An Election Post-Mortem

It seems that everyone has a comment today about the results of yesterday's election. The outcome was not totally unexpected. John McCain had faced an uphill battle since his first primary victory in the late winter months. He was not an eloquent speaker as was his opponent. He did not have the youthful energy that his opponent had. And the main stream media certainly never bought into his ideas of what change looked like. But he fought bravely on.

I am not certain that in the history of this great nation that we have ever elected a president with less executive experience than Barack Obama. We have elected military generals, but they all had experience leading men on the battlefield. We have elected governors who have ruled over the affairs of their states. We have elected men who have served in the United States Senate, but who served longer than the three years Obama has served. I think we can safely say that Barack Obama will have to learn executive leadership skills as part of the "on the job training" while in the Oval Office. Hopefully he will be a quick learner.

Now the question will be asked: Who are those individuals who will be asked to fill his cabinet and staff positions? As we know Obama has not always been careful about the people he has associated with. Perhaps those people might be accepted as part of one's personal life. But now he has to think of the greater good of the country. A William Ayers or a Jeremiah Wright certainly would not be acceptable by the majority of Americans. I believe that, if Obama truly wants to initiate real change, then he ought to reach across the aisle to claim men and women from both Republican and Democratic parties who are experts in fields of service and who are representative of all the people. If all he does is surround himself with those like the Harry Reids and the Nancy Pelosi's, then we will be in for four long years, I am afraid.

Obama has two important speeches in the coming months. First will be his inaugural address, followed quickly by this State of the Union address to the Congress. All ears will be listening for words that welcome ideas from both sides of the aisle. I will be listening for words of humility rather than political arrogance. I believe those two speeches will set the tone for those first weeks and months of an Obama presidency.

And, finally, because of my strong interest in the Middle East, particularly in the nation of Israel, I will want to know his plans for that region of the world. I read this morning that Israelis gave a cautious applause to Obama's election, while the Palestinians gave it a hearty endorsement, with one Hamas leader saying that "Now the Palestinians have a friend in the White House who will force the Israelis to make more concessions to us." Hopefully Obama will understand the historical significance of standing with Israel.

One final thought. Now that the election is over, I wonder how the television stations will fill all those advertising slots?