OBAMA'S WIN--WE ALL WIN

As I listened late last night to the returns, I finally heard them call Pennsylvania and then a bit later Ohio into the Obama column. I felt relieved and settled back. I was now pretty certain that Obama was going to make it. We had a new President and he will be Barak Hussein Obama and I was happy for my nation and proud too.

I took a deep breath and settled back into the deep couch. Milos snuggled against my feet. November gets chilly around here. As I stared at the TV my mind drfited back to a full 21 months ago and I was back in our Florida winter-home. As I recall it was Sunday, February 11 2007, and I had jsut been reading a disturbing news report from the BBC on my laptop computer about the US military accusing Iran of supplying sophisticated roadside bombs to insurgents in Iraq. I seemed to me that the US was setting the stage for a larger war...probably including Iran. I was terribly angry with the Bush administration's always expanding war and its reactionary policies at home. For a change, and to lower my blood pressure, I switched to a piece in the Boston Herald about a black Illinois Senator who was running for the Presidency. His name was Barak Obama and he had been at a political rally in Ames Iowa. The report mentioned that he had spoken out against the war in Iraq, even stating that he thought that President Bush had "wasted lives" on the war in Iraq. This was a sentiment that I could agree with. I was unhappy with the campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton, who seemed to me to be positioning herself to be as thick-headed on the war as Bush, and that she was taking a positon I termed, "Bush lite". I knew that this Obama person was up against Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. As I read the piece, I was interrupted by the phone ringing. When it did rang, it booted me off of the wire I was using for a computer connection. I had to answer it.

"This Mr. Kalin?" asked a male voice with a liquidy north-Florida style, southern accent.

"Yes?" I said, questioning to myself whether I should actually identify myself.

"Mr. Kalin, I'm working for the Barak Obama campaign here in Jacksonville, and I am calling to urge you to support Senator Obama's campaign." The man had a straight forward approach and sounded honest to me. I'm big on my sense of trust. He got right to the point as he went through a short litany of Obama's credentials and legislative history.

"Oh...?" I paused. I generally had a way of putting off these pesky calls and was running through my mental roll-a-dex attempting to settle on an appropriated statement to get this guy off my line.

"Mr. Kalin, you there?"

"Yes, yes I am." My mind was racing, I knew that if I wanted to have some impact on this election, I had an opportunity now. The phrase, "Money talks" and "Put up or shut up" came to mind.

"Obama?"

"Senator Obama, he is running for the Presidency..."

"Yeah...I read about him."

"How much?"

"Anything you can give..."

I fumbled in my back pocket for my credit card. It was quick and easy. In a few minutes I had supported my first political candidate. It was about what I would have spent on a fancy dinner down A1A at my favorite dinner spot.

Much later, after having donated again, I learned from the campaign that I had been among the first one million small donors to Presidnet Obama's campaign. I followed his progress through all of the early nomination campaigns, the debates, more debates, and even read his two books.

I am very proud to have been an early supporter.

What about why he was successful?

Well it wasn't because he is a man with a black skin--as some would have it. I think the election results prove conclusively that most of us (excepting a few regions of the country we need not mention) looked beyond that and saw that under Obama's short, neat, curly hair he has a large and well-functioning brain. That's what I voted for--his brain, and that is gray in color..the same shade of gray we all have. The difference is that his gray matter seems to work better than most.

But the underlying reason for the success of Obama was George Bush: the people rightly rejected the ideologue-George Bush and his government. This President Bush lied (yes the exact and proper word for his deed) to involve this nation in a disastrous and unnecessary war. While engaged there, he squandered our reputation and the lives of thousands of our young men. Most of my countrymen leave out here the fact that his ill advised war alsokilled hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens...mostly women and children. His actions weakened our nation rather than strengthened it. Bush made us less safe. His incompetence, his use of torture, his illegal renditions, his disgraceful gulags, as well as his penchant for domestic spying and his revocation of the ancient right of habeus corpus, his hubris, and yes his stupidity all worked to the detriment of all of his countrymen and women. All those who supported his policies or who sat by silently by or who were conspirators in his malfeasance and deceit were rightly tarnished and deserve the evil that befalls them. The only legacy that George Bush will or should have is that he helped run his nation and his party into the ground. Thankfully, the people rose up against this demi-tyrant and deposed of him and his cohorts in the election rout that was the Obama revolution. Hurrah!

A second reason for President-elect Obama's success stems from the the political front. The Obama revolution is also the refutation of the vaunted Republican election scheme of "divide and conquer which was employed so effectively by Republicans as far back as Nixon in 1968 (Remember the "silent majority?"). The Republican election scam was designed to obfuscate and confuse voters so real issues need never be discussed. The real issues such as a faltering economy, the need for regulation in the markets, the massive deficit, the decay of the nation's infrastructure, health care, and the need for a truly functioning government were left undisclosed and not discussed. The old Republican wedge issue themes: small government, taxes, crime, "social security reform", abortion, gay marriage, all served only to divide up the electorate and garner votes.

But it did not work this time. Why? Perhaps because each of their wedge issues were overwhelmed by events or the policies of George Bush himself. On the issue of small government it was apparent to all that it was GWB who presided over the greatest expansion of Federal government in our recent history. That issue had little traction with voters. The "cut taxes issue" became moot when voters were faced with the fact that Bush's income tax cuts were simply pouring money into the open hands of the super wealthy while the government literally had to borrow two billion dollars a day from willing lenders abroad--just to stay afloat. Thus to make Bush's tax cuts permanent we would have been in the indefensible position of having to borrow money from abroad (and pay interest on it to boot!) so we could give it away as a tax break to the giant corporations and the super wealthy. The "fight crime" issue was a non-issue when there appeared to be more crime and corruption within government halls than on the streets. While the old "reform social security" political-saw seemed small potatoes when Bush proposed giving away hundreds of billions of dollars (for a total of an estimated one trillion dollars) to Wall Street Investment houses. The well-used abortion plank was employed as usual to split out the Catholics and conservative Christians, but these groups may have had more pressing economic issues laid out on their kitchen tables each night, such as how to pay the mortgage, fill the car's gas tank and heat the house this winter. So the Republican agenda was finally revealed as the scam that it is and how it would have us argue senselessly over who marries whom, over private issues between a woman and her physician, and similar smoke screens while eschewing real issues, such as the need for more inclusive and better health care, clean air, clean water, better schools and greater opportunity for our children.

Why? The oligarchs, plutocrats, titans of industry, barons of oil, and denizens of Wall Street and the privileged classes care little for or are simply unaware of' hoi plloi and their middle class' concerns. As a result, the mainstream Republican agenda is no longer a winner.
By today the election results have sunk in to Republican consciousness. Obama's landslide win of 349 vs 169 electoral votes and an eight million plurality in the popular vote over McCain struck home. Obama promised us change and change is on the way for the opposition party as well. The old wedge issues are not working. The electorate has "swept the bums out" and good riddance. We applaud the wise electorate.