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By C.F. David /  Boise City News editor

It’s odd yet frightening, all the hand-wringing, leading up to, during and now after, the latest presidential election. President-Elect Obama wasn’t my choice … but … no matter how you voted, as a U.S. Citizen, like it or not, he’s both YOUR and MY president.

The election of Obama means now that the presidency is within reach of anyone, man or woman, black, white, brown, red or yellow, and for our nation, this is a GOOD thing, for finally we will be a government of the people.

I have been both amused, by the e-mails sent to attack Obama (the continuous belief that he is a Muslim), and sickened, (the claim by some Christians he is the anti-Christ, for if they really believe this they should be rejoicing since Jesus will soon return).

They remind me of the letters passed around when John Kennedy was running in 1960, the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry, and the Air National Guard story about George Bush. They were lies then; I believe they are lies now. I think most claims against Obama are and were, circulated by well-meaning and concerned citizens. Others are, I am sure, dreamed up by, and circulated by, militant racists.

I couldn’t support Obama, because I disagree on some of his agendas, i.e. taxes, gun control, (and even on this guns, I feel he’s being misrepresented in some areas), an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, (where we shouldn’t have gone), and mostly for his choices of friends, and or advisors, such as the “Rev.” Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers and Louis Farrakhan.

That being said, I believe that upon, (and probably before), taking office, President Obama, will learn things about the economy and the war that will if not completely changing his mind, will make him think before he acts rashly, (something George W. Bush obviously didn’t do before attacking Iraq).

I have been observing presidential elections since about 1956, and I remember in 1964, Rep. Sen. Barry Goldwater, an Air Force Brigadier General was drawn by the Democrats, as a warmonger. However, in 1965, it was Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, who, after soundly trouncing Goldwater, expanded the war in Vietnam. So, if in 2009, President Obama doesn’t behave as many of his supporters thought he would, he has history on his side.

Then we have the columnists, and talk show hosts, who refuse to let matters lie, Keith Olberman of MSNBC and Rush Limbaugh are merely two sides of the same coin, sanctimonious blowhards whose opinions are no more important (or thought out), than your average voter’s on Nov. 4, or, the “Rev.” Robin Meyers, an Oklahoma City United Church of Christ minister who takes Oklahoma to task, (Google The Oklahoma Gazette), for being the only state in the U.S. where not one county was carried by Obama. Meyers, in his column, immediately puts this phenomenon down to the fact that Oklahoma is racist; an accusation which offends me. Are there racists in Oklahoma? You bet there are. Are there racists in Meyers Church? Are there blacks who voted for McCain? Simple math would indicate there must be on both counts. I do not believe that Oklahoma, only by its being a solid red state, should be branded by a “Christian” minister as totally racist. In damning Oklahoma, Meyers, and all those who damn Obama, (another instance of two sides of the same coin), need to go back to that overly merchandised question: What Would Jesus Do?

Copyrighted by C.F. David