October 25th 2008
Is A Barack Victory Predestined?
F
or the Obama supporters, the election is getting right down to where they want it: They can almost count the number of days until their glorious Obamahood on their fingers. And even the most thick-headed, non-news-reading riders of the wave have reason to be smug and confident. The media are all but proclaiming his victory, the endorsements are piling up, and the polls are showing strong, consistent leads nationally and in most key states.
William Kristol’s oustanding piece in the Weekly Standard today looks at all this and finds a way to end on an upbeat:
If Obama wins, we wish him well. But for now, we can only echo the words of the 30-year-old Abraham Lincoln. On December 26, 1839, responding to the confident prediction of one of his political opponents “that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next Presidential election” and that Lincoln’s opposition to the Van Buren forces was therefore bound to be in vain, Lincoln responded:
Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. . . . The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. . . . Let none falter, who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if after all, we shall fail, be it so.
As it happens, the Whig ticket Lincoln supported won that 1840 election. So might, against the odds, the party of Lincoln win this year.
Good words indeed for where we are in this campaign. I hope they’re prescient, and that a dozen days from now we will look back in awed, respectful wonder at an America that stood up to the media, the pundits and most of all to the inexperienced Narcissist at the top of the ticket and acted like a mature country, not a toddler wanting a shiny new toy.
I pray that happens. I can see how it could still can happen, and I could fill this post with those theories, but that’s not what I’m writing about today. Instead, I’m considering what will happen if the writing on the wall is indeed written in indelible ink and in a dozen days America has done the exciting thing, elected our first black president, and the horrifying thing, elected Barack Obama president.
For context, let’s go back a bit. 2,709 years back. Israel is split between the Northern Kingdom and Judea, and the Northern Kingdom has fallen to Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and now Sennacherib has his armies focused on Judea, where Hezekiah, a man whose walk and talk is with God, rules.
Sennacherib sends Rashakeh to demand Hezekiah’s surrender, and the arrogant Assyrian general’s words reflect the arrogant Assyrian king’s:
‘But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying “The Lord will deliver us.”
‘Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
‘Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Spharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
‘Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’” (2 Kings 18: 32-35)
Haughty words, indeed. But flip a couple pages and we hear what God thinks of this braggadocio, as He speaks through Isaiah. Speaking of how all of Sennacherib’s victories came about, the Lord, God of Israel says,
Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; from ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. …
But I know your sitting down, and your going out and your coming in, and your raging against Me.
Because of your raging against Me, and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridles in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. (2 Kings 19 25, 27-28)
So, when all was said and done, Sennacherib’s great army ended up slinking back to Assyria and Hezekiah remained on the throne in Jerusalem. God had made Sennacherib great only so that He could be greater, teaching many peoples a lesson about false gods.
Obviously, I cannot and will not say that God has something similar planned in this election - I’m no Isaiah! - but let’s look at what happened since an egomaniacal, smooth-talking junior senator from Illinois walked out of the Senate after 143 days of experience and declared his intention to be president of the United States.
Back then, Bush was the most unpopular thing around, so the Dems had a clear running field ahead of them. Now, the actions and inactions of the new Dem Congressional leadership have made Congress less popular than even Bush. For many, the thought of awarding this ineptitude with a full house of power is discomforting. And if Obama overcomes this discomfort and is elected, he will have as his ally not an institution America trusts, but one it is deeply leery of.
Back then, the Iraq war was the single most important issue because the war there was going badly and Afghanistan was a non-issue because the war there was going well, so Obama masked his deep anti-war attitudes by demanding a withdrawal from Iraq while supporting more troops in Afghanistan. And then, when the surge threatened to mess up his timetable for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, he opposed it, only to find himself on the wrong side of progress toward victory. Meanwhile, as surge-whipped jihadists limped out of Iraq and back to Afghanistan, things there worsened and Obama found himself committed to a big military effort where he least wanted it.
Back then, Hillary Clinton was his target and he campaigned to her left in order to secure the victory. And once his ACORN-assisted victory was in hand, he moved as they all do to the middle, but for reasons still unknown he couldn’t make the obvious VP choice and rejected the woman who beat, or nearly beat, him in the popular vote, opting instead for the overwhelmingly and consistently rejected Joe Biden. Now, with him having to muzzle Biden after multiple major embarrassments, there is no ready excuse available for why Obama angered millions upon millions of women who supported Clinton by pushing her face in the mud.
Back then, only a small circle of people knew about Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayres, Khalid al-Monsour (and even better, here), Raile Odinga, Tony Rezko and ACORN. Now all those folks are upon the national consciousness and Joe the Plumber has tromped into the room, so Obama’s abilities to turn hard-left are tightly conscribed.
Back then, gas was below $3 a gallon and the global warming crowd reigned supreme, so Obama outlined unreachable goals and expensive programs to make all greenies, from deep green to pale, trust him as the one who sees the world as they see it - doomed unless we curtail pretty much everything. Since then, gas peaked at over $5 a gallon while food prices soared, in part because biofuels were competing against biofoods for grains. Now drilling and nuclear power have become more important to Americans and biofuels less, and Obama is stuck with a constituency that is still strongly behind him, but is also an albatross around his neck.
And most of all, back then the rich were really rich and very plentiful and ripe for the picking, thanks to eight years of growth induced by Bush’s economic policies. With the economy robust, Obama could almost conjure up enough magic to make his tax plan cover his long, long list of costly new nanny state programs. Whatever shortfalls there were could be easily bridged with a little pixie dust spread over an inattentive, supportive media and a public that was content to go along for the ride. Now, the economy is, if not in ruins, certainly seeing some big pillars falling. The number of rich people - over $250,000 in income - is shrinking fast (myself included), so his once rather incredible tax plan is now obviously a complete work of fiction.
All this should be enough to drive Obama to the bottom of the polls, but America is intent on change, on electing a black president, and on punishing the GOP for putting an Alaskan success story of a corruption fighter on the ticket. So he remains atop the polls and is busy planning his inauguration bash.
Should he win, what will he win? Why would he want to win? What will he be able to do?
We are already looking at a $10 trillion national debt, so will he be able to realize his cradle to grave government teat schemes? Will al-Qaeda be content to let him sit untested in the White House? Joe Biden doesn’t even buy that. Will an America suddenly more interested in drilling and nukes be interested in paying any premium at all for global warming action? And how far will Congress go down a destructive fiscal or national policy trail with all the House and one-third of the Senate up for re-election in 2010?
Christians and Jews expend a lot of energy debating about predestination and whether God still uses it as a tool today, but you have to admit, It’s almost as if God knows Obama’s sitting down, his going out and his coming in, and has brought about a new order of things in our country that will make it difficult for Obama to be the sort of president we have feared with increasing intensity as the campaign has unfolded.
Now, the only question remaining besides the big question of Nov. 4 is this: Should Obama be elected, will he control himself in his first two years, or will he stumble, show his lack of experience, fail on foreign policy, misstep too far to the left, drive us too far deeper into debt or drive the economy even further down and consequently transform Congress in 2010 by creating a strong swing back to the GOP?
As much as I dread an Obama presidency, it appears ever more likely that if he is elected, he will do more damage to himself than he will to us. Thank God. And if it plays out as I’ve laid it out here, the damage he does to himself will stand as a lesson about the sins of vanity and deceit, two sins God likes to teach us lessons about.
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October 29th, 2008 at 2:51 am
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October 31st, 2008 at 7:08 am
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Comments
October 25th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Those who think that George W. Bush has been a great president object to the way that the so-called Republican John McCain has treated George W. Bush, a great president, a true conservative, and a great man.In this interview with the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper, McCain treats Bush worse than Obama has. See http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/23/mccain-lambastes-bush-years/In this article, McCain says this of Bush:“Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers, leveling his strongest criticism to date of an administration whose unpopularity may be dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat.”We just let things get completely out of hand,” he said of his own party’s rule in the past eight years.And he said:“He rejected Mr. Bush’s use of issuing “signing statements” when he signs bills into law, in which the president has suggested that he would ignore elements of the bills, labeling them potentially unconstitutional.”I would veto the bills or say, ‘Look, I don’t like it but I’ll obey the law that’s passed by Congress and signed by the president.’ I think the signing statements was not a correct implementation of the power of the executive. I think it was overstepping,” he said.And Mr. McCain emphatically rejected Mr. Bush’s claims of executive privilege, often used to shield the White House from scrutiny.”WE who believe that all these things were good and that Bush has the right under the constitution to executive privilege object to McCain’s treatment of a good and noble president.If Obama had said this we conservatives would rally to Bush’s support. But now that McCain has said it we have to keep quiet. We have to pretend that the policies and leaders of the last eight years were terrible, when they have been wonderful.McCain has undermined everything we stand for. How can we vote for him? Of course, we should not vote for Obama. But why should we vote for McCain? He has no principles. He’s not a Republican.Vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president. I suppose he does not like President Bush much either, but that is because Bob Barr thinks that Bush has not been conservative enough. Sad situation not to vote for a Republican. But how can we vote for McCain after he has turned his back on his party and his good president.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hi Laer!Great piece. I think this has to be one of the best things I’ve seen that you’ve written.We sometimes forget that G-d has his own way of teaching us…or, to use an old Yiddish saying,’Menschen tracht und Gott lacht’ ( ‘Men plan and G-d laughs’).All Best,ff
October 27th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
FF - Thanks! I’ve seen the Yiddish translated on a license plate frame as, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”
November 5th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Laer,
I just wanted you to know that when I woke up this morning - the proverbial “morning after.” My first inclination was to seek out this article and read it again for peace of mind. I do fear what is coming in the next four years, but your words give comfort and courage. Comfort in being reminded who really is in control, and courage to accept the lessons God is wanting this country to learn. Thank you again and again for this piece, but also for the entire Cheat-seeking Missles Blog. I couldn’t have gotten through the election without it!
November 5th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Annie, you are the sweetest person! God is in control. America can weather storms.
And conservatives needed a kick in the seat of the pants BIGTIME.