Fixing America, Maybe

I was happy to hear that the democratic party has settled its self-inflicted wound regarding the Florida and Michigan primaries, and that this will make Obama their presumptive nominee. He has run a clean and respectable campaign, and this bodes well for what he might do as president.

With all due respect to Hillary Clinton, we don't need any more royal families in America. She may be qualified to be president, but she has too much personal baggage and she owes too many favors to too many people. And, I really hate to mention it but I don't savor the thought of Bill Clinton being back in the White House where his personal conduct disgraced him and poisoned his administration.

Hopefully, the race for president is now mostly over. I've watched and listened to John McCain, and he's a loser. He is a man of another age, not the 21st century. He's consumed with the military and the threat of terrorism, not with making America internally strong again. He's flip-flopped on several major issues in order to court the right wing of the republican party, and these flip-flops will be highlighted by Obama's campaign. Does he really believe in anything? And, McCain is just too old. As a robust almost 64-year-old, more robust than McCain, I can tell you that I don't have the energy to be president. The oval office is not for afternoon naps! Obama should win in November.

My hope is that Obama will act deliberately to address the systemic issues that afflict America today. We don't need inflammatory rhetoric like "the war on terror". We need rational discourse, fact-based deliberations, and legislation and regulation that will slowly bring us to a new place. That will require Obama to marginalize both the wacko right and the wacko left. Can we get out of Iraq smoothly? Can we fund the entitlements without going bankrupt? Can we make major progress on energy independence? Can we fix education? Obama will need a really smart team to solve these problems, and I hope he is smart enough to recruit them.

The future is always uncertain, and things often go in unanticipated directions. But we can only do what we truly believe is the "right thing" at each moment, and then go from there. Tonight I think Obama is on the right track, and I've sent him some cash. Here's hoping it turns out to be a good investment!