I’m thankful for Barack Obama. . .

When Obama was elected as chairman of the Harvard Law review after as close, contentious, election, it was the blacks and liberals who complained about the job he did as editor. Let’s hope this is true again. Maybe he will be like Clinton and govern according to the polls.

If this will be Bush’s third term in terms of administration and agenda, it’ll be a return, I hope, of the Great Communicator in terms of great speeches. What I disliked most about Bush II was his inability to communicate his agenda and his love for his country, to the country and the world.

But I am grateful for George Bush as well.

I can’t honestly say that I’m thankful for Pres. Elect Obama, though I shall pray for him as president. I am grateful for and a bit astonished by his centrist appointments and policy statements, though will reserve judgment for awhile until he takes office and makes decisions.

I do intend to try to be decent and respectful, thoughnot uncritical, of Pres. Obama, as I’ve been appalled at the rude, uncivil, often savage criticism of Pres. Bush.

#5 Phillip.

Obama will make court appointments of justices who will relate to those who are voiceless or powerless in society (being inconsistently blind to the fact that the unborn are just this very constituency! but then the founding fathers were blind as to the humanity of slaves… so… there is hope even in an inhuman inconsistency…).

His court appointments will be more conservative than the warren court. Obama has said that he would not be pleased with similar decisions happening today. His philosophy is that societal change has to happen from the ground up. he was critical of the civil rights movement because he thought that they relied too much on the courts and not enough on community activism. He will be moderate to conservative legally with a huge blindspot on abortion that will actually be a glaring inconsistency with his views.

he will not be a conservative in the sense of being a libertarian small government james madison type. He will be a liberal definately. but he will be a liberal in the general tradition of FDR and LBJ.

on social issues he believes that the government (courts legislatures and executive) should rarely get ahead of the general popular consensus. What that will probably look like is that he will use the bully pulpit to talk up his views but the actually policies will disappoint liberal activists as being too “timid.” They actually won´t be timid or even politically calculating, they will follow the policy ideal I just articulated. He will try to achieve as broad a consensus as possible.

he was sincere when he noted that 47% of the populace voted for mc cain and that he needs to be mindful that he is their president as well even though he feels he has a mandate.

so there it is. he will not be a conservative. but he will be solidly in the mainstream of democratic party liberalism. on the moderate/conservative side. consistently so. no “sudden moves” will be the mantra.

obama also had someone in the running for a position who was a participant in the decisions to torture american-held prisoners. I am truly hoping that he follows through on his campaign rhetoric on the unacceptability of any and all torture and respect for habius corpus.

torture is not even about “human rights”. it is about reducing a human to a subhuman. I mean both the tortured and the torturer.

it also mean the ultimate form of removal of freedom. inflicting physical and mental pain to the extent that the victim has no choice other than to do ANYTHING at all his captors require.

It also changes who we are and what we stand for as a people. it is not merely a slippery slope. it is way beyond that. it makes us into the very evil we claim to fight against. regular people have evil in them because they are sinners. the horrors of abu gherab were not perpetrated by monsters. they were perpetrated by ordinary people like you and me who were not properly restrained by the rule of law. the power to become evil and torture and do unspeakable things is in each and every one of us. THIS is exactly why our founders talked so much about the “rule of law” vs the “rule of men”.

I am not at all certain that Obama will not cave in here. this troubles me greatly.

#11 rhetoricprof

so far, what in his ACTUAL actions since he started campaigning 2 years ago, would suggest that he is presenting himself dishonestly?

FW, the most significant action would have to be the forged Certificate of Live Birth from Hawaii, when his grandmother says she was at his birth in Mumbasa, Kenya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDIVEfVGLBQ

Why has he spent $1Mil in legal fees to seal his birth records? It’s easy to produce a birth certificate. The Constitution requires that the President be a natural born citizen.

To your premise: Why would I only care what he’s done for the last 2 years?

I only posted some of the evidence I have collected. I don’t want to be pedantic, and this isn’t my blog.

You are eristic.