The Circumstantial President.

This blog may be a day early, but I am so moved as to write it today anyway. I still find myself shaking my head at how Barack Obama could have been elected to our nation's highest office.

Certainly, a lot of it was a backlash, fair or not, against George W. Bush. Further, McCain ran a less than inspiring campaign. These things have been discussed ad infinitum almost since the morning after the election. And they are valid speaking points; Obama surely had the advantage there. Nevertheless, I have to say that those who voted for him on those grounds were rather knee jerk. Their votes quite frankly were less than well thought out; they were mere reactions to stimuli.

I believe that more was at work, though. Many people voted for the Illinois Democrat in order to make history. Others, by the evidence of a young conservative friend of mine, supported Obama out of a skewered sense of the relationship he appeared to have with younger voters. To wit, they voted style over substance. Both of these are very shallow reasons to grant anyone your vote for President.

Combined with the fact that Obama's win was no landslide and I should think you see where I'm going. Obama was a recipient of fortunate circumstance; things went in his favor for whatever reason. Oh sure, perhaps some of my rant here is sour grapes. I'm human; I admit to my shortcomings. But there is a definite validity to what I'm saying: Obama was elected to a great degree on quicksand. When simple emotion dictates your support, it can slide from under your feet at any time.

Let's just hope it doesn't slide us into a deeper recession, as it did when that last great believer in government over the individual took office. FDR didn't help the nation: he hurt us more deeply. We must remember that it took a German madman to get us out of that hole.