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.
“That’s why we the people need to cut him some slack and resist the temptation to nitpick...”
You need to send out barf bags with your opinion. Why would I “cut some slack” to an enemy that has vowed to destroy my family and country?
A steaming pile of bull excrement.
“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. “
Let’s be honest, the only reason there were no hanging chads and such is because it was called for Obama. If it had been called for McCain, we’d still be recounting votes come Spring.
Only two choices:
Support a marxist or don’t. My duty is clear..
Gee. Maybe I have a problem with someone being a racist, socialist Marxist and the policies that might be enacted as a result of that.
Whether I like, dislike or don't know him personally doesn't make a damned bit of difference.
Gee, I wonder how long it will be before someone admonishes me for calling him a racist because he went to a so-called "church" that was run by a raging racist for twenty years and contributed lots of money to it? But hey, that isn't racist.
Calling someone "racist" for that IS considered racist by many people now.
That, and calling someone "macacca".
Welcome to 1984.
Sorry, don’t have the s.u.b.m.i.s.s.i.o.n gene in this pool.
OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED! OBAMA LIED AND FREEDOM DIED!
I’ll never cut him or any Democrat any slack....sorry!
Not after I’ve watched for the last 8 years of them tearing down Bush and the Republican’s.
Sorry but I don’t forget.
How about, HELL NO.
Instead, I think I’ll do the same thing the Democrats have done for last 8 years. Bitch, moan, groan, obstruct, sue, block, and be all around disagreeable with EVERY SINGLE THING HE DOES. If he walks on water, I’ll say, yea, but it was shallow. If he turns water into wine, I’ll complain it wasn’t Cabernet of my specific vintage. And don’t even get me started on the fish.
I got yer slack right here, John David Powell.
The greedy and the moochers have taken the last bullet of sweat they are gonna get from me. We are all French now. I want my 32 hour work week and two months holiday leave. I'm gonna sip on wine and complain about global cooling and the BAMMA Admin.
“but tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.”
considering that mr. imanuel has said that republicans can go f%^k themselves and his liberal cronies referred to president bush as hitler, a moron, a dolt, an idiot and worse, from day one, then the above statement is laughable on its face.
the adolescents who have won the election will be just that;
adolescent punks, dangerously wielding power for a transition to socialism and the “re-education” of conservatives who voted against them.
if they complain that the country has to get moving again, they must be reminded that the country was moving when they unleashed their venom on a republican president whose administration presided over a good economy.
all of those liberals can go f&^k themselves with the “derivatives” which got them into power.
IMHO
“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.”
Conveniently forgetting that President Bush won the second election in 2004 overwhelmingly and THEY STILL worked to undermine his presidency, the country and are still actively working to bash him.
“Then, if we find ourselves at odds with what comes to our front door, we can take up our ballot, not our rifle,”
This idiot hasn’t heard that things have changed.
Rifle first, ballot later, IMHO.
Payback’s a bitch. Doubled.
President Bush could not even claim his victory for weeks in the 2000 elections because of democRAT attempts to steal the election.
He has been insulted and degraded like no other president in memory.
I, for one, will not cut this poser or his comrades ANY slack until he is hounded out of office.
Then they can cut down the zebra curtians and fumigate the stench of AXE from the White House for a worthy occupant.
I wonder if there will be a footbath in the oval office to tear out?
“No.
Hell no.
I will not “cut him slack” and I will “nitpick” every chance I get.
That two-bit street hustling wanna-be muslim is NOT my president, he will never be my president.
I put the POS on about the same level as I did the Clintoon.
At least that bumbling bozo gave me a laugh once in a while...this buffoon will give me a coronary.”
I hear he will be taxing coronaries next SMAJ, so make sure your family is provided for/sarc.
I agree with your sentiment 100%. I’m tired of being part of the party that takes the “high road.” It just makes us easier to get picked off.
Unrelenting criticism here I come:)
I will cut him slack the way the other side cut Bush slack...
Zero’s Fault!
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