A President Obama will be good for Life, life in all its reach, its complexity, its simplicity and beauty.  An apparent practicioner of TM, transcendental meditation (he has that unmistakable "it" that knows who and what "it" is) ---Obama promises to be a serious man, an Aristotelian "spoudaios aner," transported to our shore, our Augenblick, our Moment of Vision and Destiny.

Sorry about that--I got carried away.

But even serious men can get carried away.  Witness Obama's first gaffe, the flippant remark about White House seances.  (By the way, there have been seances in the White House, and Obama, a great student, may well have had in the back of his mind some of the unconventional interests of the slightly mad Mary Todd Lincoln.) 

OK.  It's just you and me, now.  President-elect Obama I did not vote for.  He said nothing during the process that indicated a willingness to really change U.S. Foreign Policy, a disaster in the making.  An ongoing disaster.  What, for example, are we doing in Saudi Arabia, the place from which came most of the 9/11 extremists?  Well-meaning--that's what it is.  The Bush Family connection, a very special connection, to this highly suspect regime of ruthless dictators.  Good intentions.  But look at the results.  Altogether fitting and proper and providential that this payback-event (I repeat, it was a payback event and an attempt to wake up sluggish, sleepy people like me...they succeeded)...September 11, 2001 happened on W's watch.  9/11.  Let us never forget about 9/11.  9/11 was a day that woke at least one American up from his slumber.  The Bush response to this, after the dust settled, was unsettling.  It was "knee-jerk."  It was insane.  It was the old "eye for an eye" mindset.  The Old Law at work.  But we are now in the New Dispensation.  Providentially, I guess, New Directions have come our way.  A new sort of Great Awakening, is, or should be, adrift in the land.  One positive sign of this Great Awakening is the hue and cry for "energy independence."  Suppose we accomplish this useful goal.  What then?  Do we abandon our friend, Israel?  They have the atom bomb.  Does this mean they can take care of themselves?  Make no mistake about it:  This country by and large loves Israel and its people.  But we love our own families even more.  We, like Israel, like Palestinians--we love our own.  But we also love, some of us, Christ.  Christ symbolizes the bigger picture, the ultimate questions that go beyond the narrow love of one's own family, tribe, culture, tradition, etc.  "Leave the dead to bury their own dead," said our Master, Jesus Christ.  What does this mean?  "Do not call me good..."  What does this mean?  "Who cares about my mother?  Who cares about my family?"  What does this mean?  The answer can be found, among many other places, in Galatians 3:27ff.  The answer, ironically, can be found in Obama's quixotic quest, even in the international arena, for Unity, for the Family of Man.  Don Quixote indeed.  Suddenly, everything in the world appears as a means to the end of peace and hope and self-giving love.  Appears...appears.  Need I remind myself and others that there is an age-old difference between appearance and reality?  Truth appears in the tired old cliches, "limited government," "states rights," "free trade."  OK.  What about civil rights?  Suppose we had the apodictic maxim of limited government applied to the issue of whether my public high school continues to have separate water fountains, one for black students, one for white students (by the way, both water fountains are still right there in F-Hall).  And Dennis Prager, the incarnation of Don Quixote, would like to have us believe the old wounds and legacies of racism have been washed away.  Well, yes...and no.  Appearances versus realities.  I loved the way Obama made fun of the attacks against him:  "They call me a communist because they found out I, I shared my peanut butter sandwich when I was in kindergarten."  LOL.  My point is that the appearance of wise governing, the conventional wisdom about prudent politics, has been for the moment exposed as the half-truth it really is.  I mean, "limited government" is a half-truth, not the full truth in politics.  I like Edmund Burke and, to some extent Winston Churchill.  But I also admire Colin Powell and Ben Bernanke, a couple of pragmatists, a couple of students of history.  Let's stop with the mindless cliches, conservatives.  Rush, you are getting old--not in the positve sense of the term, but in the negative sense of the term.  Old, old, old.  America, change has come!  Change has come!  It's not a cliche.  It's not that word, C-H-A-N-G-E, a word that, Gary Hart wrote on some blackboard way back in 1983 when he wanted to become Prez.  It's not the "tool" that Sarah studied while majoring in journalism and "political science."  Rather, real change is what I would call the reincarnation of Authentic Wisdom.  Nietzsche wrote about this and Joan Stambaugh, a great scholar, published an article about this Nietzchean theme some years ago in the journal, "Philosophy Today," or somesuch.  The theme is, or was translated as, "Decadence versus Creativity in Nietzsche."

 

For Nietzsche, correct me if I'm wrong, decadence is the conventional wisdom, what "they" say.  Heidegger, a student of Nietzsche, had some things to say about the "They" in his epoch-making metaphysics.  I've studied, and studied hard, Heidegger and Nietzsche.  Contrary to what the knee-jerk conservative poli-sci people have to say, both Nietzsche and Heidegger make arguments about ultimate issues, arguments from which humble people might learn a thing or two.  The theologians Balthasar and Ratzinger both appropriated and continue to sift out some valuable gems from these fruitful, if imperfect, minds and hearts.  And so do other reasonable and driven people.  People driven towards a viable Truth.  A deep-down joy.  Read the works, say "God and World," of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict.

 

As for the principle of Creativity, Nietzsche, as I recall him through decades of distraction, praised men like Richilieux (about whom I know nothing), Napoleon, Socrates, Emerson, Caesare Borgia, Putin and Barack Obama.  Yes, Nietzsche, as they say at St Johns Annapolis, "knew everything." 

 

(As for Zarathustra's praise for Putin, why not, oh you Pragers of the world, why not poison off the "liberals"?)

 

Getting back to business, Nietzsche's principle of Creativity is something the conservatives, some of them, need desperately--like thirsty wanderers in the desert need water.  But let us not get derailed here.  Partisanship is not where it's at.  Mindless partisan "thinking," left or right, is Kaput.  I wrote months ago, during the Reverend Wright fiasco, that "Obama is over."  Boy, was I ever wrong about that.  And boy, is there much that the Rush Limbaughs and Al Frankens of this world are utterly, and potentially disastrously, wrong about.   The point here is that one has to keep alive in one's soul, one's thoughtful mind,  the tension, the fruitful tension between Decadence and Creativity.  And when one makes a mistake, one needs to be big enough, like Eliot Spitzer, to not mince words about it.  I'll hand the man that.  I was dead wrong, several months ago, about Barack's chances.  To this day, I'm flabbergasted at what has happened.  A body can only handle so much "cognitive dissonance."  Underneath it all is a joy the likes of which I've never known, and I did not even vote for the guy!

 

Decadence (the conventional wisdom) versus Creativity.  Would that more Muslims would read, truly read and study and assimilate great minds like the mind of Nietzsche.  Sadly, Mohammed Atta probably read some Nietzsche while studying in Hamburg--and firmed up his "manly" desire to perform what he and his allies performed.  Some French pundit or philosopher remarked, after 9/11:  "What an incredible Work of Art."  I cannot stand with quite such radical thinking.  But having read many of the philosophers of our time, I know exactly what he means.  War is politics by other means.  And Mohammed Atta, in his way, was a politician-artist.  Personally, I don't think I could go that route. (After my conversion, it would be unthinkable.)  But I was not born in Egypt, son of a lawyer who probably beat him mercilessly when he was a child.  Most murderers pass on what they know, what they've learned in life, about life.  They don't wake up some fine autumn morning and say, "Think I'll fly a human bomb into a symbol of oppression of my people."  Whatever else about Atta, he no doubt saw himself as a pious warrior, doing the "will of God."  I repeat, I don't believe I would have gone that route.  But I don't know for sure.  I do know I'm a passionate person, an ambitious person.  Fortunately for me and those around me, that passion and that ambition has been "sublimated" into a working love of Christ under the guidance of heroic lights like John Paul the Great and our truly awesome Holy Father.  And fortunately for our nation and the world, as I hope, Obama has truly undergone a positive conversion.  We saw him evolve right before our eyes these last several months, even years.  In spite of his serious blind spot about abortion, I have reason to hope that he gets it when it comes to actual Creativity, not the appearance of Creativity or Truth.  For that's what Creativity really boils down to, a love of Truth, of Justice (not rabid tribalism). 

Rabid tribalism.  Just what did I mean by that slur-sounding expression?  Certainly not the expression Karl the Great Rove--and I mean that--used the other night when, in context, he referred to himself as a "Norweigian-American."  Nor would Reverend Sharpton or Jesse be, at this point, rabid partisans.  I see love and self-giving in both black men.  With them, my eyes fill with tears of hope, joy, amazement , disbelief, an exalted confusion.  "I'm confused on a higher level," said one beginner in Alcoholics Anonymous many, many years ago, bringing tears of joy and true recovery to my naive beginner's eyes.

 

I guess I'm judgmental enough to see the homicide bombers as "rabid tribalists."  But those who respond in kind, as opposed to with reason and Aristotelian Prudence, are also "rabid tribalists."  Do we, as a world family, want this vicious cycle to go on forever, or do we want to work rationally for solutions?  I see signs of hope in 3 events of late.  One, Barack's election is powerful in a way that defies human speech.  Obama's face is one with which billions of marginalized people can identify.  The oppressed people, the historically shut out folks on this planet, now have reason not to hate, but rather to look up, look up, once again, after a long stint in the wilderness, to the Shining City on a Hill.  Two, recent events in Israel, the heart of the world, show a willingness to listen to world opinion as opposed to digging in, the "in the trenches" mind-set.  Three, recent actions taken by the remarkable President Ahmadinejad, too, offer this Pollyanna signs of Hope.  Ahmadinejad has sent our President-elect a letter of possible reconciliation.  He thus gives more hope to us dreamers in this world.  Let me add one additional sign of Hope that Obama's Team should seize upon, viz., the Saudi Peace Initiative, behind which, I'm told, are 22 or so Arab nations.  The land from which came most of the 9/11 "martyrs" (not really martyrs in our eyes, but only in the eyes of millions and millions of people around the world) is apparently rising to a deadly serious occasion.  Obama's election, in this regard, might have staggeringly positive consequences, or start another tragedy of shakespearean realism.  Shakespearean reminders, like the biblical reminders, that there is indeed hope, but that we have to struggle, we Westerners, too, have too struggle, daily, in an inner-jihad, to do the right thing in  the face of what is, after all, Faith, Hope and self-giving love. 

I don't blame UBL for fighting back, not against the Soviets, not against us.  If I were in his shoes, I'd fight like hell too. 

 

Let's spell this out.  But first, consider Tolstoy's "War and Peace."  The big historical lesson of this greatest novels is this:  people don't like being occupied, especially by aggressors they don't like.  Napoleon invade Russia.  Russia fought back so as to force Napoleon to escape with his life.  The burning of Russian cities is nothing compared to the historical statement issued to Napoleon:  Do not mess with us. 

 

What I'd like to know is, Have we Americans financed our government's "messing" with UBL and those he leads?  Or, is UBL just using this issue for his own dark purposes?  Dr. Michael Scheuer outlines in full the written down grievances of our enemy.  It seems that UBL, a proven fighter, is bound and determined to fight America for what is perceived to be American disrespect, to put it mildly, for Muslim concerns and Muslim principles (one of which is, keep Islam's holy places pure and undefiled).  More than disrespect, which no one can control, is the issue of American actions (our troops on the ground in Saudi Arabia).  American actions (our support for Arab leaders who oppress Muslims).  American actions (our knee-jerk support for Israel no matter what they've done or do to Islam).  American actions (I repeat, our troops on the ground, especially since Desert Storm, in sacred places, i.e., places considered to be sacred by Islam and its believers).  American actions (I repeat, our apparently unjust support for a State that routinely oppresses Muslims as a matter of policy).  American policies (our oil-addicted policies that seem to guarantee our continued presence, even across sacred boundary lines, in the Middle East).

As Dr. Michael Scheuer alarmingly argues in "Marching Toward Hell," America, both prior to 9/11 and most decidedly after 9/11--seems to be in fact marching towards its own undoing as a going concern.  Our invasion of Iraq, in particular, played right into the hands of UBL, whose main mission is to do whatever it takes to get the majority of Islam's believers to come around to his way of thinking, i.e., Justice by the Light of Islam.  To pretend or deny that this Light is not a factor in a billion lives, is to live a lie, a delusion.  And sadly enough, Americans are very good at just that.  However, my faith in my country has been bolstered exponentially by the extraordinary miracle, the Divine Event of the Millenium--the impossible, providential election of Senator Barack Obama. 

 

Long live Barack Obama and his family, both here and abroad.  Long live Barack and his Family of Man.

 

Our gratitude to the soldiers in Barack's new army, these fine fighting men and women.

 

An especial thanks to the leaders, the generals in Obama's New Directions Citizens Par Excellence!  I mean, and I'm leaving out many because I don't know all their glorious names:  Plouffe, Axelrod, Gibbs, Jackson, Wright, Jackson, Sharpton, Hill, Clinton, Biden, Adelman, Kmiec, Parker, Noonan, Matthews, what's his name on MSLSD, Carter, Krugman, Volcker, Rubin, Buffet, Geffen, McCartney, Brits, Germans, French, all such "generals" and  citizens par excellence.  And I didn't even vote for the man.

 

Now, if Russia wanted Napoleon, Russia, corrupted by the West, wanted Napoleon out, imagine how much UBL, uncorrupted by the West, wants America out of its business. Imagine.  It is only a matter of common sense and it's a reason to celebrate what is happening in America right now.  One, Obama has made it.  Two, his first priority, is energy independence so that we can leverage this new freedom from addiction--for only the free can act freely--towards a sane Middle East Policy, a sober, non-addicted policy that will leave all parties concerned in peace and mutual respect for that perennial monster...The Other.  The Other will become part and parcel of Oneself.  We saw this enacted centuries ago in Shakespeare's first play, "The Comedy of Errors."  (Cf. Galatians 3:27.)  The opposites will be reconciled.  As Obama knows and has argued so effectively, there is no "red" or "blue" America.  There is only The United States of America.  As Saint Paul preaches so powerfully in Galatians and Ephesians (I'm not good at memorizing verbatime):  no longer is there master and slave, man or woman, Greek or Jew, Gentile or Jew, Red State or Blue State--but rather, All are One.  In principle, as I see it, this is Truth pure and simple.  We just have to work out the details.  Dennis Ross can help; Bob Rubin can help; Rahm Emanuel will definitely help; Dr. Furman will help; maybe Carter and Clinton can help--not to mention Presidents Bush.  Again, we have in Shakespeare's first comedy a foreshadowing of what is to come.  Unity.  And what about that later, more problematical play of Shakespeare's, "The Merchant of Venice"?  Who, today, is the Merchant?  Obviously, today, the merchant is Wal-Mart.  Let us do things the Wal-Mart Way, and I'm not playing here because I know the stated Wal-Mart Policy Par Excellence:  RESPECT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL.

If my vote had really counted, I would have voted for Senator Obama.  And I'm a practicing Catholic--like Doug Kmiec, the well-known legal scholar and Roman Catholic who came out several months ago for Obama.  Kmied argued, if I'm not mistaken, that Barack stands for Life just as surely, and more so, than McCain.  I agree with Kmiec on this extremely important issue.  I also agree with a real hero of mine, Father John Corapi, who stated on one of his videos that unless America turns away from abortion it will undergo a cataclysm that will make 9/11 look tame in comparison.  I also agree with this prophesy.  We are probably going to get hit again.  Yet, there is, moreso in Obama than in anyone else, hope.  You see, I believe Obama was "chosen."  People like me, who think about the Bible, look to the Scriptures for clues.  One big clue in the Bible is that the Lord singles out persons for leadership:  Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David.  These are just the ones this lay person can think of.  The Macabees also led--by example, an example noted and in a sense imitated by none other than Jesus.  Jesus, of course, is the Ultimate One "chosen" to lead.  That's what we Catholics believe though we cannot "prove" this in a scientistic way.  We can, however, prove it in an emperical way.  This has been done, and very beautifully done.  Read Pope Benedict's book on Jesus. 

Back to Barack:  He, too, has been chosen to lead.  He could have said no.  Instead, he gave his assent.  His "yes" has made all the difference.  If my theory is correct, the lives he will save will be more than those McCain would have saved, and I include, in my count, the unborn babies. 

We are at war with angry Muslims.  Extremely angry Muslims.  Their anger is so extreme that some of them--with millions saying Yes!--resorted and continue to resort to unspeakable violence.  Is any iota of this anger, this violence, justified?  I don't know.  I've read recently that our troops are on the sacred soil parts of Saudi Arabia.  Is this really true?  Could this be even half-true or true-but-with-good-reasons true?  Again, I don't know the facts on this.  I do know that suicide bombers are motivated, in part, by the perception of presence of our  military on soil considered sacred by one point four billion Muslims.  Barack Obama, for heaven's sake, seems to me much more likely to understand the gravity of this issue, if it is an issue.  I'd like to find out.  But finding out the truth was not what happened when, after 9/11, we American citizens were told that the terrorists did this because they hate "our way of life."  Such hatred our our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our emphasis on human rights and trial be a jury of one's peers--all of this some of them no doubt hate or resent or violently disagree with.  But not to the point of doing a 9/11--I don't think.  Rather, what makes more sense to me, and should make more sense to you if you're capable of putting oneself in another's shoes--is that the explosive hatred we've all seen on our TV came to NYC and DC and PA because we did, in their eyes, virtually the same thing to them.  9/11 was payback.  More than payback, it was a warning of more of the same if we don't start listening to them.  All they ask is that we listen, listen as a starting point. 

 

As for the real reasons behind suicide terror, I invite my millions of readers and fans to google Dr. Robert A. Pape, U. of Chicago professor of politics.  I also invite anyone and everyone to read the alarming books written by Dr. Michael Scheuer, retired CIA analyst.  His most recent work I've read from cover to cover:  "Marching Toward Hell."  In a nutshell, America is marching toward hell on earth, another 9/11 and then some, if it continues to fail the course on Islam.  Yes, Islam.  Mohammed Atta and Company were devout Muslims.  They believed they were doing the will of God.  How can this be?  Study up.  Read a little.  Look up what UBL said about why 9/11 happened.  He is saying that the U.S. Air force came onto the territory of Saudi Arabia.  That would be his home. His Sacred Home.  He has a concern about that, and we should too.  (If Saudi Arabia sent its military to our home, I think we might, as obtuse as we are, begin to understand what UBL was worried about.)  To make matters worse, our troops, accorging to UBL, parked on SACRED GROUND.  Again, we need to learn a little about what this action, if true, means to one point four billion Muslims, or even a tiny fraction of that huge amount. 

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Again, read Dr. Pape; read Dr. Scheuer; read Dr. Andrew Bacevich, who lost a son serving in Iraq.  Review what Dr. Ron Paul said in the Republican Debates of 2008.  When asked why 9/11 happened, Paul, unlike Giuliani, answered with truth and common sense:  It happened "because we are over there," meaning we are violating them in their eyes.  (So, in last resort payback, they are violating us in our eyes.)  Barack Obama has shown that he is more likely to understand the depth of this issue than John McCain.  Moreover, the face that this remarkable human being and citizen shows the world is the face of the oppressed of the world.  The billions who, historically, have been abused, lynched, struck down, kept down, violated--on and on.  Aborted.  In an ironic way, Barack's face even symbolizes the innocent aborted.  What better person then, to fight for life in all its variegated reality: life on the streets, life in the desert, life in the shacks around the world, life on the margins of human existence, even life, especially life--in the womb.  Obama, in his way, will fight, I hope and believe, for all of life in a way that McCain is constitutionally incapable of doing.  Moreso than Obama--at least I hope--McCain affirms the problematical presence of our military in untold places around the globe.  Some of these places, I repeat, are said to be holy ground, ground held holy by believers in God.  If they have an issue with our being on their sacred places,  then we have a sacred responsibility, as human beings and citizens, to respect their perceptions of evil-doing on this matter. As a people backing a government doing these things, in part, because of our addiction to oil, we are responsible.  We are at risk.  Our lives have been and continue to be at risk. 

 

Again, I don't know for a fact that our troops still occupy such extremely sensitive places.  But if our troops are still inside boundaries where they really should not be, then, it seems to me, common sense would dictate that we do two things. One, we need to remove our troops from those sensitive places if there is any conceivable way we can do so and still stand by our friend, Israel.  Two, we need to remove our troops from those sensitive places if there is any conceivable way we can do so and still stand by our friend, the State of Israel.  Whether the State of Israel has any business being there in the first place, is quite another question.  My opinion goes with those inside Israel and America and elsewhere:  the vocation of the Jews is to practice their faith wherever they may find themselves, and thus to be true to the principles they believe in, especially the Ten Commandments. 

 

Instead of voting for Barack, whom I admire beyond words, I voted for Ron Paul, who openly stated his belief in the non-interference of America in the sacred places of the world.  Naive?  Probably.  I'm a non-expert.  But as a citizen, I have a right and a duty to participate according to my ability to do so.  I belive I have a profound duty to write about this issue here and now:  America has GOT to achieve a level of energy independence so that we do not have to fight ugly wars all because of our greedy addiction to oil.  To be relatively self-sufficient in terms of our energy needs, our reasonable energy needs all things considered--such independence would be way we would grow to adulthood, and the way Israel would grow to adulthood as well.  Israel would no longer be the unacceptable security risk it has become.  If this sounds, "anti-semtic," so be it. It is not.  Rather, it is tough love.  There has to be a win-win deal in the Middle East War that does justice to the legitimate security needs of all parties concerned, especially America's,  the Palestinian's and Israel's.  Not biting the bullet is no longer an option.  Failure to achieve this win-win deal is no longer an option. 

 

What Father John Corapi has said will happen to those who live a lie will indeed happen to those who live a lie.  One means of starting on the road to peace, it seems to me, would be an eight year reign of our new King, Obama.  An even better, more reliable road to peace would be for each and every one to be nice to each other.  Nice isn't really the word.  The word is respect for the individual, as is written, for heaven's sake, even in the Wal-Mart manual.  Let's take the baby steps that need to be taken, and go from there.  Let's start by treating our wives with respect. Our customers with respect.  And as for the Muslims of the world:  Let's indeed start treating our girls and wives with human dignity and respect.  If I offend, so be it.  Universal education is a must, universal education for all boys and all girls.  The State of Iran knows that.  When will Afghanistan catch up? 

Either the intimations of Immortality were real, the other night, or they were not.  Indeed, Wordsworth and the Romantics come to mind.  The "augenblick" or Moment, if you will, was personally overwhelming to me.  Yes, a sucker is born every minute.  But the fact is, we have a man of wide-ranging excellence soon to be our Leader.  I did not vote for him though I would have if, in my state, it would have mattered.  If I had known about this Moment or, let's say, World-historical Event, I would have voted for him in spite of my newly-discovered "pro-life" position.  In the wake of this incredible feat, this magnificent achievement for a man, for a citizen, for all citizens of the world...it occurs to the thinker that Unity as a force, as a Plan, as a temporary Reality...such Unity is as big or bigger than the sad laws in our land that promote or allow abortion.  Unity, the more perfect Union we still seek as a people, is no longer just a word.  This unity, no matter what happens in the next four years, has reached another world-historical plateau.  Or, so it seems, now, at this moment, to one who read Wordsworth, rocked with Lennon, became an "alcoholic," got saved in a Twelve Step Program--then found Saint Therese of Lisieux, Saint Josemaria Escriva, Saint Padre Pio, Saint Theresa Benedicta (Edith Stein, Husserl's student), Mother Angelica, John Paul the Great and, last but not least, our Holy Father.  And one must mention the great G. K. Chesterton and one avid reader of him, the man who cured my bursitis and bone spur, Bishop Sheen.   Finally, truly, last but not least, this Election dovetails with my marriage to form a Hope the likes of which I've never known in my life.  I thank God that Barack, when he sat down in quiet to ask the Lord His will,  said, ok, "yes, send me."  Few of us can know the faith, natural and supernatural, of this gentle but powerful soul, Barack Obama.  The jokes about the Messiah Coming...there is something real underneath them.  Like Jesus before him, but himself following the Master, Barack grew before our eyes even as his crowds got bigger and bigger.  In the New Testament, we have to notice the crowds, the folks who want to hear, to be near, to even touch the shirt of Jesus.  Something similar, not the same obviously, has just happened in our lifetime.  Through the miracle of TV, we were able to see Jesse, Jesus in Disguise, weeping like a child, an innocent, self-giving Child. And his tears exacerbated our own.  Tears of Joy, of Strength, of Renewal.  Sacramental Tears.  Exile and Redemption all in One.  A new heaven, and a new earth (Revelations 21).  Memory rules from here on out.  Memory and Hope mixed together in a new Augenblick, a new Moment of Vision into which we will be called upon to tap--in order to change ourselves as the very best means of "changing the world."  Wordsworth, Prophet Walt Whitman, Charles Dickens--recently celebrated in First Things by Father Neuhaus. 

 

Only one American living, in this more artistic and spiritual sense, is as great as Barack Obama:  the Creator Garrison Keillor.  Human beings and Citizens:  Let us celebrate this newly-discovered Hope for a More Perfect Union.  And let us invite our fellow Citizens of the World.  The Audacity of Hope has become the Incarnation of Hope.  For real.