President-elect Obama’s victory is proof of several things about America, some good, some not so good. I’ll explore them at length, sometime soon.
Unlike the Left, which seems always to hope for the worst whenever Republicans are in power, I hope Obama’s presidency is marked by calmness, prosperity for all, peace, graceful resolution of conflict, and unity at home. If I could do anything to bring about an 8 year reign at the end of which we have not been attacked, there are no new (or rediscovered) deadly enemies looming on the horizon, Israel is at peace, our economy is humming, and social problems are significantly reduced, I would do it.
Come to think of it, the one thing we can all do is pray, genuine earnest prayer that his presidency will be as described above.
Unfortunately, that probably also means praying that he does not keep all of his campaign promises, or is blocked, somehow, in carrying them out. This is not snark; some of what he has promised will be deadly to some of us, sometime during his presidency, in all likelihood (difficult to know exactly who and when, of course). I hope his declaration of Christian faith was sincere, and I hope he prays sincerely for guidance. If he does, and tells the press about it, it will be interesting to compare their reactions to what they said about Bush’s piety.
The president-elect is a magnificent campaigner (at least, when he has an utterly compliant media backing his play, a factor which will change fairly soon, I think). He is going to learn that his charm will be utterly lost on our enemies, and many of our allies, hopefully not as riskily as John F. Kennedy, who nearly led us into nuclear exchange with the Soviets by showing weakness earlier. I’m not sure he knows just yet that he can’t hope to retain the grand acclaim with which he was received on his “credential building” world tour/”royal progress”, but perhaps God will guide his hand in choosing advisers, and some will be able to educate him. Perhaps the intelligence and military briefings he will receive during the transition period will sober him. Perhaps he will learn the craft of placating the radical Left, his most vociferous supporters, while not doing the radically stupid thing that leaves us vulnerable to our enemies. We can hope, and pray that he does not believe the praises heaped upon him by his acolytes.
He might benefit from someone following him around saying, “You are not a god. You are not a god.” Unfortunately, he may believe his own campaign releases.
It would be lovely if Russia, China and resurgent radical Islam would just fight it out between themselves, and leave us out of it, until it was time for us, being Americans, to send in humanitarian relief via the Navy, Air Force and Marines. I do not expect that to happen. All of our competitors know we’re the big dog they have to take down. We will not be able to lie down and look inoffensive and hope to be left alone. It has been tried already. It has never worked, and won’t this time, either. But our memory is short, as the election proves, and so painful reminders will sooner or later be the order of the day, I suspect.
Here are a few reflections from Power Line.
The historic election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States calls for reflections far beyond these provisional thoughts, but here are ten:
Read the rest.
Tags: Obama
