Brief Thoughts on the Election

I feel the need to say something about this election. I donated to Obama (modestly) and displayed a bumper sticker. Sometimes I wore a button, regrettably once while leading a tour of elderly through the Botanical Gardens where I got a number of dirty looks.

Naturally African-Americans are rejoicing, and rightly so; the vision of a man of color on Pennsylvania Avenue must be a great tonic to racial self-esteem, and there's nothing wrong with that. 94% is a damn good number, I doubt that its ethnic solidarity has ever been matched in a contest of this magnitude. So "racism" lives on despite the Harvard polish of its beneficiary.

That the Latino, youth and women's vote so favored Obama was gratifying; we know who the poor voted for. And the college-educated.

My hope? First, my caution. The promises Presidents make in a campaign aren't worth the paper on which they're printed. Without the cooperation of Congress, a president can do very little (except to start wars and freeze wages and suspend habeus corpus), I mean, he can't spend a dime.

Obama would do well to concentrate on three things:

1) A semi-reliable economy.

2) Exit from Iraq and Afghanistan.

3) Solvency, especially Medicare and Social Security.

If he can concentrate his purpose and the economy can be partly stimulated by hope, perhaps these goals are not impossible for an eight-year term. For now I hope to hell he operates as a one-term president without regard to the next election, but that is too much to ask politically.

That Obama is eight years younger than I does make me feel strange, but 50 will get you an AARP card.

Michele Obama's dress for the acceptance speech was a horror, the red front panel making her look fat when she's not. And such muscular legs! I like her. She's got spine.

Palin's a flash in the pan. McCain was past his prime. So is Joe Biden but he should do OK as #2, though much more loose-lipped than Cheney, destined to be an occasional embarrassment and sometimes a comic foil. Such a bad hair transplant!

What Obama most embodies is a rational, businesslike approach to our national dilemmas. There is an aura of reasonableness about him, something Hellenistic even.
Bush is a fanatic and McCain is mercurial. We haven't had a candidate like Obama since Adlai Stevenson.

BTW, for all you Harold Stassen fans, he died in 2001. When Churchill said "Never give up," I don't think he meant to encourage Stassen in his Quixotic pursuit of office. He was at one time a near-legitimate candidate in '48 and '52.

Good thing Obama had more than a lemonade stand going for him.

Sad to see McCain's honor stained by false accusations and innuendos in his quest for power. He showed his stripes but only Charles Keating wore them.

Over and out,

Kiloneutral,

CE