Rich Kao

I was already bummed that I couldn't be on the ground in front of the TV watching the election returns, and knew an announcement would probably come on the plane.  And it did, while enroute to Asia, the intercom crackled..."your new president is Barack Obama."

With that a flood of emotions hit me, much like it did for everyone in the US, and around the world.  Obama had become a worldwide phenomenom.  As I left Vancouver that morning, the papers were trumpeting Obama watch parties in Vancouver!  Later I found out, this was more than a common occurence all over the world.  People were rooting for Obama from Africa to Asia to Europe.  Amazing.  As one post election article put it, it was like Obama was elected president of the world.  That's how popular he is.

In many ways, I'm happy for my birth country....

Firstly...because of how the elections affected the African-American community. They experienced such a sense of breakthrough, yes even redemption.   There was a release, a setting free kind of feeling, a validation and affirmation they never felt.  Maybe Barack's election was part of God's plan to shine His sense of favor on them.  Theologically I don't agree with this (they were already loved, as all races are through the cross), but experientially, our fellow black brothers and sisters seemed to experience it this way.

Secondly, because there is a new spirit (at least for now) on the diplomatic, international relations front.  Unless you've traveled the world as much as me, you have no idea how large the US looms in the world - economically, politically, militarily, culturally.  The fact that people around the world cheered Obama's victory so heartily and joyfully shows how vested people are in the US, whether they like it or not.  There has always been a love-hate relationship with the US, and during Bush's years, there was a lot more hate than love.  But in a single moment, the love came rushing back.  If there is a renewed sense of excitement and receptivity for the US in the world now, and if that can be used for global good, than that's certainly a positive development.  It may just increase the church's ability to serve effectively around the world.

Thirdly, we now have a president that is very intelligent and articulate.  My great pet peeve with Pres. Bush was his seeming lack of intelligence, and inarticulateness.  He was leader of the free world, and he could hardly get his words right. 

Fourthly,  we have a president that seems to be truly broad-minded, secure and able to hear dissent and contrarian views to reach a better judgement.  The fact that Obama's emerging cabinet may mirror a Abraham Lincoln cabinet of rivals speaks to Obama's security and openness as a individual.  There are few presidents in history I respect more than Abraham Lincoln.

Fifthly, having a black president is cool, not just to make a racial statement; we don't practice affirmative action for the oval office, but to show the racists that any qualified person of any race or color can make it to the top.  (Maybe an Asian US president someday?  That's a mind bender).

BUT....despite all these positive vibes,  the US couldn't have elected a person farther from my own political and personal convictions.  Obama is as liberal as they come.  He's a government-centric person.  He's a pro-choice president.  He's dovish militarily.  He embraces a set of family values that are opposite to mine.   Fiscally, he's liberal.  And on taxation, he's on the opposite end of me.  We lost a very able and capable man to run our country in John McCain.  For that I was sad.  In many ways, he reminded me of the first George Bush that lost to Bill Clinton.  A good man, but not much charisma, not much personal pull.  In the end, it was just too much for Americans to elect a man like McCain they couldn't connect strongly with.

My great concern with Obama is legacy.  He will have the opportunity to appoint supreme court justices that may calcify liberal laws, particularly pro-choice ones.  He may set into motion a kind of big government that robs America of it's historical marketplace vitality and ingenuity.  He is already looking to reverse executive orders that will allow stem cell research.  He could well set a cultural climate that will allow US to become more secularized and humanistic.  He could have a generational effect that I'm scared of, that is in the natural sense. 

But in the end, it was not just that the American people had spoken.  God has spoken.  You can't get around Rom. 13:1.  God didn't just "let this happen." God actively established this result.  (I'm speaking like a good Calvinist now, though I'm not a 5 pt Calvinist).  On this side of heaven, we did our part.  But God has spoken in this election whether it fits our theology or not.  Now it's up to us to continue praying as fervently for President Obama as we did for past presidents.