A Welcome Return

I thought I would bring the following comment out front for two reasons. First, it marks the return, after a unbearably long hiatus, of PL. Yeah!! Second, he asks some important questions that I would like to address.

This conservative, for what it's worth, welcomes a win by Mr. Obama. Normally I might feel somewhat dirty after typing such a sentence, but in this case I have my reasons. Long story short, I see two primary benefits:

1) Too much of a good thing is bad, and for too long businesses in this country have lived the good life with respect to the US being an economic superpower. A return to liberal domination in the executive and legislative branches, while undoubtedly painful at the microeconomic level for many, should force many companies to adjust their perspective to focus on service/quality. We'll get killed in the international markets, but that's happening already, so there's only so much more damage that can be done. The upside will hopefully be that fewer people will be living their lives boiling over with rage, and I have to think that's a good thing.

2) An attack on the wealthy means that more money will be in the hands of those who are too stupid to hold onto it, offering an attractive opportunity for more of it to end up in my hands.

I would, however, issue the following challenge to those on this blog who are going on record with the predictable and tedious conservative bashing. I challenge you to now go on record with what scorecard you are going to use for Mr. Obama should he be elected President. You cannot measure "hope" or "good will", except perhaps via grossly subjective polls, so I want to know from you when, if ever, you might ever conclude that Mr. Obama is failing as President.

Long-timers on this blog know that despite my political allegiance I didn't vote for GWB in '04. Common sense clearly indicated that in no circumstance would GWB actually be able to accomplish anything in his second term, no matter how valid or viable his ideas might be, therefore a vote for him was a vote for nothingness. At the time I laid out that "accomplish" meant things like implementing tax reform, education improvement, health of economic indicators, and so on. As predicted, he has failed to accomplish almost anything of significance in the past four years.

So Markadelphia, et al....let's hear it. How and by when will we know that Mr. Obama (presumably with a continuing majority in the Senate and House) is proving to be the leader that we [conservatives] are told he will be?

NOTE: It goes without saying that Mr. Obama winning the White House will be accompanied by four years of the predictable and tedious blame game with respect to whose fault whatever the problem-du-jour truly is. Here's your chance to prove yourself more than just another liberal sycophant by holding up an objective measuring stick to your boy. (No, Markadelphia, not that boy....I meant Mr. Obama.) Are you as open-minded and visionary as you profess to be?

I think we will know, PL, what kind of a leader Senator Obama will be in the first 100 days. That is usually the barometer for seeing how effective a presidency can be. As far as how, I think you need to measure how he energizes the country. Will more people get involved to make our country a better place? Or will they expect government handouts? Will special interests put up a big fight? Another good test is to see how the good ol boys in the Democratic Party react once their playhouse is torn down. Will they go quietly into that good night?

I think I will be open minded for this main reason. Mr. Obama has a lot to live up to, in my eyes, and I will be just as critical with him, possibly more so, than I have been with President Bush. I predict that, if elected, Senator Obama will make mistakes, one or two of which will be enormous. The test for me will be how he learns from those mistakes. Will he self actualize or will he be an eight year old putz, as we have now?

Of course, I am not going to FIND things to fault him with if I think and feel there are none. As we learn more about Barack Obama, we can begin to see a level of maturity in him that is really going to be difficult for the eight year olds, on the right, to attack. So, I guess the final measure for me, in regards to Mr. Obama, is going to be how much he rises above that crap and even nullifies it.