“President Obama”….It’s a phrase that going to take some getting used to.

Many times during this year’s election, for whatever reasons, I kept conjuring up an image from all of our childhoods that reminded me so much of Mr. Obama’s efforts to capture the White House. Surely, like me, when you remember seeing dogs chasing after cars, you must have wondered: “What would he do if he ever caught that car?”

Well, now…Mr. Obama has caught it. It’s a little like the scene at the end of the 1972 movie, “The Candidate,” in which Robert Redford was running for a U.S. Senate seat in California. He won an election he was supposed to lose, and during the wild election night celebration, he dragged his campaign manager into a hotel bathroom and demanded to know: “OK, Smart Ass, what do we do now?”

Congratulations to the new president; he has my prayers—and my skepticism that he can do much of what he’s promised. I’m really glad Obama’s election wasn’t that close, so America will realize now that it really did get what it wanted. And, apparently, so did much of the rest of the world. There shouldn’t be any of this whining now about somebody “stealing” an election. My political pedigree is dramatically different from Obama’s “spread the wealth around” view of what government should do, so I will remain in the loyal opposition. I tend to think government should stay within the parameters of the six items mentioned in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, which I carry with me every day.

But, I don’t think it’s accurate to call Obama “the first black president.” I remember well the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960—when, as a 6^th grader, I first took a serious interest in national politics—and given JFK’s push for landmark civil rights legislation, I would call him “the first black president.” Lyndon Johnson took up Kennedy’s mantle and actually rammed the Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act through Congress in the mid-60s, not to mention appointing liberal Supreme Court justices like Thurgood Marshall. Some say Bill Clinton was another “black president,” which would make Obama number four.

In the end, I’m convinced Obama’s election was pre-ordained—and had little to do with the issues discussed. Given his eloquence, he took on the status of a rock star, and the crowds he attracted would have been welcomed by Jesus Christ himself. By comparison, poor John McCain—who may actually have made the better president—just wasn’t much of a presence on the stump. So much for “campaign styles;” now, Obama must be the leader of a power-hungry Democrat Party that controls all three branches of the federal government.

Despite a victory that approached landslide proportions, I would, if I could, remind Mr. Obama that this country is called the United States of America, and McCain actually won more of them. The states of the Northeast, the Great Lakes region and the West Coast carried Obama to victory, but most of the states that don’t border on water, in the center of the nation, went for his opponent—some by huge margins for McCain. It does sadden me terribly, though, that Virginia and North Carolina are no longer “Southern” states with southern values.

This electoral arrangement of states points out what I have told my political science students consistently for three presidential elections—that the big political divide in this country isn’t about Republicans or Democrats, or even so much about conservatives and liberals; it’s about the needs of “big city America” versus the needs of “small town and rural America.” Until something is done to address that set of differences, American elections will continue to be contentious battles of wills, and Congress will continue to produce mostly gridlock.

What can Obama do now? Even before January 20, 2009, he needs to take decisive action to restore confidence in the national economy—perhaps by outlining some specific economic policies, plans for tax legislation, plans for this “redistribution of wealth” that some called “socialism,” naming the key members of his cabinet, focusing the power of the government on breaking the stranglehold of foreign oil, and restoring confidence in the U.S. securities and commodities markets. As I write this, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is “down” the 300 points that it was up on Election Day.

And if Obama doesn’t do what he promised? I say to my conservative Republican friends: “Be cool. Give him a chance to deliver, a least a year to see some specific progress.” And, if after a significant time to get his program rolling, Obama falls into the “same old, same old,” then we just have to understand that we’ve had “bad presidents” before. Can you say, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter? George Bush, maybe? How about Millard Fillmore? 

Shoot, the Founding Fathers only wanted the president to “preside” over the government and “faithfully execute” the laws passed by the Congress. He was never envisioned to have the powers he has today, not even as an important advisor or co-equal to the legislative branch. His main roles were to be “commander in chief” and “head of state.”

If Obama turns out to be a “bad president,” then Republicans will have the opportunity to do what the Democrats did this time—find a silver-tongued rock star persona to run against Obama or Hillary or whoever in four or eight years. As much as I admire Sarah Palin, I’m not convinced she’s “it.” We’ll see what happens yet in her career as Alaska’s governor. I still like Mitt Romney, but if he runs again, he’s going to have to be a better campaigner. I think the “rock star” image fits well with the style that’s demanded now in modern presidential politics. Obama was simply a phenomenon so popular he wouldn’t be denied.

As for other elections, I am naturally disappointed that my old nemesis Patrick McHenry has won another term in Congress. I am convinced now that both the sniping super-partisan McHenry and the 10^th District will become even less relevant in a Congress where Democrats hold Republicans by their throats by even wider margins, and now with the extra boost of a “President Obama.” McHenry is both corrupt and petty, and I expect that before he’s done, he will either go to prison when one of his scandalous acts finally “sticks,” in legal terms, or, he will be thoroughly trounced by a Democratic opponent on a statewide basis as he tries to become a U.S. Senator or perhaps governor of North Carolina. I give him two to four more years of a scandalous existence in “public life.” As in the past, I don’t expect much good from Patrick McHenry coming to the 10^th District.

As for me, though, I’m finished with my campaign of trying to point out McHenry’s glaring shortcomings. There will be no more columns here, or letters-to-the-editor, telling people what they obviously don’t want to hear about our Little Napoleon. As one person who wrote to a newspaper opposing me has put it, I need to realize that the majority of the people in this district want McHenry representing them. I do realize it; that’s why I will simply ignore him in the future. Still, I don’t understand how otherwise intelligent and rational people can keep electing this petty, little prima donna. The 10^th District, too, gets what it “wants.”

In my home county, though, I am very pleased that Republicans were able to hold serve, electing Clay Bollinger, Rob Bratcher and Ben Griffin to a conservative, businesslike majority on the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners. I supported the trio wholeheartedly; now they too must produce good government—if there is such a thing. It was also good to see Edgar Starnes and Phil Frye going back to the N.C. General Assembly, along with N.C. Sen. Jimmy Jacumin, who also was reelected. Caldwell County Register of Deeds Wayne Rash was able to prevail in a tough election without opposition.

My new friend, Shawn Haigler, ran unopposed in the Caldwell Soil and Water District supervisor’s race, and I’m delighted that he will be back to continue his service as chairman. We have many soil and water conservation issues that will be of growing importance in the immediate future—particularly, how we might plan to handle future droughts on a fair and equitable basis.

On the state level, I am awfully disappointed that we still have a Democrat governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and other Council of State positions, except for Republican Steve Troxler as the secretary of agriculture. In western North Carolina, we suffer immeasurably, because this state has so many Democrat governors using their appointive powers to boost eastern North Carolina. You may recall, in January 2007, the N.C. Environmental Management Commission, composed of 12 Democrats and one Republican, voted 12-1 to allow Cabarrus County to take 10 million gallons of water per day from our precious Catawba River. The vote was along party lines, and only three of the governor’s appointees lived west of Greensboro. Governor-elect Beverly Perdue barely campaigned in the GOP-dominated west.