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Upcoming Agenda

"george w boosh" and "Tim Crowder" both seemed a bit taken aback by my previous essay in which I stated I was happy that my preferred presidential candidate, Barack Obama was elected, but that I was not anticipating as much valuable change, growth, development, and philosophical advancement as so many others seem to feel is "guaranteed" to occur. Let me explain in a numbered list:

1. I voted for Obama because I think he will do a decent Democratic job as president. That is a very good thing, especially in light of the very poor political leadership of the last eight years.

2. I do hope Obama proves me wrong and DOES accomplish very great things for our nation and the world as a whole.

3. He (Obama) will be better for our nation and our world than John McCain. That said, John McCain would have been a drastic improvement over our current "leader", George W. Bush. Thefore, Obama will also be a drastic improvement over our current "leader".

4. This is probably the point of contention, but *I believe* that Obama *may* likely do only an average Democratic job as president. I do not have a sense of a great VISION in him on how the nation should grow and develop. Most of the great things he has suggested during his campaign felt a bit like "Cliff Notes"... they say the right things, but the depth was not portrayed.

5. I could be very wrong, and perhaps Obama WILL WORK DOGGEDLY to get the things our nation needs done, such as universal health care, a true reformation of the public schools, a sweepingly large increase in funding for science research and an equally large increase in funding for the arts/humanities, an end to the war in Iraq, and significant funding and promotion of alternative fuels. I HOPE I AM WRONG.

6. But, what I BELIEVE is that while Obama may tend to agree with the above changes (expressed in #5), I feel he is very much primarily a pragmatist, who will abandon those truly visionary goals relatively easily if they are no longer seen as politically popular. I think he will more likely than not gravitate and migrate toward whatever is popular for the moment, and shift his positions to best utilize the trendy and popular.

7. Being a PRAGMATIST is not a bad thing. It is very much in keeping with a role of an arbitrator. But pragmatism is not VISIONARY, and it is not going to allow Obama to be a Kennedy, nor an FDR, nor a Theodore Roosevelt, nor a Lincoln. Obama will be more akin to Carter, Clinton, and Truman. These latter three were good presidents, and are good for our nation, but they are not true VISIONARIES like the first four I list.

8. So, I am simply lamenting my belief that even though we got a good Democratic leader in Obama, we missed out on getting a GREAT, VISIONARY leader because she did not win.

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One other thing I am rather tired of hearing about... Obama being lauded because he is "African American". If I were Obama, I would bristle at those who kept ranting and fussing over his "ethnicity". If Obama's accomplishment is to be TRULY meaningful, it will have nothing to do with his ethnicity (he is multiethnic, by the way, not simply "African American") If his accompliments are to be truly meaningful, it will be because he did a wonderful job at LEADING OUR NATION, not because of his ethnicity. His ethnicity and/or the melanin content of his skin cells is of absolutely no consequence to me. It is his LEADERSHIP of ALL of this nation's citizens that will determine for me his worth.

So, I am hoping to be proven wrong about the guy I voted for. I hope he does create true value for his nation's citizens through his actions. Yet, I still believe he will be like most politicians by chasing after popularity.

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My basic agenda for the next several days:

1. A helluva lot of meetings on Friday, including a b*llsh*t Department Meeting.

2. A possible drive to my father-in-laws late in the afternoon to chat and relax.

3. More mulching (if it is dry) of the lawn to get the leaves to disappear.

4. Significant amounts of writing of my NaNo novel.

5. Continued walking.

6. Cleaning the home and yard in ways to prepare for winter.

That is about it.

PipeTobacco