In case you’ve managed to completely avoid any source of news over the last two months, today is a Really Big Day in the history of this country. We are in the midst of a recession that may be headed for a depression, the Iraq War is ongoing but appears headed for a successful conclusion, the President (and most especially Congress) have historically low approval ratings, and in the midst of it all, the nation prepares to inaugurate our first black President, Barack Obama; a man who is for many a symbol of hope and change in the midst of troubled times.

Many sensible centrists and conservatives – even among those who did not vote for Obama – have expressed a willingness to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. They say, for the sake of the country, that they hope that Obama will make a good President. It’s a natural enough sentiment, I guess; people like for the trains to run on time. I will agree with it in this one respect: I hope that he keeps the country safe from a terrorist attack.

Beyond that, however, I hope that Barack Obama is a failure as a President.

Before you recoil in horror that I could express such a sentiment, allow me to remind you what the pleasant face and smooth rhetoric hide in the case of Barack Obama: they hide a morally depraved and crooked man. A man who, in the midst of a discussion about infants left to die without medical care on an operating table, blithely explained that he was more concerned about the grisly prospect of one abortion doctor second-guessing another abortion doctor (presumably Obama supported eliminating medical malpractice suits in Illinois, and such support was tragically lost to posterity). A man who used his position of authority in the Senate to funnel money forcibly extricated from taxpayers to his wife’s employer, and interests friendly to his Presidential campaign bundlers. A man who has gotten to his position of power by climbing the greasiest and dirtiest ladder in all of politics.

You see, what happens when the trains run on time is that people are quicker to forget the moral failures of their elected officials, and their government at large. As we saw in the late 90s, when people are by and large materially prosperous (especially if they are artificially so), they dislike being bothered by those who would point out that their government is populated by the corrupt, the immoral, or the liars. I don’t really begrudge people this basic instinct. After all, many intelligent people have observed the difficulty people have in focusing on larger societal problems when they don’t have bread and meat on their own table. The problem is that in such an environment, it becomes much easier for a Democratic President and Congress to pass the abominable Freedom of Choice Act, repeal the Hyde Amendment, increase extortionate taxation on order to funnel more corrupt graft to their supporters, and otherwise abuse the trappings of power for immoral means.

I do not hope that Barack Obama is incompetent in national security matters and thereby costs American lives. But, as we will remember in two short days, all is not morally well in America. Barack Obama is sure to have a lengthy honeymoon with many people, who will be willing to overlook his essential moral emptiness for as long as it appears that he is doing a competent job of running his Administration. As for me, it is my hope for America that Obama’s moral emptiness will be exposed through his actions for all to see, and in such a way that we will not continue to allow ourselves to sweep it under the rug.

And as for myself, because I know who Barack Obama is and what he really stands for, I will oppose everything he does, and I will do so from day one. Who among you will join me?