What will Mr Obama do?

'...far from preventing turmoil and devastation, "change" is more likely to strip America of the agility and means to cope when the next crisis comes.'

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/10/15/crisis-change-globalism-oped-cx_cr_1016rosett.html [Hat Tip: Instapundit]

'That promised sea-change of the basic American ethos is the real crisis. There will be hell to pay, to the extent that a panicked U.S.--hounded for years by its critics at home and abroad--succumbs to the idea that democratic capitalism will no longer serve, that creative-destruction must be staved off at any cost, that enrolling in a kumbayah chorus can change the nature of mankind.'

Hope and Change are what the calculating and cynical drivers of the Bolshevik revolution promised the peasants of Russia. What did they deliver? An unfree society which murdered the Russians who disagreed with Bolshevik ideas (along with many who DID), a moribund economy which proved to be the achilles heel of the entire project, and huge amounts of broken promises and hot air. The outcomes of Communist Russia may provide the greatest contrast ever to the outcomes promised. Will Barack Obama try to take America down the same cul-de-sac? I hear him promising the same Centrally Controlled Nirvana, with the enormous benevolent face of the government looming at you from every direction, watching, patrolling, decreeing outcomes, 'creating equitability'.

As National Lampoon once said about Ben Gay, if inequity is your problem, THAT is not your solution. Of course, nobody really knows what Barack Obama will do. He is completely opaque. And that is the number one reason not to vote for him. He might turn out to be a second George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, or he might be Lenin in disguise. But when voting for someone, I'd always pick the guy whose colours were there for all to see. Tony Blair was a patriotic social democrat with a completely practical turn of mind. Which is why I voted for him twice. I felt no qualms about that because I knew what he was. I did it consciously, despite being a conservative. He was better than the alternatives.

Would I be willing to gamble on an unknown (and apparently intentionally obscure) quantity like Barack Obama. No. Its just too risky. There are many things I don't like about John McCain. But in sum, he is the better choice.

I don't think he's going to win though. America seems determined to take the riskier option. Oh well, let the chips fall where they may, and I hope in a years time the people who voted him in are still happy with Mr Obama.