Camp Creek Kid
Christini Zambini
Just curious. What is it about this president elect that makes you and many others want to watch him so carefully? I hear this a lot from folks who did not vote for Obama but I do not recall ever hearing anything like this from folks whose preferred candidate did not win in any previous election. Even if they were watching and listening carefully I never heard so many declare there was a need to like I do these days...
Obama is inexperienced and new to national politics. He is a legislator, not a governer (as in person who govens, not a Governor) and how he will lead is an unknown. His record in the Illinois Senate and his short unfinished term as a U.S. Senator are not enough to let Americans know who he is. We all know that campaigns are full of rhetoric of bi-partisan promises and "reaching across the aisle." However, all indications, even this early, show that Obama is going to hit the ground running by fulfilling obligations to his party. For example, his appointment of Emanuel as Chief-of-Staff, a hard-line Clinton-ite, only demonstrates his commitment to the party. Talk of executive orders immediately upon taking office on issues such as Guantanamo, oil drilling, stem cell research, etc., only prove that he and his team want to make a dramatic turn to the left, not exactly bi-partisanship. I hope he proves otherwise, but until he does, I cannot trust him.
His past associations in college and early in his career show that he has had quite radical leaning tendencies. I'm waiting to see if he is going to maintain his associations with the Ayers and the Wrights and the Farakhans. While he disavows any connection with these men, time will tell whether he is being honest.
I'm uncomfortable with how his campaign has slighted the press that did not endorse him. I'm uncomfortable with how the press that did endorse him was so obviously slanted toward him. Geo, you proved this point yourself when you suggested that I listen to NPR as opposed to Rush Limbaugh and watch CNN and opposed to O'Reilly. Limbaugh and O'Reilly are political commentators and therefore openly take a stand. Limbaugh is conservative, while O'Reilly is Libertarian. When you listen to/watch their programs you know what you are getting. NPR and CNN are news organizations that are ethically supposed to present a balanced view of the news. Even you recognize that this has not been done and by your post prove the point that they are liberal leaning. However, not everyone has such a wide range of sources as I and while I get information from both sides, not everyone does. It alarms me that the media such as NPR and CNN and NBC, etc., present news as unbiased when in fact it is often very left-leaning. This does not bode well for those who are trying to find the truth and leaves it to the individual to sift through all the media and to watch our leaders in order to make judgments ourselves instead of letting the news tell us what to think. I do not trust the mainstream media to be objective about Obama.
Obama knows that he is being watched carefully. His staff knows that he is untested and that we are all waiting to be introduced to the Barack Obama as President of the United States. The moves he makes in the next few weeks will be very telling.
I want Obama to succeed, but I don't trust him yet. He is a politician after all, he is only a man and therefore has flaws. I hope he turns out to be a person of integrity, someone that I can respect even if our political views are different, but he will have to earn that respect from me.
