Maximum Big Surprise - Why I Voted For Barack Obama

As I am sure many have noted, I took quite a long hiatus. This is due largely in part to my acquiring a new job back in June. Without spending too much time on the topic, let's just say that I was working a lot of overtime and then the holiday season rolled in. . . . you get the idea. Life happens.

After tearing into Barack prior to him winning the primary, it probably comes as a big surprise that I voted for him. In short, after hearing the debates, I liked Barack's ideas on the economy and health care more than those of McCain. Also, I honestly thought that Barack was the stronger debater. I am hoping that he can rebuild the bridges that GWB burned with many of our European friends. I am also helping that he can help improve our relations with Russia. If we don't improve diplomatic relations with Russia, they could become a much larger problem than Al Qaeda. Alas, that is a topic for another series of posts. In essence, I am hoping and praying that Barack will truly bring us "change we can believe in". It will be interesting to see where we are on March 31 (the end of the first quarter). I don't expect miracles with regard to the economy, but it will be nice to see some positive changes in affect.

So far, the first few days of his presidency have been relatively quiet. Hopefully, that's a good thing. I remember when Clinton first came into office. One of the first things he did was to help enact the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military; a risky gesture to do as one of your first actions in office. Hopefully, instead of doing something extreme, Barack will just improve on existing policies like No Child Left Behind and the Patriot Act. Also, I'm praying that he'll help the economy improve to be as good or better than it was between 1987 and 2000 in the next 4 years.

In closing, I'll simply thank the good lord that GWB is no longer president and hope that I made the right choice in voting for Barack.