

Right now I'm curious about how long it will take for bits of unsavory information about Obama -- the kinds of things that the press would have published months ago if he were a Republican -- to begin trickling out of editing rooms and video vaults, and into the mainstream press?  How long will it take for mainstream media reporters to finally remember that they are journalists, and maybe they should take a second look at Obama's sketchy personal history, and perhaps begin to build a profile of him from sources other than Obama himself?  A bad economy or a serious military blunder could burst the protective dam that the MSM build around Obama and cause these kinds of stories to flood the national conversation.

One curious irony is that Obama's victory has to be bad news for race hustlers like Jesse Jackson and  Al Sharpton.  Not only has the torch been passed (over them) to a new generation, but their primary cash business -- exposing "institutional racism" -- has suddenly gotten a lot tougher. They will always find plenty of hard-luck sob stories to use as a basis for their currency of victimhood, but certainly the election of an African-American to the White House should finally dispel the tired boilerplate of all blacks being consistently denied a fair chance in America because of “the system.”

Well, that's enough for tonight.  No, I'm not angry.  A little disappointed perhaps, but life goes on.  I won't be leaving America.  I won't be suffering from Post Election Stress Trauma.  I'll simply live day to day, doing the best that I can, praying for the things that are beyond me, and looking forward to each new day.

Added: 

The Anchoress says, regarding our press:

Having spent all of their credibility on Obama, they will now have to validate their choice, which means they’ll continue in unquestioning support, championing, rather than questioning, his leadership. Sadly, questioning policy and leadership is the most valuable thing they do. They’ll have forfeited the idea of “comforting the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable,” because they’ll be wholly invested in advocacy. THAT is the worst thing that happened, in this election - the loss of our open and free press.

She also links to Michael Gerson writing in the Washington Post:

I come to this moment of national decision with deep concerns about the next president. His victory is likely to unleash an ideological and vengeful Democratic Congress.   In the testing of a long campaign, Barack Obama has seemed thoughtful but sometimes hesitant and unsure of his bearings. He promises outreach and healing but holds to a liberalism that sees no need for innovation. And as the result of a financial panic that unfairly undermined all Republicans, Obama has stumbled into the most dangerous kind of victory. A mandate for change but not for ideas. A mandate without clear meaning. (emphasis added)

And a final word from The Anchoress:

Obama is as much a work-in-progress as the rest of us are. I believe one glaring error in the community of believers is that we are quick to pray, but not always to pray as we might or should. I used to visit a political forum and read the Christians daily blowing raspberries at Clinton but rarely if ever praying FOR him - and we know prayer changes things. A lot of believers prayed for Bush but either stopped when the going got rough, or started praying that Bush would be “turned” to do their bidding.

If God is not done with Obama, yet - and he’s not - then there is still, always, hope. The office is bigger than any man. St. Peter would have been no one’s idea of a great pope before Pentacost. St. Paul - a persecutor of Christians - would have been no one’s idea of a premier preacher and teacher of Christian doctrine. Nor, for that matter, would Augustine have been.

... But God tell us to pray for such as these. And for Obama, too, who I think will need those prayers also because I think the satellites around him are much more dangerous and worrisome than he. (emphasis added)

Agreed.  It is difficult to reason with those who believe that everyone except for themselves is unreasonable.  Yet Obama certainly needs our prayers, if for no other reason than the god-like powers that the Left has projected upon him.  When your followers expect you to be larger than life, you will suddenly find yourself facing temptations and crises that you had never previously thought possible.  Just ask Ted Haggard or Jimmy Swaggart.  Or Bill Clinton.

Comments

[Flu-Bird]

Ol FLU-BIRD is so sick of OBAMA he is ready to ralph up on the carpet KKAAHHHAACCCKKK