(1.20.10) President Obama Must “Press Toward The Mark of His High Calling.”

     As we mark the first anniversary of the inauguration of the nation’s first African American president, we find ourselves also casting our attention toward the just-completed senate race in Massachusetts which witnessed a Republican, Scott Brown, snatching away from Democrat challenger Martha Coakley the seat which had been held for 46 years by the late Edward M. Kennedy. With this improbable victory also comes the reality that the Democrats no longer have their 60 seat filibuster-proof super majority, a luxury which almost assured passage of President Obama’s ambitious domestic agenda. Included in this domestic agenda is the president’s health care plan, which both houses of Congress were poised to vote on once the details of the House and Senate versions were ironed out.

     Now with Scott Brown’s election victory, a 41st Republican has been added to the world’s most exclusive club and he has already promised to vote against the president’s health care plan. Not only has Senator-elect Brown promised to vote against the White House sponsored health care bill, but he has also promised to join his 40 fellow Republicans in voting against Democrat-sponsored bills on cap and trade, immigration reform, and other Democrat-sponsored legislative goals.

     In the light of this, we here at shermancrockett.com are urging President Obama to “forget those things that are behind, and to press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling,” a phrase taken from the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Philippian Christians (3.13-14). In particular we urge the president to stop making references to the failed policies of the eight years of the George W. Bush administration. We say this because in doing this the president comes across as petty, vindictive, and non-visionary. He is too smart and gifted to continue to play the broken political record that we’ve been listening to for over a year, if you include the time before his historic inauguration.

     When Barack Obama was first elected to the presidency the freshness of his historic electoral victory resonated in all of us who supported him, no matter what our ethnic origin. But now that the initial euphoria of his ascendancy to the White House has faded, our hope is that President Obama will use both the accomplishments and failures of his nascent presidency as a springboard to both political and personal greatness.

     He can certainly accomplish this by pressing forward and forgetting about what George W. Bush, our 43rd president, did or, in the opinion of many, failed to do. As the present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Mr. Obama now owns every issue which affects this nation, both domestic and foreign. Iraq is his war now, just as is Afghanistan and all other elements of the war on terror, which, by the way, needs to be called just that; a war against terror. To call it anything other than what it is is, in our opinion, a colossal mistake. The economy is his, no matter what policies from previous administrations may have contributed to our present fiscal circumstances.

     Mr. Obama, we here at shermancrockett.com strongly encourage you to press toward the future without dwelling on the past. In doing so you will be much better focused on what this great nation needs most; a focused, visionary leader who will lead us out of the political/social darkness and into the marvelous light of national greatness.

That’s my opinion; what’s yours? (c) 2010 Sherman Crockett,Jr.