Obama's Flaws (continuously updated)

My List of Obama's Flaws

• Flaw #1: He may be confused about whether's he's black or white - he can't figure out why he has to choose. I think the Rev. Wright experiment was a genuine attempt to lay roots Black America.
  
• Flaw #2: He's too ambitious - he probably knew a long time ago that he wanted to be president - in which case, he's crazy to even be so audacious or prophetic (how would he know that W. would mess up this badly?) Counter: 99% of politicians aspire and plan for public office long before they begin their quest. Here is John McCain in his book "Worth the Fighting For" - "I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . . . In truth, I'd had the ambition for a long time."
• He doesn't show his emotions; he's too reserved and under control. McCain on the other hand, is very emotional, according to his closest friends.
  
• He's an eagle and he knows it -- he wants to relate to the pigeons, but unlike Paul the Apostle, he really doesn't know how to be all things to all people...at least he tries
  
• He's the worst kind of idealist - he thinks that people can actually come to a political center -- in fact, he misjudged badly. People follow politics the way they follow sports -- most pick a team and stick with it. He is now running the risk of alienating most everyone.
• Same with religion. Unfortunately you can't believe in evolution and call yourself a christian. In other words, its us (Christians) versus them (scientists and atheists). He (and I) wants to have a progressive view on the Bible, acknowledging that we don't know it all, but we will in time. But neither side will have that.
  
• He has/had a smoking habit. So instead of partying or drinking or sleeping around, he deals with stress by smoking. Hopefully he doesn't smoke with his daughters in the car.
• He married a beautiful yet intelligent woman.
• YOU ADD TO THE LIST
  

News is for information, not ammunition

I've learned that the Internet (blogging etc.) has further polarized America. Instead of making us more tolerant, we have more data that tells us how right our side is. News comes at us so fast and raw and it takes an open and diligent mind to put it together.
Neither Obama, Bush, or McCain are as bad -- or as good -- as their supporters or critics claim - they are humans beings just like you and me. Yes, maybe they like power...but just maybe they also like to serve.
I like Obama because I believe in the ideals he proposes in his "Audacity of Hope" book. I also like him, because I think he uses the games that divide us less than Bush did and McCain is now adopting.
I don't expect this post to change our (as in the voters) political discourse for the better (though it needs changing), but I hope that we takes news as it is meant to be used -- for information, not ammunition. Leave the sniping to the politicians.

Is Obama a Liberal?

Conservatives pundits and even moderate red-state Democrats cast Barack Obama as the most liberal senator. Left-wingers see Obama as the apparent savior from the eight years they suffered under the conservative Bush administration.

But is Obama really a liberal? Recent actions have caused left-leaning bloggers such as Arianna Huffington to raise concern that he may be moving to the center:

a. Espousing his patiortism
b. Signing the FISA compromise
c. Advocating faith-based programs
d. Condemning the Supreme Court ruling on child rape
e. Applauding the High Court's overturn of the DC gun ban

Obama, in fact, while espousing liberal values has ALWAYS been about bringing people to the center. That was the point of his 2006 speech.

So if left-wingers were looking for revenge on conservative rule, they may have to wait another 4 years.

Government imposes Civil Order - Religion advocates moral order

My site is about separating politics and religion. Although each of us carries out our faith differently, I worry that the Evangelical leadership feels that governmental force should be used to establish their brand of moral order.

Whether you believe him or not, Obama does not view a same-sex union as sacred or abortion as a good choice (nor do I); he just views government as a protector of all liberties and choices (as do I).

There are good examples of how we as citizens we can influence the political process - it's a bottom up process. It is you the individual believer and the church and the preaching of the gospel and showing of neighborly love and concern that will establish moral order, not the evangelical leadership succeeding in putting in judges that will ban abortion and gay marriages.

What's Wrong with Obama's faith-based plan?

Although I think government money in the hands of religion is a path down a slippery slope into government control of religion (or vice versa), I think the Obama faith-based plan is more about the intersection that government and religions have on social issues.

For example, government and religion both want to relieve physical and financial suffering, so they can help each other out on those issues.

However, it is not the role of churches to pass morality laws upon an entire nation (even the moral codes of Moses were abandoned) nor is it the role of government to establish which religion is the "best" - at least not in a democracy. The beauty of a democracy is that the will of the people must be both protected and upheld - churches have every right to influence the people's will, as long as the people are free to accept or reject it.

As long as the faith-based initiatives do not infringe upon freedom of choice, I'm willing to see what good they will do.