Posted on 12/18/2008 6:55:42 PM PST by NCjim
On election night, hope was palpable. A sort of jittery excitement filled the air at the Catoosa Democratic Headquarters in Ringgold, Ga. A year ago, the local party was lucky to have 20 people at a breakfast meeting. Now, giddy Obama supporters edged past each other in the crowded banquet hall, sharing smiles and ogling the vast array of T-shirts and buttons. “Your grandparents were right,” read one sticker, “Vote Democratic.”
For decades, this area has been Democratic. That’s the reason we are known for having some of the best public schools around. It’s the reason we have a fabulous library, and a learning center that not only rescues individual educations, but actually boosts the local economy by increasing wages so that it brings in more revenue than it costs taxpayers. Nationally, Democratic values have brought us the social security program that supports the elderly, a public education system that ensures every child in America has the right and responsibility to go to school, help for the mentally ill, assistance for the impoverished and health care for poor children.
Curiously, the Republican Party has managed over time to misconstrue the notion of family values. Somehow a number of Christian voters have been convinced that Christianity is about denying rights to people who don’t believe like we do. Jesus was never into that. Jesus came to heal the sick, bind up the broken hearted and preach good news to the poor.
As the hours passed and the soft drinks disappeared at the election party, it became apparent that Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States. Our excitement was tempered by the memories of the 2000 election. It was not until the election was called with a wide margin that the true celebration began. White Democrats clapped and laughed and danced in the streets, vaguely wondering why the black Democrats had slipped away early. Then the sound of church bells pealed through the chilly air.
For days, the reality of what had taken place was still sinking in. “I can’t stop crying every time I think about it,” wrote my friend in New York, sounding so much like another friend in Hawaii and another in Canada. Suddenly a nation known for its racial divide had leaped from prejudice redneck status to multiculturalism, becoming an inspiration for reconciliation advocates in Europe and all over the world.
Not one to bask long in the glory of a moment, Barack Obama immediately got back to work. Less than one month from the election, he has already chosen most of his officials and cabinet members, including Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker as top economic advisor. Obama’s choices have thus far proven to be centrists and have sometimes crossed party lines (case in point, keeping Robert Gates as defense chief.)
The task that lies before the president-elect is not an easy one. If the election was hard-won, economic and foreign policy success will be more difficult still. Some have even suggested that the Republicans were relieved not to win this cycle. After all, who wants to shoulder responsibility for the mess that Bush has made? The ship of state is not easy to turn around. It may take a decade or more to recover from the economic devastation of the Bush economy and quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then again, maybe it is all easier than it sounds. It doesn’t take a genius to do better than Bush; Obama is probably overqualified. How does one undo eight years of stupid? A lazy but clean solution would be simply to make a list of every policy Bush in enacted, and reverse it. The Patriot Act is a good place to start.
The problems Obama is inheriting are no more daunting than those faced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We love and revere FDR because he took on leadership at a time when the nation was utterly devastated. Through creative strokes of genius, FDR not only salvaged the economy; he used the crisis as an opportunity to build infrastructure, spur innovation and strengthen American ideals.
George W. Bush’s legacy as the worst president in history presents an opportunity to the next president. If Barack Obama acts timidly and only tweaks the failed Bush policies, he can expect to be caught in the same quicksand that has brought us to this point. If Obama acts boldly, he can create a legacy as a leader who brought the United States out of depression and war, into a time of peace and prosperity. On the heels of “the worst president ever,” Obama can be the best president yet.
January 20, 2001.
“On election night, hope was palpable.”
Typo - Dope was palpable...
“Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States”
I can hardly wait until these smug, arrogant, self-satisfied voters live to regret their hour of joy.
I have house plants with higher IQ's than this Democrat. Pathetic.
The uncharitable might point out that her idol has already declined to reverse a number of Bush policies. And that the Iraq war was not a Bush policy but a continuation of the Clinton policy that called for regime change in Iraq. And that was passed by Democrats. But I suspect that sort of realization might make our throne-kissing author's little head explode.
Jeannie’s breeder made the wrong “choice.”
She neglects to mention that the Democrat party has been the party of Slavery for two centuries.
Bush stupid? I don’t think so.
Socialist Obama evil? We shall all see in due time.
One things for certain, this article was written by a dumb liberal twit who should steer clear of pointed objects and wear one of those helmets so she doesn’t hurt herself.
The only real sense in which FDR salvaged our economy was by getting us involved in a truly major armed conflict, which may be a nice trick for turning around an ailing economy. but is hardly the type of thing you can count on when you need it.
Eight years of stupid...
Reagan, Bush, Quayle, Dole, Bush, and Cheney are of course the stupidest representatives the left have ever known. The candidates on the left are of course the wisest people on the planet. Who cares if they bastardize science to come to all sorts of illegitimate conclusions? Who cares if they try to force the nation to take dramatic destructive courses of action based on lies and misinformation?
Bush may not have done things that I wanted him to, but he’s nobody’s fool. He disagreed with my views, but that does not make him stupid.
On the other hand, we have folks like Gore, Kerry, and Obama, folks clearly unfit to hold the office of the President of the United States. I don’t say they are stupid, but their judgement and willingness to go outside the bounds of our Constitution really leave little doubt about their mental faculties.
I’m tired of the old worn out line that Republicans are stupid, and Democrats are brain trusts. That just isn’t born out in the real world.
The leading proof of it is the constant claim that it is, when it isn’t.
This person here has destroyed her argument before she even made it, with that dumb ass title.
James Earl Ray, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jeannie Babb Taylor...notice the pattern?
I don’t know about you all, but Obama is depressing me worse every time he opens his mouth. Four years of it is enough to make me consider keeping the tv OFF so I won’t have to listen to him. UH . . UH . . . UH . . . .
I wonder what “rights” she thinks Christians are trying to deny those that don’t believe like we do...
The right to OUR earned wealth, to be confiscated at gunpoint?
No one has any right that imposes an involuntary burden on another person.
So there we have it, Jesus was a socialist.
Ole Babbs is trying to out-stupid her namesake.
“Hope was palpable”?
Was that the name of the person waving the Soviet flag at the post-election rally?
They still are the party of slavery.
Overtax the producers, give it to the layabouts.
Sowing dollars in the Welfare Plantations, harvesting votes.
Oh, lefties argue this all the time. Of course, they are completely ignorant of the God-man relationship.
Charity isn't for the sole benefit of the receiver, it's mostly for the good of the giver. It is GOOD FOR YOUR HEART to give what you made with your own labor, VOLUNTARILY and with a Joyful heart.
2 Cor 9:7
They took control 2 years ago. A fact this author ignores.
Wow, I bet her lawn is green.
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