Our next president

In a couple of days, Mr Obama will be sworn in as the next president of the United States.

I wish him a successful presidency, not because I like him or like his ideas, but because I want this country to continue to thrive, and he will be the leader of this country; his failure can injure the entire country. As to my feelings toward him, I cannot shake the feeling that this country is entering a new era as he so often claims, but it is an era that will be diametrically opposed to much of what I believe in and what I think that this country has always believed in. I'm told that he is a great leader with so many accomplishments and so much to bring to the office. What has he done? What has he done in his life except to write, not one, but two books about himself. He was a state senator and as far as I can tell, did little to distinguish himself in that office except to find ways to win elections through the systematic removal of his opponents. And then he came to Washington as a Senator, where he did nothing except to run for the presidency. I'm told that he is a great orator.....I see he can deliver a great speech but does quite poorly when speaking extemporaniously. He is supposed to be full of great ideas, but I hear platitudes of giving something to everybody at no cost to anyone. I look at his associates and find an unrepentant terrorist or two, a preacher who condemns our country, and other upstanding supporters.

But not liking the man is poor reason to fear his presidency. A more reasonable cause for concern is what he is saying regarding the course he and his party want to take our country.

The USA has become the greatest country in the world, and its greatness did NOT come from people who turned to an all-powerful government for all of their needs. It came from a people who were strong, self-reliant, independent, hard-working and free. Now we have a leader who wants the government to do more and more, a government to take more and more, a government that wants to take care of us in every thing we do, a government that already tells us how much water we can use to flush our potty, what we can and can't do with our own land, what we can and can't do with our own earnings and soon will tell us what medicines we can take, who we can see for our illnesses, what tests we can have to diagnose our illnesses, and when we must “pull the plug” in the interest of national economy.

Well thank you but no thank you. I don't want or need a senator or a congressman helping me. I don't want a government clerk deciding things for me based on a set of rules written by the Select Committee on What Is Good For You. I want the government as seen by the founding fathers of this great country, a government based on the proposition that men are far more capable of taking care of themselves than a professional politician is, that the common man is oftentimes a whole lot smarter in regards to his own wants and needs than some political committee 600 miles away. And sadly, the common man is a darn sight more honest than too many of our supposed leaders.

Mr Obama says that there is a financial crisis, and indeed there is. But what triggered that crisis? Please don't insult my limited intelligence by telling me that the free market is to blame. The trigger was GOVERNMENT RULES that demanded that banks give out mortgages to customers that everyone knew would never be able to repay the mortgage given to them. If we have a free market, why is the Federal Register, the official list of rules and laws passed by the government, up to something like 70,000 pages of NEW rules with 4,167 new rules listed (both are 2002 numbers, newest I could find)?? We have no free market.

Mr Obama says there is a health crisis. Are there problems here...sure are! Is it a crisis? I'm not so sure. Will the government make it better? Absolutely, just like it makes Social Security and Medicare better (both are basically Ponzi schemes and are not financially viable). I don't know about anyone else, but I do NOT want Sen Anybody or Congressman Somebody to be in a position to determine MY health care. I trust Washington to completely screw the system up and make it worse and more expensive.

(more to come...it's late)