whatever i may think ... he is my president.

Its taken me 9 days to get around to posting this.

Let me state up front: I did not vote for Barack Obama. I know people who plead the "sanctity of the booth" and refuse to reveal who they back. That's b.s. If you believe in your candidate, you admit you backed them. I'm not going to say I agreed with Senator McCain on everything. Hell, I have no doubt I agree with President-elect Obama on far more than I agreed with Senator McCain on. But I backed the Senator from Arizona.

Having said that, and anyone can search this site and read my opinions of the election, whether it be the convention blogs, the major speech reactions and recaps, the debate blogs and recaps, my thoughts on any given day, its all there ... it has been suggested to me that I show more class, grace, and decorum than anyone in my party did in 2000, and embrace our President-elect and give him a chance.

I'm not willing to embrace him. But I'm willing to give him a chance. And here's a few initial reasons why I hope you'll share my sentiments. (More to come as we near a truly historic Inaugural. Again, as Keith Olbermann noted in his rant I linked to a couple posts ago -- for all you "don't redefine marriage" kooks, you do realize that Barry's parents COULD NOT HAVE MARRIED 40 years ago in over half the country because of your misguided "traditional definition of marriage". What an amazing, incredible nation we live in, to overcome the worst among us, and enact the best we have to offer. The fact that an African American overcame two women, in essence, to win this election, is such a testament to the strength of what this country is, you can't feel anything other than pride).

Oh, back to the point. 5 of them to begin with:

1. Because Senator Obama proved once and for all that Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, and Mike Church, and "The Great One", Mark Levin, are full of crap in one regard. Rush and company have claimed for years that us liberal Democrats have to camouflage ourselves, that we have to run as anything other than what we are, to win a national election. Barry hid NOTHING. He never denied for one second what his intentions were (unlike Bill Clinton). He never backed down from his left wing stances on social issues of the day (unlike John Kerry). He never came across as someone who refuses to engage in intelligent thought with the opposing side (unlike Al Gore). Senator Obama ran as a left-wing, anti-war, pro-socialism candidate ... and won a mandate for himself in the popular vote, and an electoral landslide the likes of which we haven't seen since Clinton ran for re-election in 1996.

2. Because the Courts are ours (aka, "the left's") for the rest of my lifetime now. Even if there isn't a single Supreme Court appointment (highly unlikely; the only President without one in my lifetime is Ford), even if the High Court itself remains unchanged, President Obama can pack the Circuit and District Courts with judges who understand that a document written 200 plus years ago needs to be adaptable to modern circumstances, within reason of course. For those of us who still have a D on the voter card mainly due to social issues, we can at least sleep easier at night.

3. Joe Biden. Any reader of this site knows I have a huge man crush on the guy. My goal in life is to shake that man's hand, buy him a beer, and have him say "thanks, pal or champ" in the next four years. God, I love Joe Biden. But Biden is more than a gaffe machine that makes me laugh continually. He's been dead on accurately right about Iraq since day one (invasion was justified, but holding the country together was stupid; surge was right but why the hell let Bush get away with lying about Mission Accomplished). Again, I Love Joe Biden!

More importantly, he'll be the voice of moderation in the Obama White House. Well, one of them. He'll keep Obama grounded in the center, like Gore held Clinton to the middle when his instincts took him far left.

4. Rahm Emanuel. I LOVED this pick. I actually breathed a heavy, heavy sigh of relief when President-elect Obama picked Emanuel as Chief of Staff. Is he partisan? Sure. Who cares? You just won a popular vote mandate (if Bush at 48.7 and 51.2 is a "mandate", Barry at 52.9 is a "mo fo mandate!"). Go partisan! And pick someone who signals three things with his arrival. (1) We're solidly behind Israel. (2) We ain't bowing to the religious right on anything, despite point one. And (3) We ain't bowing to the lunatic left on anything either. Great pick.

5. (curtis blow voice) we playin' bask ... et ... ball ... we playin' bask ... et ... ball ... The guy is a hoops addict! Granted, he's a Bulls fan, which as a reformed Knicks kook and now Bucks backer, should disgust me ... but really. Set aside your political thoughts for a moment. How effing AWESOME would it be to play a pickup game with President-elect Obama? And how effing AWESOME is it that we have a guy in the Oval Office that actually knows that "pick up game" refers to hoops, not wars or whores! (rimshot!)

I wish President-elect Obama the best. I truly hope and pray he sets the standard for the next generation as to what a President should be. I hope someday his respect level among the American public matches what we witnessed for President Reagan's funeral processional.

I fear we're in for the worst four years of our lives ...