Obama and Hillary: Creating a Political "Super Strain"

You can go home now, Hillary. It is time for Americans to see the real Barack Obama minus the campaign distractions which have effectively swaddled from public view the private convictions of this man with a big smile and disarming charm.

Yes, it is time for the thin man to take what has been a skeletal presentation of his vision for the presidency and put some flesh on the bones. As the voting public we also need to grow up now and ask grown-up type questions. Personally, I don't care that Mr. Obama is racially mixed. Tell me his father was a Klingon and it won't shake me. But I would like to know if Mr. Obama believes that American tax dollars should benefit American citizens first. I think "race in America" is overblown. Many of the stories surrounding Mr. Obama are media attempts to keep Americans from looking deeper into the reflective pool of what is really causing America's economic and influential decline. It won't matter in five years if I am white and you are black if we are both fighting over the same pot of beans to feed our children. We DO have a looming global famine on the horizon, in case you have been napping with a Twinkie in your hand.

Mr. Obama can wish me a Merry Christmas or choose not to do so. Does he support our continuance as a nation with a strong nuclear deterrance program? Can he stand down the Chinese across the Strait of Taiwan if needed and can he tell Russia to take a leap? If a critical time comes when a nuclear arsenal is absolutely needed can he give the order without flinching? We had a prior president who ended a long and bloody war by giving such order. You don't have to like it, you can hate me for mentioning it, but the facts remain unchanged regarding the events of the final days of World War II. The nuclear package brought the injured parties to the negotiation table. End of discussion, unless of course you are the dope who thinks our nation can be defended by hippies playing ukeleles.

Our presidential hopeful can have a trained dove land on his shoulder during a campaign stop, as did Fidel Castro. But can he explain how his administration will work for peaceful resolution of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Can he accomplish it in a manner which convinces some of us that he has studied beyond History 101 at the university level? Believe it or not, events from one hundred years ago still have a tremendous bearing on the daily ebb and flow of conflict in the Middle East. Unless we engage a more congruent foreign policy which has both a coherent body of understanding regarding Islamic political theory and a concerted diplomatic effort things will not change anytime soon.

What is Mr. Obama going to do to reverse the trend of illegal immigration? Or will he abdicate his authority in this area? Our elected representatives have put expediency above principle for too long. It is time we demand a government that functions based on well-established principles of governance for our sovereign borders. These principles, based on economic good, have been scorned by those who suffer little impact from their neglectful inaction. The socioeconomic impact of illegal immigrants is catapulted onto the backs of the middle class.

There is so little we really know about Barack Obama. And just like a parent's stomach lurches the first time that smiling kid shows up at the door to take a daughter on her first date, our stomachs should lurch a bit.

But what makes my stomach flip a bit more is to consider a much worse scenario for centrist Republicans such as myself. Should Obama run on a ticket with Clinton is there the possibility that two ideologically weak candidates could become the political "super strain" to beat McCain? smile

Tammy Swofford
tammyswofford@yahoo.com