Home > News > What Americans Have Learned From the Obama Win and a Long Election Season

What Americans Have Learned From the Obama Win and a Long Election Season

Reader Comments
Back to article

Ted Meehan
For The Bulletin
A two-year presidential campaign has ended with a victory for the first African-American president. For the racial barrier that has been broken, we should all be thankful.
However, even as the breaking of this barrier is celebrated, we should recognize a number of troubling factors that affected the outcome of this campaign. With candidates spending two years on the campaign trail, there should hardly be a single question about any presidential candidate that would remain unanswered by our national news media. Yet, many questions were not asked of Barack Obama, and the media failed to follow up some that were.
* Has any presidential candidate ever before defended three separate lawsuits rather than produce his official birth certificate? Lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Hawaii and Washington were all defended by teams of Obama lawyers, when they each could have been dismissed by a simple handing over of Mr. Obama's official birth certificate. Mr. Obama was never even asked why he was so reluctant to show proof of his status as a natural born U.S. citizen, as is required by the Constitution.
* During an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2008, Mr. Obama described his plan to bankrupt the U.S. Coal industry by using the most aggressive "cap and trade" policy ever employed to tax coal plants. "This will necessarily cause electric rates to skyrocket," said Mr. Obama - asserting this burden as a favorable outcome. Yet, the San Francisco Chronicle did not release this information until the final 48 hours of the campaign. Why?
* Pennsylvanians were also protected by their friends in the media from learning about the news that Mr. Obama had pledged to eliminate finding for the Osprey, the tilt-wing military aircraft manufactured at Boeing in Delaware County. This policy will cost tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians their jobs. But, it wasn't deemed important enough to be reported by the news media. Voters were denied this information which they should have had to inform their votes.
* Only after Sean Hannity of Fox News beat the drum for many months was there any mention of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers or Tony Rezko. Questions about Mr. Obama's relationships with each of these continue to be virtually unanswered, and persist as potential future embarrassments - if not worse. Americans deserved better.
* Likewise, the Los Angeles Times refused to release a videotape in its possession, which reportedly recorded a testimonial dinner to Rashid Khalidi, at which speaker after speaker called for the destruction of Israel - after which Mr. Obama spoke glowingly about the former spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Was this information not relevant to many voters?
*During the campaign, Mr. Obama was asked about his position on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, against which he voted three times as an Illinois state senator. Each time, he den

Kathy of FL 4:45PM November 06, 2008

This election has been historic. And my hope is that Obama will govern from the center because I want the rancor to end and America to prosper. However, seeing an agenda like this one (which is stated on his website) makes me sick: "Obama will ask the wealthiest 2% of families to give back a portion of the tax cuts they have received over the past eight years to ensure we are restoring fairness and returning to fiscal responsibility." Is he trying to stir up class warfare?
As for leaving America as frank burns of NE proposes, the sore loser democrats promised to do that before and like all their promises, they broke that one too.

gwynlou of TX 2:32PM November 06, 2008

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DID NOT SUPPORT OBAMA I PLEAD WITH YOU TO STOP THE POISON. I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MAY NOT AGREE WITH ALL HIS POLICIES OR BELIEFS BUT LETS BE CIVIL. LETS WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF THIS COUNTRY. A NATION DIVIDED WILL NOT ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING IN THESE HARD TIMES. STOP THE HATE AND THE NAME CALLING AND THE LIES. I TRULY FEEL THAT A FEW ANTI- OBAMA AMERICANS ARE UNCOMFORTABLE (SOME DOWNRIGHT SCARED) BY THE THOUGHT OF A BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE BUT LOOK PAST COLOR. I READ SOMEWHERE ON THE INTERNET SO THIS IS NOT MY QUOTE THIS IS SOMEONE ELSE'S- "IF YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE, DO YOU CARE WHAT THE COLOR OF THE FIREMAN IS?". THE COUNTRY IS METAPHORICALLY ON FIRE WITH THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND A NEVER ENDING WAR SO LET'S COME TOGETHER. LETS GET OUT OF THIS MESS WE'RE IN. LETS STOP LOOKING FOR DIFFERENCES IN EACH OTHER AND LOOK FOR THE SIMILIARITIES. LETS SUPPORT OUR NEW PRESIDENT, LETS AGREE AND DISAGREE TOGETHER ON ISSUES THAT MATTER BUT FOR THE RIGHT REASONS NOT BECAUSE OF HIS NAME OR HIS COLOR.

NATTYG75 of TX 12:29PM November 06, 2008

Talk is cheap. The things Obama said on television to satisfy and inspire the masses won him the election. The fact that Obama has done very little as a junior senator from Illinois was not considered by the masses. What a candidate has done in the past should be the largest factor in electing a candidate. Candidates speak for months and months while saying very little. Due to Obama's "charisma" he convinced just over 50% of the population to vote for him. I look forward to the man's cabinet telling him what to do for the next four years because Obama has no experience and no clue how to really turn this country around. Wealth is not something that should be "redistributed". Wealth is earned, and as soon as individuals in this country realize this, maybe the country can start to think about recovery.

Alton of VA 11:57AM November 06, 2008

Jake, you said "America, my friend, was not created to serve you, but the greater good of all Americans." Wrong. America was created to provide as free an environment as possible to promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was not created to pander. It was not created to subsidize. It was not created to redistribute wealth. It was not created with a "welfare state" goal.
You said you felt like "it was your right to be supported." What a delightfully entitled mentality you have. See, the Constitution supports my point of view - which is to reduce taxes/government intervention in our lives - but this claim of a right to financial support? Jake, I've looked through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and I just don't see it. Why? Because you don't have the right to a certain lifestyle. You don't have the right to a certain household income. You don't have the right to assert that I should support you - by doing so, you infringe upon my personal property.
Are there times I would've loved the government to pay my way? Sure. But I don't support it in principle, because it's not moral to expect involuntary contributions from society to suit me, and it's not in the founding documents of this country. And no, I'm not one of Obama's "too wealthy". In fact, my household income just barely breached the six-figure mark.

Doug of VA 6:04AM November 06, 2008

My 2 cents of NV said: "I am sure you can lobby Congress to have that declared hate speech and prosecute Doug and others accordingly."
Hmmm. Why would I want to do that? To do that, I think I would have to have some hate for him myself. I just don't.
I am asking the man to use some reason. I put up with eight years of a president I truly dislike and distrust. I never claimed he was not my president. I did the best I could and I rallied behind him (including the time I spent in Iraq, voluntarily).
As for "bring it," I am not sure what "it" is, but I don't think bringing it is the most mature thing to do.
You also said: "Get used to it. You and others will be hearing and reading LOTS of this sort of thing. 2 words: Free speech." I agree. I will be hearing a lot of that. What will you be hearing?

Jake from Dublin of OH 12:39AM November 06, 2008

48 percent of voters didn't drink the kool-aid.
And that's not nothing.

My 2 cents of NV 9:48PM November 05, 2008

Jake in Dublin: I think what Doug of VA means is that Obama is not his President in the same way that Bush II was not "their" President for many Americans over the last 8 years.
Get used to it. You and others will be hearing and reading LOTS of this sort of thing. 2 words: Free speech.
I am sure you can lobby Congress to have that declared hate speech and prosecute Doug and others accordingly.
My final word on the matter: Bring it.

My 2 cents of NV 9:44PM November 05, 2008

Zatary: Not exactly. 52 percent of the popular vote is NOT a landslide. That 48 percent isn't nothing.

me of NV 9:37PM November 05, 2008

Well Obama's proposed policies have been tried before. All over the world in fact. They don't work.
The only person with an accurate vision of this country is Ron Paul. The man knows economics and understands the ONLY document that he should worry about when he casts his votes.
How many of those elected to office have even bothered to read the very document they take an oath to uphold?

My 2 cents of NV 9:35PM November 05, 2008