YES, WE DID!
I've been relatively quiet about this past presidential campaign and election, except at home with WonderMom. I just felt I needed to express my views on the candidates and the election results. We're fiercely Independent voters, having NEVER voted a straight ticket! We commonly vote Republican for state offices to counter the overwhelming Democratic candidates coming out of Upstate... and did so this time.
I'm obviously an Obama supporter, and happy he won. He did win! McCain didn't lose, he was beaten by an opponent who had better ideas, a more forward looking, well thought out, and eloquently presented plan for the future. A candidate of a caliber we haven't seen in my adult lifetime.
I'm sorry, but I don't want my president to be a 'regular' guy, a Joe Sixpack! All of that senseless rhetoric just avoided talking about the real issues, and McCain's plans for solving our problems. I want my president to be smarter than me, and savvy enough to hold his own when dealing with those who would take advantage of us. I didn't see that in McCain, who asked us to trust that he knew how to solve our problems, and "had the scars to prove it". And then there was the lipsticked dipstick! What a bonehead move by McCain's campaign. The real McCain started to re-emerge in the last two weeks of the campaign, but it was too late, and he had the iceberg in tow!
Mr. Obama has renewed my hopes for the future of my kids and grandkids. I still believe they will not have the same level of lifestyle my middle class job afforded me to provide for them as they were growing up, but maybe not as depressed as I had imagined. We will see.
I have high expectations (probably too high) for Mr. Obama, and I strongly disagree with his position on amnesty for illegal aliens. You can't have everything, I guess. I'm certainly willing to give him a chance to change the course of the country before I complain about him. His performance on the campaign trail showed me he was a thinking man, not a platform slave. He can assimilate new information and change his plans and directions as needed. He knows he doesn't have all the answers and is very good at picking the right advisors. But he will be the decider, after carefully weighing of the facts. I expect him to have some serious disagreements with his Democratic congress, and get his way most of the time. I expect him to select members of his administration from all quarters of the political spectrum, and use their advice in shaping his decisions and the future of this country.
Much is being made of the fact that Obama is the first black POTUS. That's a good thing because it is a sign that we Americans are starting to grow up!
Maybe the black community voted for him because he was black, and I think they were entitled to do so, but I believe he was evaluated on his character and abilities and found to be superior.
It never crossed our minds, that he was black once we got to know him. Did we hold him to a higher standard than we would a white candidate? Probably, because we are a product of our past, however, our bias is not based on skin color, but on attitude and ideals, both of which we found agreeable in Mr. Obama. This is the same criteria to which we would hold any candidate.
OK! That's it. Comment if you like, disagree if you are of a mind to.
