The Phenomenon vs The Big Picture

On the eve of the 2008 Presidential Election, ALL signs point to Barack Hussein Obama, the junior senator from the State of Illinois, becoming the 44th President of the United States of America. If you watch the news, you'd have to believe that most all of America will be singin' and dancin' in the streets after Barry takes 85% of both the popular and electoral college vote. In fact, according to this article/poll from The Economist, http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12498538&source=features_box4, one would have to believe that people from all over the world will be singin' and dancin' in their respective streets. Will tomorrow's outcome be this one sided? Time will tell...but my guess is that it will not.

Whether this map, http://www.economist.com/vote2008/, is an accurate reflection of world-wide opinion, who knows. But it definitely gets at the point that the world currently views America in a less than positive way. The world feels that America needs the change that Barry has been selling to all that would listen for the last 2-6 years, however long he has truly been campaigning for the world's highest office. As this article discusses, http://www.economist.com/research/backgrounders/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10689547, (and at this point a day before the election and most voters minds made up, it most certainly is much to late) America should have been evaluating Barry the potential President instead of riding the wave that is Barry the Phenom. Not by any stretch of the imagination am I now going to compare Obama to Hitler, but the point I will make is valid... Germans of the late 1920s and early 1930s rode the Nazi wave of hope and change to the most terrible stretch of German (and human) history. Again, let me repeat that I am in no way implying that Obama as President equals Hitler as the worst human being ever to live, my point is that we should all be cautious to these political waves that promise hope and change to a population craving/hoping/desperately wanting to hear exactly that.

My main fear today is that Obama, for numerous reasons, simply won't be able to deliver on all he has promised. You'd be hard pressed to find a sensible person that would deny Barry's list of very positive attributes. He's an excellent speaker, a young, charming guy with a pretty good sense of humor. His campaign has proven his ability to inspire those not often inspired by politics and "rally the troops" to help him thru astonishing donations and volunteer work in the effort to get him elected. But are these qualities really the ones that matter when choosing the leader of the free world?

It's not hard for one to see the reasons behind The Phenomenon that is Barack Obama. But once elected, then what? All the money he's raised isn't going to fix bad policy. We'll certainly have very well delivered State of the Union addresses for the next four years but what else...? Will he do the things he's promised? His voting record as a senator is troubling at best relative to his promise to reach across the aisle and get things done. Why would the most liberal senator we have suddenly decide he should be more in the middle?? ESPECIALLY when the liberal House and Senate are offering up legislation that he most likely will agree with wholeheartedly. My fear here is he'll sign most everything that lands on his desk without thinking twice. I certainly hope he can be the moderate he's portrayed himself to be during his campaign, but his record certainly indicates otherwise. Let's all cross our fingers because only the most liberal of us would want such a partisan man in the Oval Office. The foundation of our federal government is built on the idea of Checks and Balances, that no one line of thinking should dominate and therefore our central government won't skew too far from the middle (the common ground that hopefully all Americans share).

That brings us to John Sidney McCain III. Though not perfect (but who is?), I believe the senior senator from the State of Arizona has all the requirements to, at worst, adequately fill the role of Commander-in-Chief. Most likely he'd be a good president, maybe even great. His vast experience and record indicate he would do what he thinks is right and I don't think anyone but the haters out there would say he has the ability (or lack thereof) to be a bad president. I fear that his age, admittedly a little past prime for a first time President, has not helped his effort. I also wonder what the world would be like today had the 2000 election gone differently and President McCain was finishing his second term and planning his retirement on his beautiful plot of land in the beautiful Sedona area of Northern Arizona.

That may seem like an indirect slight to President Bush, but it is not. History will judge these past eight years, not one of us on this Earth has the perspective needed to properly evaluate the presidency of George Walker Bush. He's obviously not very popular at the moment, but to lead the orchestra, you have to turn your back on the crowd... I fear John McCain missed his best chance to serve as our President and this run is his last ditch effort to attain the one thing he hasn't been able to in his long and storied life, which is sad because I believe he would've been great and now it looks as if he'll never get the chance. Most of the out of character and desperate things he's done during this campaign can be attributed to the fact that his window is all but closed and he doesn't want to miss out on what is certainly his final opportunity. He realizes 2000 would've been his best time, but this is his last chance. Bad timing I guess...

As this article, http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=11496904, points out, in one way this is the best choice America has had in quite some time. Both parties have put forth men who have the potential to be great in their own way. On the flip side, pessimism would indicate this choice is just as bad as others in recent memory. One man is old, past his prime and possibly desperate. The other inexperienced and one sided. I hope that regardless of who wins tomorrow, the man lives up to his potential to be great, not simply confirms our worst fears about him.

Our system isn't perfect but it is working (http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12511205). This is still the greatest country on Earth and tomorrow's result will not change that. Be proud we, the people, pick our leader. Get out and vote, utilize the gift that is the freedom to voice your opinion.

I'll leave you with an excerpt from an Economist article (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11965260) that was written a week before Barack accepted the Democratic party's nomination. Personal thoughts/beliefs/opinions aside, it makes very clear who seemingly should win tomorrow's election. Whether events past should boost one candidate and hinder another is debatable (I believe men should be judged on their own merits), but the advantage is and has been distinctly in one sides favor, we'll see tomorrow if the other side can make it interesting...

"If the Democrats remain divided they will lose the presidency. Were that to happen, after Iraq, Katrina and an economic crisis, they might well want to consider an alternative line of work."