Sunday, November 16, 2008

For the First Time in My Adult Life

To re-phrase Michelle Obama for the first time in my adult life I truly fear for my country. We have elected an unqualified unknown individual. No one really knows what Barack Obama will do in office. The only thing he is passionate about is his daily workouts.

Obama ran on promises of "hope" and "change" with very little detail as to what changes would be made and for what exactly we could hope. Obama has been carried on the shoulders of affirmative action his entire life. He has personally accomplished nothing but electoral success.

Obama was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review but apparently wrote nothing of merit during that time. Perhaps his writings from that time are sequestered like Hillary's thesis (about her mentor Saul Alinsky) which is under lock and key at Wellsley. Obama has published two memoirs but those tomes were probably written by former domestic terrorists Bill Ayres.

Obama's time in the Illinois legislature was unremarkable. He was the only member to stand and oppose a law which would require babies born after botched abortions be provided medical care rather then simply setting them aside and allowing them to die. I was living in Illinois in 2004 and we came quite close to electing some reformers to stop the time honored Chicago policy of "pay to play". Unfortunately Obama put his support behind the status quo and Mayor Daly and Governor Blagojevich were both re-elected. I think Obama promised change in Washington D.C. but in Chicago he supported business as usual.

Obama is extremely sensitive to criticism. Not a good quality in a President when nearly half of the nation is going to disagree with whatever he chooses to do on any issue. Luckily for Obama the media is on his side for the time being at least. Imagine the noise they would have made if President elect George W Bush had spent two weeks in a 30 million dollar property in Hawaii when he should have been preparing for his Presidency. Instead the media is swooning at the sight of our President-elect rising bare chested from the surf like Venus on a clam shell.

Oh well, I am basically an optimist and all his life Obama has done whatever made him look good. As President he will have to make good choices for the country is he wants to "look good".

Friday, November 14, 2008

ENOUGH WITH THE BUSH BASHING

When I learned that George W Bush planned to run for President I was pleased. His dad had been an okay President but I thought he could be better. Bush 41 was too much of a gentleman I hoped that Bush 43 would be tougher and more effective. He had been a successful Governor of Texas despite having a Democrat majority in the state legislature when he was elected there. I hoped that this Bush had more of his mom in him than his dad.

As soon as Bush announced his intention to run for President the attacks started. Throughout the campaign I felt my candidate was treated unfairly. Just a few days prior to the election Fox News broke a story that Bush had a DUI from twenty years ago. This and some ballot tampering in Florida kept the election close enough for Gore to mount an attempt to steal it. If Gore could, by hook or crook, reverse the Bush win in Florida he would be declared the winner of the 2000 Presidential election. The media supported Gore in every way they possibly could but through divine providence Bush prevailed and was inaugurated in January 2001.

The election was over but the anti-Bush campaign went on. Bush had naively promised a "new tone" so time and time again he reached out to the democrats. No matter what Bush did he was endlessly and almost universally criticized. National disgrace Ted Kennedy would accept an invitation to the White House to see a movie about the Cuban missile crisis and resume denigrating the President the following Monday morning in the Senate. President Bush would give an over the top complimentary speech while unveiling the Presidential portraits of Bill & Hillary Clinton, but Senator Clinton would never say anything complimentary about President Bush. When the country was attacked everyone came together for about 2 weeks. After that it was Bush Bashing business as usual. Hillary Clinton stood on the floor of the Senate holding the New York Times with a two inch headline screaming WHAT DID BUSH KNOW WHEN!

Throughout all these attacks President Bush never stooped to the level of his detractors. An organization named MoveOn.org ironically created to ask the country to move past the Clinton scandals was instrumental in keeping the "Bush was selected not elected" fallacy alive. George Soros spent 24 million dollars of his own money to help defeat Bush in 2004, but Bush prevailed once again. The term BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) was born. The President was attacked in movies, books (some portraying his assassination) and especially in print.
Bush supporters have suffered terribly. I have been personally slandered in emails from family members. I have been ordered out of my brother's home at night in the snow when I didn't have a car with me. In the past 8 years I have rarely had a moments peace from the relentless Bush Bashing. Anti-Bush comments can come from anywhere. The movie or TV show I am watching, my hairdresser, the radio host, the idiot making my sandwich at subway. I hadn't previously know how liberal sports writers were but I quickly found out. No matter the subject you were reading about there could always be an anti Bush zinger waiting to jump out at you. Once I encountered one in the food section of the Sun Sentinel. Anyone with anything negative to say about our President felt it was their civic duty to spout off at any time. Even shopping for Christmas cards I have to be subjected to cards coupling Bush's face in different expressions next to the faces of chimps.

If you dare to make your support for the President known (tee shirt, bumper sticker whatever) perfect strangers feel it is within their rights to challenge your opinion. They have managed to make it "controversial" for me to dare to support the President of the United States of America in my own country. I have been laughed at, given a thumbs down, confronted and insulted. My own and only sister has in my presence spit the word Republican as tho it were an expletive. My mother sent an email to me and other family members addressing the general infamy of Republicans and when I replied, sent a second email essentially apologizing for my existence. I try not to think about that one.

Enough Bush Bashers, for eight years I have cried, I have screamed I have lain awake with clenched fists. You have your skinny liberal messiah as President elect so get off my President George W Bush. Oh, and by the way between the two of them with worse hair and bigger ears Obama looks more like a chimp than W ever did.