Obama so far......

First off, I want to acknowledge the fact that Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States. I will oppose him when I must, but I will support him in all that I can. He'll be my President and Commander-in-Chief. May God grant him wisdom and strength, and success for our country in the War on Terror.

So, cabinet appointments. I have to say that apart from the social issues (which are hugely important), the names leaked so far are awesome. This is not a lefty cabinet. Geithner, Clinton, Jones, Gates...I hope all of it is true. None of these people are lefties when it comes to their respective job descriptions. You can't hope for better as a conservative than these names. After all, this is a Democratic administration. Obama could have taken this country off a cliff if he wanted to. He has the power and the mandate. This means Obama isn't an ideologue. The real danger with Obama, and I have thought this for quite a while, is the social issues. On the economy and foreign policy, he is in general wise and sensible. I believe he is a man of good intent, even on the social issues, but he must be opposed on those issues. His beliefs are wholly out of sync with what is right there.

So here's hoping the foreign policy appointments pan out and that Mr. Obama will make good decisions for this country and the world. Hey, a bright spot: there ain't gonna be any Monica's in this White House. The Obamas, despite their wrong social beliefs, have respect for the Oval Office and will not defame it. That is nice to know. I cannot do a Clinton redux. The Obamas also respect the military greatly. That is also nice to know.

So, we're off to a good start as Mitch McConnell said.

The difference in character between McCain and Palin

I hope you'll forgive my French, but I am pissed off today, majorly. I'm conservative, and so Senator Obama cannot be my candidate this election. He would do great damage to this country, no matter his intent.

I am also human. Senator Obama lost his grandmother today, on the eve of his possible election to the Presidency of the United States. As anyone who has followed this election closely knows, Senator Obama is a 20th Century man in the sense that he is very, very reticent and does not like to show emotion in public. He's an extremely private person. Tonight, there were tears streaming down his face after he spoke about his grandmother.

You would think that the opposing candidates would be able to summon the grace and maturity to recognize this loss and back off the personal attacks a bit. In the case of Senator John McCain, you would be right. He is a man of profound character, wisdom, and life experience, and he showed that.

It was apparently too much to ask of Gvernor Palin, who showed disgustingly poor class and an incredible lack of simple human grace. She couldn't bring herself to condemn comments from Hank Williams Jr. that Senator Obama does not like the national anthem. She couldn't stop herself from dredging up that old quote from Senator Obama's wife about being proud of America, as she said that she and Mr. Williams had always been proud to be Americans. Her behavior was morally repugnant, and it was a dishonorable thing that she did today.

When somebody's going through a tough time, you back off the personal attacks. You sure as hell don't question his patriotism.

Send her back to Alaska and perhaps in ten years she'll be fit for high office.

The future

What does the future hold? Senator Obama had a solid lead at this point, with just over 22 days to go. We are facing a crossroads in our history: will we take a left turn, or will we go to the center with McCain? Will we allow liberal Supreme Court Justices to be appointed and keep Roe vs. Wade for the next twenty years? Will we instead elect McCain and possibly overturn Roe within the next four years?

John McCain has a lot of faults. Campaigns tend to cheapen and lessen the honor and courage and dignity of men, and this one has been no different. But underneath all the invective and dishonesty and fudging of the truth is a man whose character was formed long ago. His life has always been devoted to his country, and he has tried, often at great cost, to do what is honorable and right. He has fallen short many times, but where he fell many others had never even reached for. He is old now, but I'm hoping that America will give him one more chance to serve, one more mission to complete, one more order to follow.

Barack Obama is one of the most profoundly interesting politicians of our lifetime. As a conservative, I disagree with him on several very important issues. But he has a wisdom far beyond his years, and a tempered view of what is possible in life that is rare among liberals. I believe this is because of the life he has lived. We conservatives like to say that he is arrogant, pollyannish, and pie-in-the-sky, a man who never struggled to get where he is.

I believe only the first to even remotely resemble the truth, and perhaps one day he will get his chance to lead this great country. Perhaps when that day comes, he will have realized the poverty of his pro-abortion position. One can only hope. I sincerely do.

Either way, America will live on. It is up to us to preserve her greatness and ideals, and as others have said, keep that beacon shining brightly. Whoever America chooses as her president, I wish ourselves luck in one of the most challenging times we have ever faced. May God Bless America.

Politics isn't worth someone's life

Angry Republicans, Democrats, and Americans for that matter: politics isn't worth a man's life. The election of Barack Obama as president would do great damage to this country in a few important ways, namely the social issues. I understand that, and I wish it were not so. But I cannot countenance the rage I have seen and the threats to his life and call myself a honorable, moral, and Christian person. This is not right, America. Everyone needs to calm down.

This is a man who has faced greater danger every single day of this campaign than we know, partly because he is black, partly because his name sounds Arabic, partly because of his upbringing. He received Secret Service protection earlier than any candidate in history. Racism and ethnic-ism, if you will, are declining in this country, but the kooks are out there. All they need is a little rage and scare tactics to bring them out. That is why it is not only irresponsible but dangerous for McCain, Palin, and conservatives to pretend that nothing is happening out there and that all they are doing is asking legitimate questions about Senator Obama's record.

We all know about the sustained smear campaign on the internet. As others have said, every time someone introduces McCain at rallies by reffering to Senator Obama's middle name, it legitamizes these smears and fear of the 'other': People hear that, and many no doubt have gotten the bogus emails, and they think: perhaps he's a terrorist. Perhaps he hates America. Perhaps he hates the troops.

McCain's error is not so much that what he is saying is directly contributing to the rage and inciting these remarks; he doesn't intend for that to happen. His great failure has been that he is not strongly condemning these remarks, and the rage in general. He needs to. This is dangerous and it needs to stop.

I'm a conservative and I don't want Obama to get elected. But this isn't the way to do it, folks. It's wrong.

How can Obama leave his brother without money?

An odd story today in the Telegraph, a UK paper: apparently the Italian Edition of Vanity Fair (I am thankfully ignorant of the rest of its contents) has found George Hussein Onyango Obama, Senator Barack Obama's brother. He is Barack Hussein Obama's son, as Senator Obama is, but by a different mother than Senator Obama. And he lives on less than a dollar a day, in a hut in Kenya.

He's met Obama twice. We don't know the full story here, but I think, looking at the article, that it is at the very least odd that Senator Obama has apparently just forgotten about his brother. How can you allow your own brother to live in poverty while you run for president? I realize that Obama has somewhat tenous ties to the Kenyan side of his family, but ask yourself: could you allow your brother to live in poverty while you yourself are rich? Not just that, but could you all but ignore your brother and meet him only twice in almost thirty years? It sounds callous to me, again without knowing the full story.

I think it bears some investigation, if only to determine exactly what kind of person the Senator truly is, behind all the marketing and the media images.

The cowardice of the West enabled Russia's brutality

Abraham Lincoln said that the United States would be defeated, if defeat came, not from without but from within. I think this can be expanded to include the entire West. We will be defeated not from without, but from within. The conflict in Georgia, and the months and years that led up to it, has been a disgusting display of Western weakness, naivete, pusillanimity, cowardice, and appeasement.

Schroeder says that the conflict is Saakashvili's fault. A greater insanity has never come out of that traitor's mouth. He, along with Chirac, and now Merkel and Sarkozy, bear much of the responsibility for the ravaging of Georgia. In April, France and Germany (and others) denied Georgia the NATO Membership Action Plan. As Saakashvili correctly said, Russia perceived this as the new Munich. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that Putin would have initiated this conflict had Georgia been given the plan.

They did this because they knew they could get away with it. After years of accommodation and appeasement, none of our words mattered to them. They ignored our calls for an end to the conflict. They have strutted around Georgia for a week, doing as they please. They threatened Poland with nuclear attack. They know that we are weak. The United States alone cannot isolate Russia; with the existing institutions, only a united West can do this. There was and is a chance for us to turn the tables on Russia and turn this military 'adventure' into a large strategic blunder, but only if we are united and take the necessary steps. I do not see this happening.

Merkel said on Friday that Russia's actions were "disproportionate in some aspects."

This is an appalling statement that reflects either a vast misunderstanding of the conflict, or the reality of a nation utterly beholden to Russian energy supplies. I think the latter.

The reality is that there wasn't much we could do after the invasion started, although we certainly could have been tougher. The tragedy of Georgia is that we didn't have the courage and strength to prevent the conflict months ago, when we had the chance. We were like the Republicans trying to regain their values six months before the election, after eight years of pigging out at the trough; we tried to get Russia to respect our wishes after eight years of appeasement and accommodation. It doesn't work that way, folks.

Will Russia lose, in the end? Yes. But if we keep on this same course, it will be many years from now indeed. France and Germany have blood on their hands, Georgian blood. Perhaps they will reconsider their opposition to Georgian NATO membership.

Russia returns to its history..

The Russians refuse to move past their sordid history; blind to its lessons, they cannot escape the vice-grip of their own brutal past. They were waiting for an opportunity, spoiling for a fight with Georgia, and they got one. This was not an innocent reaction to Georgian aggression; it was a pre-meditated attack that sought to use the excuse of Georgian involvement in South Ossetia as a way to send in their forces and message to the world.

The Russian attempt to blame this on Georgia and cry wolf is a laughably transparent attempt at obscuring Russian motives, which are singularly dark and brutal. Once again, Russia returns to its past, a time of autocratic brutality that has always failed in the end. The intermediate time may prosper Putin and his pet, Medvedev, but this return to a dark past will impoverish the Russian people, as autocracy always does.

In the end, Russia will fail. Humiliation, rather than the greatness they have always desired, will be their fate. Freedom and opportunity is the only end-state that will ever allow true greatness. State power is a cheap imposter.

Unfortunately, Russia has not learned the lessons of history. This is their great fault; brutality and aggression are all they offered to the world for the last 100 years. Rather than learn from the deaths of millions of their people, the collapse of communism, and the bankruptcy of state control, they have closed their eyes to the truth and blustered blindly down the path to autocracy.

This will all end in failure. It is sad that Russia refuses to avoid this future by changing its present course. How many will have to die before Russia learns that true strength does not lie in military domination, but in democratic freedom?

Alex Castellanos wonders who Obama is..

The Republican Alex Castellanos wrote a good article this week about the essential question of this election: who is Barack Obama? Sure, we know his record in the State Senate. We know his record in the U.S. Senate. But we do not know the man himself. What, really, does he think about race? What does he truly believe about America? His view of this country, to echo the Wall Street Journal, is complex; this by itself is not a sin. But we have a right to know what the deepest beliefs of a candidate are, if indeed Barack Obama has such beliefs. His book is certainly tremendously well-written and candid, but we are left to wonder how he has changed since its publication nearly thirteen years ago.

He campaigns on reform, yet has reformed little. He campaigns on a new politics, yet has, as Ryan Lizza wrote, played by the rules throughout his political life.

His rise has more to do with his own self than it does with any particular idea or belief. The public is not asked to consider an ideology, but rather to consider the specialness of one man. He is undoubtedly a private person, as is John McCain. But Barack Obama is unknown, in part because he is new, but also because he does not tell us who he truly is. This is part of what makes Obama an interesting, even fascinating, figure on the political scene. But, as Castellanos says, it is forbidding; should the American people invest so much power in a man who is not known to them? I say that they should say no because of his abortion policies; moderates will disagree on that. Which brings us back to the first point: should this man be given the most powerful position on earth when he is unknown to many of his countrymen?

My argument is not that Obama is a liar, or that he is a man of evil intent; he may very well have the best of intentions. But we should give the presidency to a man who is done journeying on the road of self-knowledge, and who long ago decided who he must be.

Without further ado, here is part of the article:

In the defining moment of his life, McCain was willing to give everything for one thing, and that one thing was his country. Contrast that with Obama, who has told America that he is "a proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world." Obama is the talented salesman who seduced one state after another saying "Iowa, this is our moment," "Virginia, this is our moment," "Texas, this is our moment," and then tells Europe, "people of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment." How many times can Barack Obama sell the same moment to everyone, before he becomes Mel Brooks in "The Producers"? Who is Barack Obama? His campaign, as it reupholsters him before our eyes, says we can never know -- perhaps because Barack Obama does not know himself.

Dreams from My Father is a staggeringly beautiful book, lyrical, powerful and poetic. It is also the story of a man who has been many men, all named Barack Obama. In his own eyes, he is one race, but also another. He is an American, but also a Kenyan. He is from Hawaii and also the Kansas heartland. He is Harvard elite, then the Chicago streets. At times he decries the very clay from which he was made, only to remake himself again.

At each place and stage, as Barack Obama chronicles the chapters of his life, he tells us how he has re-invented himself, becoming the role he inhabits, though not falsely or in-authentically, like Bill Clinton. He actually seems to transform himself, becoming what must be next. He has been called distant, aloof and somewhat unapproachable, perhaps because we cannot approach what he does not have, a solid core. His soul seems to be molten and made up of dreams, which is at once breathtakingly inspiring and forbiddingly indeterminate. When this young man with the flowing, passionate core, when this candidate without the solid-center changes positions and transforms himself as we watch, it leaves Americans much more in doubt about who he is and how he would lead us. It also reveals an Obama of unapproachable arrogance and inestimable self-regard: He appears confident voters will appreciate his superiority regardless of where he journeys or what he becomes to meet his political ambitions.

John McCain is a complete and well-formed man. Barack Obama is completing himself. As he moves to fit what he perceives to be a right-of-center country, he distances himself from the simple and authentic passion of a young candidate who once pledged "Change We Can Believe In".

Barack Obama has taken a shameful turn

Senator Barack Obama's campaign was based on the fact that we need a new politics, that he was the candidate that would unify America and that he was not the black candidate but rather a candidate who happened to be black.

His refusal to impute racial prejudice to his opponents was one of his strongest selling points, signalling that he would not play the weak game of victimization and resentment that has so long defined Jesse Jackson and his ilk. He would be different, the post-racial candidate.

But yesterday he contradicted that central premise; he suggested, not once but three times, that his opponents would try to scare voters because he was black. He said "they" after talking about John McCain and did not specify who "they" was, thereby indicting Republicans in general.

Senator Obama used to be defined by his optimism and hopefulness about America and the future. It is hard to picture that candidate when looking at the Senator today. He has become increasingly grim, angry, resentful, and petty. It is beneath a candidate running for president of the United States to play the race card and it is doubly so for a candidate who made being post-racial such a central tenet of his campaign. His tone used to be that the Republican Party wasn't his opponent, but rather that cynicism was.

How far we are from that time. There is nothing more angry, nothing more cynical, than to suggest that Republicans in general would try to scare voters because Obama is black. That is simply victimization and it is, as John McCain's campaign said, shameful. If Senator Obama meant that fringe groups would try to play the race card, he could have said so and no one would dispute that. He did not. He said "they" about John McCain and did not specify.

Senator Obama risks the idea that beneath the placid and polite politician lies an angry and resentful man. This contradicts everything most Americans now think about Senator Obama. This is simply an inexplicable turn for him, and it is hard to see how he could explain his statements yesterday. Though I oppose Senator Obama, when he was campaigning in January and February he truly was the hopeful and optimistic candidate. It is sad to see him devolve from that to an increasingly dour and resentful man. Every week he does more damage to his campaign and while that is good for us, it is certainly sad to see. He seems to have completely lost all perspective, and control of his ego.

I believe that Senator Obama will lose. Perhaps by then he will have regained some semblance of dignity and honor, both of which he has abandoned to a very large degree in his quest to be the most powerful man on earth. What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul.

McCain needs new advisors

Marc Ambinder has some good analysis about what's going on here.

Senator John McCain needs to clean out the advisors who have pursued this negative strategy and replace them with people who know what they are doing. The American people aren't going to let McCain off for dishonesty and craveness because he was a heroic POW 30 years ago. What matters is NOW; these advisors' failure to realize that will damage McCain. They have consistently attributed false and craven motives to Senator Obama without evidence; they jumped to the most favorable conclusion for themselves about Obama's cancellation of a troop visit and used wounded soldiers as political props in the process. This action alone is worth absolute rejection and disgust.

Rather than wait and get the facts, they sent out statement after statement and released a false ad for their own political benefit. The craveness of this is beyond words. They also accused Obama of preferring to lose a war in order to win a political campaign. This charge is beyond belief; yet, rather than retract, they doubled down and have repeated it. This will play with rabid supporters; the rest of the electorate will wonder what has gone wrong with Senator McCain. To say that Senator Obama does not care about the lives or honor of soldiers as much as he cares about winning a campaign is a charge apt to Harry Reid and Nanci Pelosi, not Obama, who has voted for war funding in all but one instance, despite his opposition to the Iraq war for more than five years.

These advisors have brought a mocking and angry air to Senator McCain's campaign. I haven't mentioned Obama's efforts to tarnish his own character in this post; that's a whole other story I won't get into here. This is about McCain. These advisors don't have a clue about what they are doing and will damage McCain if they are not replaced. McCain hasn't just gone negative; he has made accusations about Obama that will simply not hold true to the American people. Now that the truth about the troop visit cancellation has come out, McCain's campaign will just look more foolish and sickeningly opportunistic.

There is plenty about Obama's record and views to illuminate and so make people think twice about voting for him; this is what the campaign should be doing. Instead, they are taking an implausable road with these accusations of lack of care for soldiers and the military and moral depravity concerning the Iraq war. Senator McCain should replace these advisors before his campaign becomes a snarky operation utterly without credibilty.

Americans won't listen to drivel in July

The latest ad from Senator McCain's campaign is absolutely pathetic and is a disgusting use of wounded soldiers for one's own political gain. This is why Americans are disgusted by politicians and this is why so many of them believe it is unimportant to vote. Shame on both of these people. You can take your talk about a more respectful campaign and send it to Mars. Maybe the Martians will actually believe it. No rational human being would.

See you later, Senators. Good riddance to your hypocrisy and dishonesty, which even by political standards is unbelievable. Is there anything you won't use? Is there anything sacred enough to preclude its abuse? If wounded soldiers isn't it, I can't imagine what it could be. I think this sentiment will be shared by many Americans, regardless of their political views. Senator McCain damaged his integrity and honor today. That is a fact. Senator Obama has been engaged in a month-long frontal assault on his own character. And we are witness to the whole pathetic show. Message to Americans: be skeptical of politicians. Always. Not cynical, but skeptical. Senators McCain and Obama have left me wishing for a break from it all. I don't think I'm alone.

See you both in August. I only wish that you would act on your words. Your recent conduct has been craven and disgusting. That's enough to make us tune out. Congratulations.

The new politics didn't last very long

For anyone who was inspired by the primaries, and has been appalled by the pathetic, cheap, petty, inane, and dishonest campaign we've seen so far in the general, I share your disappointment.

I guess all good things come to an end. No one wants politicians to be daisies who have no clue how the world works; but they had a chance, for the first time in maybe a generation, to have a better, more honest, more honorable campaign. I place the blame primarily on the Obama campaign, and not because I support McCain. It is simply a fact. McCain offered 10 historic town halls. Put aside the partisan glasses for a minute. Think about how incredible that would have been: just two countrymen campaigning to lead the greatest nation on earth, meeting face to face in front of ordinary Americans, without all the spin and the media and the junk. Just an honest debate. Think about how revolutionary that would have been, and how refreshing.

Instead, Obama rejected it. And since then, we have been treated to an ever-worsening mixture of spin, trash, pettiness, gaffes, fake outrage, and dishonesty. Obama didn't just change positions on two or three issues; the way he did it was so outrageous and disingenuous. This guy had America in his hand; we liked him, and we trusted him, even if we didn't agree. He has damaged it greatly with a month of fudging and idiocy.

Beyond that, his campaign has taken on a messianic tint, and it seems that the people around him have completely lost all humility. The candidate himself, with his already large ego, has lost control.

McCain has taken to effectively accusing Obama of treason, and an obscene level of cravenesss. As if Obama would rather lose a war, with all the deaths that that would entail, than lose a campaign. The insane and dark quality to this charge will damage McCain. But hey, why should we be surprised by anything these people do anymore?

The madness of 18 months of campaigning has degraded what is best about each man and elevated what is worst. They should take a month off and give everyone a break from the idiocy, and get some perspective. What I wouldn't give for the snowy days of Iowa.

Jesse Jackson shouldn't talk

Jesse Jackson just demonstrated that the ultimate passing away of the old thinking about race will be one of the best things to happen to the African-American community in many a long year. Racism and slavery trapped their physical selves. Victimization and hatred trapped their minds. And Jesse Jackson and others have played no small part in this ugly continuation of slavery in a different form. True freedom results when an individual takes responsibility for his own life. As long as he blames another for his own failings, he can never be free. His body is free, but his mind is not. Victimhood, and cries of racism where none exists, will never advance the cause of freedom in this country. It will never advance King's cause of one day being able to judge an individual not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.

Senator Obama has his own problems when it comes to race, but his candidacy and his status as one of two possibilities for the next president of the United States is a damning indictment of Jackson's thinking and the thinking of all those like him. I disagree vehemently with many of Senator Obama's policies, but the fact that America is one step from putting in his hands the leadership of the most powerful nation on earth should be proof enough that racism, while it still exists, is rare and declining.

Before he speaks of Senator Obama's manhood, perhaps Mr. Jackson should stop hiding behind the mantle of perceived racism, which relieves the aggrieved from taking responsibility for their own failures and chalks up disappointments to the racism and prejudice of others. At least Senator Obama had the courage to run as a candidate who happens to be black, rather than as a black candidate seeking payment for America's racial sins.

Can the 'better politics' be rescued in this campaign?

Yes, but only if the two candidates commit to it. This past month has seen the sort of disingenuous, fatuous, facile, facetious, fake, dishonest, cynical, and negative campaigning that these candidates supposedly wanted to change. Senator Obama has broken his word twice, and has also shifted rhetorically on NAFTA and shifted factually on the D.C. gun ban.

Senator McCain has sent mixed messages about immigration, has reversed on drilling, and his campaign has distorted Senator Obama's positions on energy.

This is some of what has gone on. We have also had a nearly constant back-and-forth of petty politics and pathetic diversions. So much for the politics of hope. It has been very cynical.

This all probably wouldn't be surprising or especially disappointing if the two candidates hadn't stood for so much better in past times. The new politics is nearly the core of Obama's campaign, and is at least one of his greatest selling points. It's difficult to see how he could give a speech about a better politics at this point. It's all been a great disappointment so far. It will only change if the candidates change it.

A person would have thought that we would have a cleaner and more honest campaign with these candidates. It sure hasn't turned out that way so far. A very great disappointment. They had our attention, and dare I say, inspired some hope about politics.

Once again, we're seeing the folly of our hopes. It isn't too late to change it, but change it they must if we are to trust them.

We have to get real

Don't listen to people who say that this is an acceptable status quo. Our country is not heading in the right direction. People will always be able to say that it has always been like this, that we shouldn't get so worked up. I believe that human nature, and all that that portends and means, has always been the same and will remain unchanged until the end of this earth. That does NOT mean that where we are going is where we should be going, or that because we've faced problems before we should all sit back and relax because everything will turn out all right.

China is accelerating at an extraordinary rate, and will be our economic equal before long. Our politicians and our people have put off so many problems for so long. Think about this: we've been talking about energy independence for 30 years. We've been talking about healthcare since Johnson, back in the 60's. We haven't built a refinery in perhaps 30 years. Construction on the last nuclear reactor began in 1977. We talk and we talk and we talk. Polar bears, salmon, etc., seem more important to us than getting ourselves off of foreign oil so that we don't have to suck Saudi Arabia's kneecaps.

Some enviromentalists have become so unreasonable as to, in effect , usher in the destruction of this country's pre-eminence in the world. We know that we can't destroy the planet. We also know that we can't simply quit using oil; we don't have the technologies to do that right now. So what do we do in the meantime? Aren't most reasonable people in support of doing enough drilling so that we can effect the transformation from oil to other sources of fuel? The debate seems pathetic sometimes. No, we can't just drill whole hog. We have to begin the process of getting ourselves off of oil. We can't just feed the beast and provide no incentive to get ourselves off of foreign oil.

But neither can we not drill at all; this is NOT an option people. We don't have the technology to stop using oil immediately. That is just a fact right now. So would we rather have the oil under our control, from our own country, or do we want to continue this embarrassing and dangerous dependence on foreign oil? It's simple. It is not as complicated as some people would like it to be.

We can't be extreme in either direction. But we have to have enough oil to begin a transformation from oil to other energy sources. The only question is where should that oil come from. Our country, or from foreign nations.

We just have to be informed. And then we need to elect people that have the right ideas.

If we just continue the malaise and let awful politicians and special interests put their agenda before ours, nothing will change. It will continue to get worse.

This lack of involvement is not like the American spirit. In a democracy, we hold the power to change the direction of this nation. When we don't use that power, or use it unwisely, for a period of at least 40 years, then we end up in this situation where it seems impossible to change things because there are so many entrenched interests. When we lose hope, we stop participating. When we stop participating, the worst of our political culture takes over and entrenches itself, and the best of it is abandoned by the people it needs to create real change: us. The public.

So now, we have Pelosi and Reid. How these people were elected is beyond me. Their singular incompetence, their embarassing naivete about world events, their refusal to behave in an honest and honorable way, is every bit as worthy of denuciation and unelection as the Republican leadership that for years failed to honor the interests of their constituents and their nation. How we cannot see this is unreal. Ask yourselves, Democrats: you rail against the tactics of Republicans. You excoriate them for their supposed ruthlessness and dishonor, and their lack of concern for the national interest.

Tell me, honestly, that Democratic leadership since 2006 has been anything more than a changing of party symbols. You should listen to your new party leader on one important point, and one of the only ones about which he is right: it's rediculous to merely change the hands that control the levers of power, rather than the way in which that power is exercised.

Rather than a bipartisan desire to keep our country safe, to keep it ahead, to work toward the goal of the betterment of America, we see mostly the politicization of terrorism, of security, of energy independence. The Democratic party has been guilty of this for as long as some Rebublicans have been. We just ask that you put down the partisan shades and realize that.

We have work to do, folks

We can't look at politics, become frustrated, and then sit back down on the couch. This is a democracy; we have the power to elect and to unseat. If you aren't satisfied with the level of our national debate, get involved. When people, in a democracy, give up and believe that they can make very little little difference in the way politics works in America, if they accept that since politics has always been a dirty business (and it has, and always will be) that means we can't change it for the better or at least stem the tide, then it will decay. Everything, without proper care, decays. When citizens don't shine the bright light of accountability on our politics and politicians, human nature says that corruption, immorality, lies, inactivity, greed, etc. will take over to an ever greater degree.

We cannot afford to be dreaming idealists; politics has always been dirty and nasty. It always will be. Human nature does not change. However, that does NOT mean that we can't do better than we are now. We can. We have to elect more honest people. We have to stop electing those who pander to a disturbing degree. We have to get involved, so that politicians and others can't beat us with the complicated details of issues. We have to fight the unhealthy power of lobbyists and special interests. We have to expose liars and those who would undermine our country.

In races featuring two people we will never agree with, we have to support the one with better character. This is happening right now in the Democratic race. I will never agree with Senator Obama on a host of issues, and will be supporting McCain in the fall, but the individual with the better character is winning that race.

We have to have our feet planted firmly in reality; we have to have concrete solutions to problems, and do the slow and laborious work of changing politics for the better. There is no grand system to change, no silver bullet that will allow everyone to stop playing hardball and play clean. That's fallacy. The world is a hard place, and politics will always reflect that world. But we have to do better.