I voted for Obama simply because he was the better qualified candidate. I did not vote for him because he was black. I understand the historical significance of it but I am not racially inclined one way or the other. In fact, I wish people would lower the volume on race and move on to the issues. The more people talk about the obvious race component, the more people are going to view everything he says and does in typical racial sterotypes. Everything will be magnified 10x over and above the usual 10x factor that any president enjoys. So, that's 100x magnification and amplification. Plus the enire world will be watching and hoping that Americans will become more European or at least Canadian.

Now that we are on the subject of Palen, I heard on Fox that she was a total idiot on the campaign trail. The story is just coming out (even Fox put it out). For openers, she has no basic understanding of political institutions, she is unaware that Africa is a freakin' continent and not a country, she has no idea what NAFTA is all about and which are the principal countries involved in it. A lot of people sort of figure most of this out on their own but had no real facts to back it up, until now.

I cannot imagine this woman being serious in 2012.

with the GOP on the "outs". But then Jimmy Carter showed up and the GOP was rejuvenated for a near 30 year run. It may make some sense to understand why Carter's 4 years became one of the low points in Democratic rule since FDR. Obama should look to Carter's years to make sure he does not fall into the same trap of ineffectiveness and mediocrity. There are real similiarities here with both Carter and Obama considered "very smart", both were outsiders, both beholden to liberal views, both enjoy huge majorities in Congress and in both cases the Repubs were seriously unpopular.

Somehow, Carter opened the door to Reagan and his near domination of political thought and style up until this year. Even now, Obama is compared more to Reagan than to Carter.

Only the "blinded by the left" types really want to see prosecution for alleged torture. It's never going to happen and here is why:

1. There was no "real" torture committed by US agents where someone's gonads got crushed or people were summarily executed. You want real torture, check out the "dirty war" in Argentina, the French in Algeria or the present-day Syria.

2. The roughest thing that happened to these guys is that there was loud music playing that made sleeping in a tight cell a bit difficult. So some dude lost some sleep and some interrogator messed him up a little bit. Gimme a break.

3. Obama does not want any options taken off the table when confronting the war on terror. The last thing Obama needs is to be soft on terrorism and have a repeat of 9/11.

4. Obama has to be careful of Gitmo because most of the hardcore are Yemeni and releasing them will instantly put US personnel at risk. Yemen is like a sieve and these guys are lethal to start with. That is why Obama has been reluctant to shut the place down or announce plans to do so.

Can you imagine 4 months between election day and taking office? It used to be that way until FDR (I think). In fact, Hoover screwed things up even more until FDR finally took office in 1933.

The author of this piece reminds me of a lefty version of Sarah Palin.

Salon has been bombarding us with sappy Obama articles which makes me wonder if Obama has been elected POTUS or Pope.

Let's give Obama 100 days in office to see if he can articulate in plain language the main causes of the economic meltdown and what he plans to do about it. Then we will see the measure of the man.

Your suggestion that Sarah Palin will be back and stronger will doom the Repubs to permanent losses as long as she is in the mix. The lady was attractive to some elements of the repub base but she has no cross-over appeal to moderates or independents. I think this was borne out in October when people made up their minds. McCain should have picked Rommney who is one of the few people out there who has spoken intelligently on the auto bailout issue and actually has some useful insights. Sarah Palin has no clue other than something folksy like "the bad boys on Wall Street really made a mess of things and the maverick from the Senate will fix it". If she were elected president someday, the market would crash immediately.

She simply is not qualified to lead this nation and McCain paid the price for selecting her. I don't know how someone magically becomes qualified in the next 4-8 years without significant international experience, high level cabinet position, running a big state like CA or NY, etc. None of these things are going to happen in this interval so she needs to stop dreaming.

Hillary figures she has one more chance to make it to POTUS and will aim for 2016. I am assuming that Obama will not "tank" in the next 4 years. At 2012, she may bail out of State and move to Defense or CIA or DOHS, just to jazz up her resume. When she reappears in 2016, she will be 70 yrs. old so she needs to take care of herself over the next 8 years or so. We all know older women get the brush-off pretty easily.