I hope...

Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States. I am very glad that we have finally overcome racial barriers in the White House and have elected a black President.

I just wish it had been a different black President.

Obama ran under slogans of "Hope" and "Change." I am trying to be hopeful that the changes he will bring to the United States are good ones. My concerns have nothing to do with race, but with his policies, his past voting record, and his associations.

He has demonstrated in private, although he denies it in public, that he is strongly pro-Arab and anti-Israel. He has associated with terrorists inside and outside the United States. I can't help wondering where some of that $700 million in campaign money came from that put him in office. I hope that it wasn't from anti-American Arab groups seeking to buy the Presidency. I hope that he won't jeopardize our relationship with Israel, our only solid ally in the Middle East.

For further implications of his Muslim heritage on U.S. foreign relations, see the following article: Barack Obama Through Muslim Eyes

He says that he will be bipartisan and bring the country together, but his campaign has been very divisive, pitting poor against rich, blue collar against white collar, employers against employees. Until pressured to change his position, he approved of the reversed racism preached by Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I hope that he really meant what he said in his acceptance speech and will truly bring America together.

I hope that he really believes in the right of everyone to medical care... including babies born alive despite attempts to abort them.

I hope that he won't drive businesses and entrepreneurs out of the country with his high taxes, and bankrupt the coal industry, and prevent us from drilling our own oil or building new nuclear power plants to create energy independence.

I hope that he won't tax the rest of us into another Great Depression. I have to say that I have lost much of my incentive to go back to work full time, because if I do, we will be in the "wealthiest American" category with a combined income of more than $120,000.

I hope that he can truly reform the health care system. I hope he'll start with clamping down on the trial lawyers that drive everyone's cost up.

I hope that he won't appoint radical judges that will re-write the Constitution from the bench according to popular opinion, rather than the law of the land. I hope he won't appoint judges who will oppress religious freedom, by taking away the freedom of speech of pastors in the pulpit, and the tax-exempt status of churches who refuse to perform gay marriage, and take away our right to keep and bear arms.

I hope that our enemies don't feel emboldened by his inexperience, and that he doesn't reduce our military to a feeble shell the way Clinton did. I hope he doesn't destroy our diplomatic powers by making the kinds of foolish statements he made during the election about his foreign policy plans, basically announcing to the world what he intends to do, without even giving our allies a chance to sit down and discuss it first.

I hope that the steps he has taken towards a less radical point of view aren't just a facade he is using to get him into the White House. I hope that after the glow of the election fades, he doesn't suddenly become Nancy Pelosi's, Barbara Boxer's and Harry Reed's best friend.

I hope that he keeps his future promises longer than he kept his promise to accept matching public campaign funds.

I hope.

(Comments on this post are welcome from all sides.)