• Will the Supreme Court step in again to decide who is president as in the 2000 race that gave us Gov. George W. Bush instead of V.P. Al Gore?
• Will Sen. Obama be cut down by an assassin's bullet before he can be sworn in as was the case with Robert Kennedy, or after his election as was the case with John F. Kennedy?
• Will the voters pull a fast one on the pollsters, refusing to reveal their bigotry for pollsters but wear it on their sleeve within the polling booth on election day?

Or, is America about to acknowledge another major growth spurt and turning of the page in our history book by electing a person of color to the highest office of the land and leaving him there as if he were like any other president in our history who won the election by vote, hook, or crook? I certainly hope so.

I am also hopeful that Sen. Obama turns out to be far more than the voters and his followers expect him to be. To get elected president in the U.S. as an agent of change, the candidate must hold many of their cards close to the vest. Sen. Obama has not provided very many details regarding his policy agenda; just enough to get elected, but not so much as to constrain his actions as a change agent president.

Change can be a scary thing. Psychologists have for decades acknowledged the research that depicts major changes in one's life as anxiety producing, stressful, and even traumatic for many. Sen. Obama's campaign was anchored on the concept of changing the direction for our nation and the office of president. But, just how those changes will be defined, he has largely kept to himself.

Many pundits would say the less a candidate commits to the fewer voters the candidate will alienate. That is a truism of American politics, and no doubt provides some explanation of why voters still have a nagging suspicion that they don't know Barack Obama. I suspect these voters suspicions may be well founded. But, not due to a hidden agenda that will harm Americans or our future, but, which will dramatically improve our nation's future and her political history.

Sen. Obama is highly intelligent, deliberative, and perceptive. He saw what few others could see 20 months ago in the electorate, a longing for change even though change is an exercise in anxiety and nervousness over where one ends up after the changes have taken place. If one looks at Sen. Obama's speeches and criticisms of the current administration and political system, I believe we can see the kind of changes that may come from his presidency. And it is not the American people who need to be fearful, but, American politicians who should be quaking in their boots.

Sen. Obama has pointedly attacked the wealthy corporate interest influence upon legislation in the Congress. That will be a target of the Obama administration. Sen. Obama is acutely aware of the scandals that have plagued politicians like Alaskan Sen. Ted Stevens alleged taking of bribes from an oil company in the form of free home improvements in the 10's of thousands of dollars. Or, Rep. Tom Delay's scandals flaunting state and federal laws to achieve his ends. And of course, Rep. William Jefferson's scandal in a sting operation which found cold cash in his freezer from an alleged bribe.

President Obama will be in a position to become the people's hero and the blight upon the corrupt and incompetent politicians that currently make up the bulk of the U.S. Congress, if the polls are any indication. The Democratic Party leadership may end up hating President Obama as much as the Republican Party, if Pres. Obama attacks the heart of the corruption, campaign financing, gerrymandering of political districts, corporate and wealthy special interest lobbying, and the revolving door to wealth that comes with getting elected and leaving office to work as a lobbyist. All these practices prevent our American government from attending the challenges that face our nation and people.

If Pres. Obama is true to his condemnation of these practices, he will become the people's next Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the pariah of the extant political parties which thrive upon and profit from these corruptions of our political process. And this may just be the reason and rationale for his taking his campaign to the grass roots of the American people instead of relying solely upon the Democratic National Committee for his funding and support.

I suspect Sen. Hillary Clinton saw this writing on the wall in Sen. Obama's rhetoric and why she fought so hard to defeat this change agent who could bring down the corrupt practices and stranglehold on power which both the Democratic and Republican Parties maintain on our political system, to the detriment of our nation's ability to meet the demands of its challenging issues. The Clintons after all, were the King and Queen of the Democratic Party and their positions in that Party depended upon politics maintaining its inside wheel and deal power structure which the Clinton's had become masters at manipulating.

Our current circumstances economically and politically are as dire as those posed by the 1929 Stock Market Crash that triggered a decade long depression and sequence of recessions that destroyed millions of American's lives and ways of living. Sen. Obama is aware of this. And Sen. Obama intends to address these circumstances. And there may be genius in Sen. Obama's avoiding references to FDR, and thus tipping his hand. FDR accomplished what he needed to after his election in 1932 because he had the support of the American people, while Washington insiders despised his tactics, his methods, and his all out attack on tradition and precedence of the past which helped create the Great Depression.

In other words, in the eyes of many, President Obama is poised to tip over the apple cart in Washington D.C. and make criminals of many there now holding elected office by ushering in a mandate of change by the American people to outlaw the current corrupt practices and influence of special interests that prevent legislation from effectively resolving the problems facing our nation, like national debt, deficits, false understated unemployment figures, inflation figures, and wage figures, and energy dependence an a failed educational system which happens to be the most expensive in the world.

The voters may not consciously recognize in Obama what I have written here, but, they have connected to Obama as the candidate to rest their hopes on. At some level, Sen. Obama's allusions to what will be the core of his presidency has been successfully communicated to a majority of voters, though most could not explain it in detail as done here. Sen. Obama has to be acutely aware as well, that his will be a one term failed presidency if he does not chart such a course of reform, change, and modification of the foundations upon which America's challenges are dealt with.

I have high hopes for this Senator as President. More than that. I have confidence in this man whose words, deeds, and management style during his campaign portend a presidency that will, against enormous resistance, alter the course of our future, averting it from almost certain degradation and failure to as the most powerful agent for peace in the world, and most prosperous nation for its people and children to come.

Writer:   David R. Remer on October 16, 2008 10:42 AM