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Cut Obama some slack, wait and listen
Men's News Daily ^ | Nov. 6, 2008 | John David Powell

Posted on 11/07/2008 6:11:45 AM PST by John David Powell

The first comment I received from someone not on my television screen regarding the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States came via email early the day after the election. It asked simply, “Now what?” Those two words coalesced the questions facing not only our new president, but also the people of our nation, regardless of ideology or political affiliation.

Now we wait, I replied, and guard the house, and protect the chickens, and peer deep into the night and listen.

It occurred to me that my reply may sound skeptical, indeed fearful, of Mr. Obama. Quite the contrary. I meant to point out folks should react cautiously, but not anxiously. Those who did not vote for him have no need to grab their rifles, run out into their yards with hair aflame, and fire blindly at imagined intruders.

Those who voted for the current Mr. Bush the first time must remember their outrage when supporters of Al Gore derided the nation’s new leader before he could prove himself one way or the other.

Yes, there was much anger and even considerable suspicion regarding the election, bad feelings that remain to this day. But it’s different this time. The outcome is clear. No chads hanging the election in the balance. Back then, in 2000, Mr. Gore received half a million more votes than Mr. Bush. This week, Mr. Obama outpolled Mr. McCain by more than seven million votes. Even though he did not win, Mr. McCain received more votes than Messrs. Bush and Gore and even Ronald Reagan in either of his landslide elections.

Mr. Obama will become president of a nation divided strongly along many lines. Nearly 56 million of his fellow citizens preferred another candidate, another set of ideas, another plan for change. He will learn on the job, as did every other president before him, the best way to lead his nation in the direction he believes best. In the process, he will lose many of his followers, people who want to take their leader to places he does not, or cannot, go. He will find, as did every other president before him, that the Oval Office is a lonely and confining place.

That’s why we the people need to cut him some slack and resist the temptation to nitpick, to continue the mean-spiritedness that has infected our nation and has made a sport out of making sport of someone we don’t particularly like. The level of political intolerance and nasty rhetoric seems to have increased considerably during the last couple of years. Were the commentators and comedians to blame or did the campaigns set the tone that others mimicked? It doesn’t matter today. The election is over and both candidates, in their respective concession and acceptance speeches, achieved the level of eloquence we should see during a campaign, not just at the end.

Mr. McCain began his speech by asking the crowd to stop booing at the name of Barack Obama. And then he urged his supporters to join him in congratulating the next president and in offering Mr. Obama “our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromise to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited. Whatever our differences,” he continued, “we are fellow Americans.”

It is natural, he said, to feel disappointment. “But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.”

Mr. Obama echoed in his acceptance speech that call for national unity. He told the world that the citizens of our nation “have never been a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of America.”

And then, on a night filled with history, he called forward the memory of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican from Illinois, who was the first to carry his party’s banner to the White House. “As Lincoln said to a nation more divided than ours,” he said, “we are not enemies, but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.”

That statement answers the second email I received the morning after the election, sent by a person who wrote, “He will never be MY president.” Our political system, the envy of the world, allows us to embrace fully the victor while guarding the house and peering deep into the night and listening. Then, if we find ourselves at odds with what comes to our front door, we can take up our ballot, not our rifle, and change our leadership again.

John David Powell is an award-winning Internet columnist and writer. His email address is johndavidpowell@yahoo.com.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bulldinky; dethroneantichrist; election; mccain; obama; politics; youmustbejoking
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To: John David Powell
That’s why we the people need to cut him some slack ...

I will cut LaBomba as much slack as he and the rest of the 'Rats cut Bush during the last eight years. Deal? No? Why not?

... and resist the temptation to nitpick, ...

I won't nitpick Obortion any more than he and the 'rats did Bush. That means Obomba will get blamed for every hurricane, every too hot summer or too cold winter, every downturn in the economy, every setback abroad, ebery time I have diarrhea or my kid has a cold, every time my wife burns the supper, it will all be "Obomba's fault!"

... to continue the mean-spiritedness that has infected our nation and has made a sport out of making sport of someone we don’t particularly like.

Hey, I won't be any more "mean-spirited" than the 'Rats have been. Check with Joe Wurtzelbacher on that.

61 posted on 11/07/2008 7:29:22 AM PST by chimera
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To: John David Powell

Two teens fatally shot on South Side

November 7, 2008
Sun-Times News Group

Two teenagers were fatally shot Thursday on Chicago’s South Side.

The boys, ages 15 and 17, were shot in the 6300 block of South Laflin Street, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. The 15-year-old was pronounced dead on the scene at 7:06 p.m. and the 17-year-old at 7:05 p.m. Autopsies are scheduled for later Friday.

Police responded to the shooting about 5:15 p.m. and found the teens unresponsive, police News Affairs Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti said.

Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said one teen was found dead in the street and the other was found in an alley between Laflin and Justine streets.

Wentworth Area detectives are investigating.


62 posted on 11/07/2008 7:36:45 AM PST by KeyLargo
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To: John David Powell
we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.”

Every time someone says this, a cosmic fist should come out of the air and punch them right in the kisser. The country never stands still waiting for some politician or pundit to "get it moving."

This is a presidency acquired through lies, fraud and deceit. They were willing to do anything to obtain power and will do anything to keep it. Let's not fool ourselves.

63 posted on 11/07/2008 7:40:05 AM PST by Bahbah (Typical white person-Snow white)
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To: John David Powell

I will give the same amount of respect, consideration, and benefit of the doubt to “the One”, as the Dems, media, KOS kids, and DUmmies, gave to Bush.


64 posted on 11/07/2008 7:43:26 AM PST by RonboTex (Go ahead... Make my day.)
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To: LRS

Heard about on some show while surfing on the radion this morning. Don’t we have child labor laws? A child can only work, for money, at a certain age and for a limited number of hours in a day, week and month? This reads as mandatory conscription, for a child not less(there ia “non-productive” retiree component as well, for those of you over 55 years}.

Have to pull out my little red book of the constitution but there is a 13th ammendment that prohibites the government or anyone else from requiring another American to perform some servile act.

Who the hell gave these guys the imprimature to require any of us, much less a child, to perform a public act of service, in a function they choose? This is not an act of charity. It is work even if they say you will get something return. For only you decide if you want to give your time away for free or if there will be a reciprical value for your work. You decide what the terms are and what your service is worth. Not the government.

Gracious service to another human being is a charity ONLY when performed of your own volition.


65 posted on 11/07/2008 8:05:40 AM PST by Vendome
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To: John David Powell

Absolutely not.


66 posted on 11/07/2008 8:17:50 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: LADY J

It’s amazing, isn’t it? No voter fraud.


67 posted on 11/07/2008 8:21:49 AM PST by tropical
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To: John David Powell

After eight years of some of the most vicious, nasty, outrageous, vitriolic, crude, rude and lewd remarks made about President Bush and his administration, now we’re all supposed to come together and support the new administration?

Democrats shouldn’t expect a better level of respect than they showed the previous administration.


68 posted on 11/07/2008 8:24:40 AM PST by tropical
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To: John David Powell

After eight years of some of the most vicious, nasty, outrageous, vitriolic, crude, rude and lewd remarks made about President Bush and his administration, now we’re all supposed to come together and support the new administration?

Democrats shouldn’t expect a better level of respect than they showed the previous administration.


69 posted on 11/07/2008 8:24:44 AM PST by tropical
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To: John David Powell

No slack, no mercy, no kowtow

He is unacceptable


70 posted on 11/07/2008 8:25:07 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Save America......... put out lots of waferin)
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To: John David Powell
No slack is merited.

Obama's first act as President-Elect was to select this guy to be White House Chief of Staff.

71 posted on 11/07/2008 8:28:30 AM PST by Interesting Times (For the truth about "swift boating" see ToSetTheRecordStraight.com)
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To: John David Powell
Yes, there was much anger and even considerable suspicion regarding the election, bad feelings that remain to this day. But it’s different this time.

Sure. And do you know what's different about it? The Dems won. That's the only difference.

What you are proposing is two sets of rules here, essentially the same followed by the partisan MSM. I am disinclined to embrace unity with people who have spent the last two decades spitting at me. The Dems have set the standard for a minority position: lies, hatred, crudity, and unreasoning fury every time anything doesn't go their way. It's payback time.

No unity. No support. No slack. No sale.

72 posted on 11/07/2008 8:43:44 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: John David Powell

I intend to respect the office of POTUS! Just as in the military you must respect the rank, even if the person filling the position is a d#ckhead!

But, if you think I am going to “cut him some slack” and lower my expectations - you are wrong, dead wrong!
Senator Obama promised affordable energy, more jobs, no strip-mining of the 2nd amendment, insurance for my family, rainbows, unicorns, lions sleeping with the lambs, foreign nations knocking on our doors with flowers and love beads!
I am not going to ACCEPT anything less!

Most of the US public and all of the world didn’t give President Bush any slack, so why should we give this man any?


73 posted on 11/07/2008 9:10:20 AM PST by ExTxMarine (For whatsoe'ver their sufferings were before; that change they covet makes them suffer more. -Dryden)
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To: John David Powell
Obama's speech on faith.
74 posted on 11/07/2008 9:10:45 AM PST by Brian S. Fitzgerald
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To: John David Powell
I plan on giving President Obama the same respect the left has shown to President Bush. I have already begun practicing “It's O’s fault!” so it is a natural response to anything bad.
75 posted on 11/07/2008 9:15:41 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Nemo me impune lacessit.)
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To: John David Powell

Mr. Powell, my country is going down the toilet by just having elected a Marxist, whom I pray will be gone in 4 years...I hope I am still alive to see it...I reserve the right to nit pick, b*tch, moan, and anything else I choose to do...giving BO any slack is not an option....


76 posted on 11/07/2008 9:49:19 AM PST by little-e (Chloe's mom..)
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To: John David Powell

“Cut him slack.”

Fuggetaboutit.

Dethrone the anti-Christ. Drive it back to Hell whence it came, along with all its minions, pelosi, reid, rahm, soros, etc.


77 posted on 11/07/2008 10:13:36 AM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: John David Powell

I don’t give slack to liars.


78 posted on 11/07/2008 10:15:31 AM PST by linn37
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To: John David Powell

Yeah, right...
I’m not about to cut that steaming pantload any slack.


79 posted on 11/07/2008 10:15:32 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Jagman
What was that name the lefty loons always called Bush?
Oh yeah... the "Chimp".

Ah welll.... I wonder if "turnabout is fair play"?

80 posted on 11/07/2008 10:22:34 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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