Hangover: The Morning After

A lot of people have been asking me what I think about the election yesterday, thinking I'm deeply saddened. They seem to think that I'm some football-fan Republican who hates the very idea of Barack Obama. That is NOT true. But, I do have some thoughts on the matter.

My first reaction was: "yep... just as I suspected." The numbers have been pushing Obama for weeks. A friend who thinks John McCain walks on water kept telling me to keep up the hope. When they called Ohio and Pennsylvania for Obama last night, giving him 200 Electoral Votes (out of 270 needed) before California even closed, I turned off the radio and watched TV. It was over. Even then, she accused me of being naive and told me McCain had a chance.

Truth is: Republicans lost this election on January 4 in Iowa. The minute they picked a bumpkin like Huckabee over significantly more qualified candidates, the GOP gave up and played dead. McCain kept up his "dead man walking" routine... but the election was over.

I'm just clad we aren't celebrating Hillary Clinton. She is why I donated to Barack Obama's primary campaign.

But, the big question in my mind is: What's Obama gonna do now?

The man was elected with such overwhelming hero worship, that his entire supporter base has set him up to fail. Obama has been riding the wave of "Hope" and "Change" without the pesky need of proving anything. I'm very interested to see what he is going to do now.

Because, once the confetti is cleaned up and everybody gets back to their normal lives... a President is stuck with the job. He has to make the decisions and lead the people. You can't talk about "Hope" and "Change" when you're the one signing the orders.

And, when Obama takes away my capital gains and makes it harder for small businesses to function--all in the name of "spreading the wealth around"--people have to come to understand a few important facts:
1) Class warfare doesn't breed hope... it makes people hate their boss (whether the boss deserves it or not)
2) Tax increases and wealth redistribution DO NOT WORK... they never have.
3) The people making more than $250,000 per year are the ones creating jobs for everybody else. Why do you want to cut their toes off?

So, on this morning after, I'm not angry or bitter or even unhappy (because I don't think a McCain administration would have been any better). In fact, I think the Obama administration will be a net positive for the country. He does improve our image around the world, just by being elected. But, I fear that we have a lot of major potholes (or sink holes) to get past before we see the true positive effects of the Obama administration.

I hope for one important consequence of an Obama administration: that the conservatives in this country can take a hint, regroup, and nominate a 2012 candidate in who is actually QUALIFIED to lead the country under conservative principles...

I'm currently pulling for Mitt Romney, but I would accept anyone who could run a decent campaign (currently, I don't think this list includes Palin... and certainly not the Huck-ster).

For now, McCain goes down in history as just another Bob Dole--an angry, annoying, old GOP has-been who got the nomination because it was "his turn" and not because he was qualified. On the bright side, McCain wasn't trounced quite as hard as Dole.

I'm watching the next four years (and next 12 months) with great interest to see what Barack Obama is going to do. And, I'm more interested to see what his supporters do when they realize his poop does, in fact, stink.

That is all.

Horatio


PS: And CA Proposition 8 passed... along with every other constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage. That was a bright, shining bit of news this morn.