I cannot think of a better moment to remind us all of this great song. Many who live in other countries are too hasty to judge the country and it’s people based on its media personalities, stereotypes, leaders and infamous moments. At the end of the day, all that can be said of anyone from any country is that they are struggling to make it through like the rest of us. President-Elect Obama strikes me as the kind of leader who has a chance to re-unite what has been divided. I look forward to his presidency, from a Canadian vantage-point.

Yes. Freedom makes you vulnerable. Weak.

But thankfully somebody pinched uncle sam. Thankfully they flew a plane into a building and suddenly america realized that they don’t need that freedom. They were so brave that instead of defending what they stood for, they gave it up over night.

Out of fear. What changed the world was not the planes flying into the buildings. It was the lack of balls, the lack of any backbone in the USA.

The weakness of America was that it led itself be controlled by fear. That it was this easy to make them give up on everything they once stood for.

The weakness of America is fear and the achilles-heel is the white christian republican. Ready to betray his country.

“Change for change’s sake is not always good, especially if it leads our nation into another 9-11 disaster due to ‘change’ that encourages terrorists to think us weak again.”

Yeah, and going to war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence was a great idea. We’re living in a real safe world now because of that.

For a person who talks about the absence of “black and white” in the world, you seem to put a lot of faith in the last President who showed a singular lack of understanding of this concept.

Geoff, I came to the blog to say I agreed with you 100%.

The fact that in a couple of months time, you will have a President who understands that in a deep and nuanced manner is extraordinarily relieving. The next fragment of your sentence, about evil and weakness, is incongruous with the first.

The USA will be stronger through tolerance, diplomacy and good example — all of which Obama represents. The USA will continue to get weaker with the violence, ignorance and exceptionalism displayed over the last eight years.

That perhaps the world sees this, and you do not, might be something to consider… but I understand that it is culturally uncomfortable for many Americans — even those holding such high office as Supreme Court justices.

You also base your praise on the election of the president. Our conservative nature, however, which you seemed to gloss over so lightly and actually ignored in your ‘all is bliss’ post, passed several ballot initiatives across the country I KNOW you would disagree with. (just from your post’s tone.)

You should also look at the raw voting totals. This was no “landslide”.

Before you just think me tossing rotten apples, I am apprehensively glad that Obama won this election. NOT because John McCain was a bad choice, rather his vice presidential choice WAS a a scary proposition to be a heartbeat from the ‘job’ with the boss being 72 years old with a history of health problems.

Change for change’s sake is not always good, especially if it leads our nation into another 9-11 disaster due to ‘change’ that encourages terrorists to think us weak again.

Life is NOT black and white (pardon the pun on this post election), it is shades of grey, and in this world there are evil people who will look for the first sign of weakness to perpetrate that evil against what they perceive to be weak. That is what worries me more than anything else when ‘change’ is bandied about without specifics as to WHAT THAT CHANGE WILL BE.

The US should never base its decisions on whether the “world” thinks us good or ill, but it should base its decisions on what keeps us strong AND safe from those aforementioned evil types that have no humanity.