Yes You Can

When you've worked hard to keep the candidate who won from getting there, it can be a very dark day, indeed.

However large the disappointment in the outcome of the 2008 Presidential election for McCain backers like myself, we must all embrace the symbolic achievement of the accession of a man of color to the Presidency of the United States.

Whether this is the right man (and he's not), or whether the campaign coverage was fair and balanced (and it wasn't) is all fodder for a different day. Today is the day to tell all Americans that there is nothing you cannot achieve in this country. (You don't even have to be honest.)

As I told my High School History classes yesterday, "No matter who you wanted to win, the fact remains that America elected a Black man to be President of the United States, and that fact is the most significant positive event in the political history of the United States of America. There cannot be a Black man or women, or of any ethnicity, for that matter, than can now have any doubts about what they can achieve in this country, if they work hard for it and plan carefully."

Americans, as Obama's victory speech proclaimed, "Yes we can." We can, here, accomplish almost anything we set out to do.

Congratulations, Barack Obama. You have broken through what may have seemed like a barrier of race to many people of color, whether it was real or imagined.

Senator McCain: a Republican Plea

CONTACT SENATOR MCCAIN:
Phone: 703 413 2008
Website: http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/

Senator McCain,
I am a recent Republican, having fled the Democratic Party four years ago from its wildly leftist leadership and from its mandates. I had long been a Conservative Democrat, but I have given up on that path. I am for less government than more; I am for more economic freedom and less market control; I am for a strong, independent America, and opposed to Internationalism, Multiculturalism and to any ideology that would diminish our great nation's political culture and freedoms.

Senator McCain, I was an early supporter of your campaign, but I left your team because of your position on immigration reform.

Now, though, you are my Party's nominee. I want to give you my support. But you seem to me to be ignoring the positions of our Party on several key issues.

1. Immigration--sir, I know there are millions of illegals in this country. You want a compassionate solution. But sir, they are stealing our wealth from us by sapping our infrastructure, stealing through insurance and education costs and through not paying taxes. They must be sent home, and that can be done on a state-by-state basis. Regular checks for paperwork by state and local police can make this happen. They can come back, if they can get visas.

2. Energy costs--sir, I detect a Senate-elitist stance in your policy here, and an absence of a compass. Democrats have stifled refineries and drilling for new oil, and that has led now to impossible gas prices. This is economics 101 Senator; we have exceeded our refining capacity, and prices, because of this fact, will not come soon down. We must have more refineries now, and we must drill for more oil now. We need this fuel to keep growing, sir, and OPEC cannot help us refine more oil. The inability to make gasoline will still have an upward pressure on gas prices.

3. Ethanol--this is a boondoggle, Senator. Quash this before every foodstuff in the United States trebles in price in the next six months.

4. Israel
Senator, I think your heart is in the right place on this. We must for the first time in the history of Israel make Israel our right-hand ally in the Middle East.

5. Islam--We must stop pandering to the interests of Islamists to whom we send billions of dollars in aid, and who with that aid often send it back to us in the form of suicide bombs and terror attacks. We must pacify Islam, and help it learn how to pacify itself. These people really believe they will defeat the West and destroy Israel. Have you seen the DVD "Obsession?" You can find it on the internet. Also, we want the trail of Saudi influence money sourced and exposed. The fact that your campaign manager is a former Saudi lobbyist doesn't sit well with many of the people who share my political views.

Please consider my words, Senator. You must offer us Republicans who range from the Center to the Conservative core more. You must give us more of what WE hold true and dear.

I hope you will hear my words and those like me who will follow. We cannot get whole-heartedly behind you if you don't.

Sincerely,

James A. Bridge