Postscript of a Presidential Election

The election is over. The people have spoken. Barack Obama has been re-elected as president of the United States. As I promised in my post yesterday, I will pray for President Obama. He is the leader of this nation, and thus he is my leader.

Post-election analyses will be abundant; I doubt I will add anything new to the conversation. Allow me just a few observations as we move into four more years of an Obama administration.

We are a deeply divided nation. The U. S. Senate is a majority Democrat. The House of Representatives is majority Republican. And of course President Obama is a Democrat. The voting patterns indicate that the citizens of this nation are divided as well. I remained perplexed at the undecided voter phenomenon in the presidential polls leading to this election. The contrast between the two candidates and their positions was stark. From my simple perspective, there were two clear choices and indecision was certainly not one of them. President Obama and congress face some huge challenges with our economy. With the “fiscal cliff” looming, and with seemingly uncompromising positions on both sides, no solution seems to be in sight. The national debt levels are sinful. And I hear of no solutions for the huge problems we face with our governmental entitlement programs. Social issues were not nearly as big as I expected them to be. I knew the economy would trump most issues, but I did not expect social issues to be so obscured. We are likely to be paying higher taxes as individuals one way or another. The payroll tax reduction will likely expire. And, unless an unexpected compromise takes place, the Bush tax cuts will expire. How will a fragile economy respond as consumers have less take-home pay?

These are some of my observations and questions. What observations do you have to this election?