Race problem

We have a "big race problem" in this country, evidenced not least by the fact that the mainstream media keeps flogging Obama's nomination as a big deal because he is black, rather than because he is liberal, in fact only the 2nd liberal (if you count Bill Clinton) to have a good shot at the White House in what has been more than 28 years of Republican-dominated government.

Of course, we can't get too excited about Obama as an agent of change -- after all, to become an American presidential candidate, you have to drink the KoolAid; our only hope is that he didn't drink too much or that maybe, like Clinton, he didn't swallow (or was that Monica?) Clearly, we are not going to have a revolution in which big business is sent packing, people like Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh are hanged in the public square and government of the people, by the people, and for the people comes to stay. Still, there are better presidentiual administrations and there are worse ones, Reagan's and both Bush's being arguably the worst in the history of the republic.

With luck, Obama may get to raise taxes on the rich and preside over the winding down of the war in Iraq and at least a reduction in the dominance of insurance companies in healthcare. Maybe he can keep big oil from further trashing Alaska and make some headway on global warming legislation.

He will be trying to do these things against the counterpull of a government bureaucracy weakened by years of cronyism and a Congress corrupted by money, by an economy left in tatters by Bush, by worsening global warming, by the changing demographics of our population, and by the constant yammering of the agents of evil clamoring for more of what Bush and Reagan have brought us.