Good Night, & Good Luck w/ Roundup – Updated

Good Luck, President-Elect Obama. You’ll be in charge of our Armed Forces – Commander-in-Chief to 2,200,000 brave men and women who serve and are willing to die for their country.

You’ll understand when I say I hope you’re up to the task (your resume is pretty thin) and that you’ll think about what is best for those troops and the honorable victory they are achieving in Iraq, before you embark on the creation of your domestic army. To start, maybe, as president, you could do something to make it easier for them to get their votes counted?

Our President at this moment is still George W. Bush, and he deserves a good deal more respect than he’s been given. When you’re sworn in, you’ll have my respect, too. It won’t be uncritical – not that you’ll care what this little blogger thinks, for as long as bloggers continue to run free – but I will manage to be respectful and fair, which is more than most lefty bloggers managed for President Bush, so you’re already ahead of the game.

I may have to use this transitional time, though, to burn off a little of my anger at the press, and to give a little tweak at the glaring double-standards I see in their treatment of you, compared to their treatment of Bush.

I know you’ll understand that, President-Elect Obama, because you’re going to be the President of the United States – part of a very exclusive group, whose members should share some sympathies for each other. And I know you won’t mind my noticing those double-standards because you know that the President cannot be too touchy; the President must have a sense of humor about himself, and a generosity of spirit, and a respect for free speech among the citizenry. Correct?

Yes, I knew you would have a sense of humor and generosity, and that you would respect free speech.

And with that in mind, if you would please put gas in my car and pay my mortgage for me, I’m sure we can be great friends! :-)

I’m so damn glad this election is over! Two years was too freaking long.

More:

Rachel Lucas: A great picture of poor, put-upon Sunny and advice to prevent hangovers.

Betsy Newmark: Our conflicts are based on deep ideological differences that we won’t ignore, but we can disagree without being ugly. Maybe Republicans can show the Democrats how to be a loyal opposition party without the total demonization that so many liberals have shown to prominent Republicans.

Well, considering how low the left has set that bar, I think we can manage it, as illustrated below:

Rick at Brutally Honest has more.

Slublog: refuses to hate like a liberal. Good!

Allahpundit: Congratulations

Scott Johnson: Ten theses on President-elect Obama

Siggy is thoughtful and quiet

Jonah Goldberg notes that it is a very great thing to have elected an African-American as president. Yeah, it is. I keep forgetting that Obama is African American. I believe a lot of Americans forget it. And that IS a great thing. As I said earlier this week – we’re a lot more post-racial than many realize.

Jeanette – like St. Thomas More – is the President’s good servant, but God’s first. Also, check out Sue in her comment section – she’s spot on about how the conservatives hurt themselves when they wholly abandoned Bush.

Dirty Harry offers a well written and exceedingly gracious congrats to Obama, and echoes some of my feelings. I will say though that what distresses me most about Obama’s win is what it has taught the press: that they can walk anyone they want through a primary and election, spinning, framing and marketing like wizards, burying anything they want buried, and completely controlling the narrative and the dialog. Having spent all of their credibility on Obama, they will now have to validate their choice, which means they’ll continue in unquestioning support, championing, rather than questioning, his leadership. Sadly, questioning policy and leadership is the most valuable thing they do. They’ll have forfeited the idea of “comforting the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable,” because they’ll be wholly invested in advocacy. THAT is the worst thing that happened, in this election – the loss of our open and free press.

Yeah…I’m a little staggered by the thought, myself.

The Onion: brilliant satire

Random Thoughts: Earnestly struggling

Mike Potemra: Yes we can

John Hawkins offers congratulations.

Dan Riehl: Offers congrats and feels free

Big Dog: A ranty but sincere-sounding congrats.

GatewayPundit: Congrats and a great picture. I can’t help noticing that the horrible, nazi rightwingers are managing to congratulate Obama and honor the office of the president – most graciously and even with a bit of humor – even with the wounded feelings, the misgivings, the distrust and the suspicion. Can you imagine what the last 8 years would have been like if the perpetually-adolescent left could have managed even a little of the same toward Bush? Somehow I doubt we’ll be seeing reports of conservatives having to go to therapy to deal with their drama-queen angst. No crybaby antics, no acting out. (Dirty Harry says some youths were taunting President Bush last night outside the White House – the left does not know how to win with magnanimity, or much class, it seems). No websites dedicated to weeping.

I wish I could write like Michael Gerson:

I come to this moment of national decision with deep concerns about the next president. His victory is likely to unleash an ideological and vengeful Democratic Congress. In the testing of a long campaign, Barack Obama has seemed thoughtful but sometimes hesitant and unsure of his bearings. He promises outreach and healing but holds to a liberalism that sees no need for innovation. And as the result of a financial panic that unfairly undermined all Republicans, Obama has stumbled into the most dangerous kind of victory. A mandate for change but not for ideas. A mandate without clear meaning.
[…]
This presidency in particular should be a source of pride even for those who do not share its priorities. An African American will take the oath of office blocks from where slaves were once housed in pens and sold for profit. He will sleep in a house built in part by slave labor, near the room where Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation with firm hand. He will host dinners where Teddy Roosevelt in 1901 entertained the first African American to be a formal dinner guest in the White House; command a military that was not officially integrated until 1948. Every event, every act, will complete a cycle of history. It will be the most dramatic possible demonstration that the promise of America — so long deferred — is not a lie.

I suspect I will have many substantive criticisms of the new administration, beginning soon enough. Today I have only one message for Barack Obama, who will be our president, my president: Hail to the chief.

And now….7 Big Questions…