Recently, I've noticed more and more talk about Obama, that he's a centrist, he's a conservative, that he's abandoning progressive ideals, that he's destroying the constitution, that we can't trust him, that he's gone back on his word... The list goes on and on. The attacks have become an onslaught of negativity that really isn't helping us, or the causes we hold dear. Most people, it seems, rather than critically and analytically trying to understand the decisions Obama has made, look simply to rant and let out their pent up anger and rage.

Some people, though, have tried to understand the issues they find with Obama, as Tankard thoughfully did.

Others have tried to look for a solution to the seemingly growing divide by calling for not only party unity, but for national unity, as Jason Miller metaphorically did.

I would like to take those two ideas: trying to understand Obama, and national unity, and give my own take. After all, I feel that they go hand in hand.

During the primary, Obama constantly called for "change," and proclaimed that we are not a nation of "blue and red states." And he's right. I think many on the left that feel betrayed by Obama for his positions on guns, the death penalty, and his "faith-based initiative" (I hate that phrase) maybe had a different idea of what "change" meant than what Obama was truly advocating.  "Change" meant many things, and I think one of them was that it's not aligning oneself with the partisan leftists. Nor, for that matter, is it aligning oneself with the partians the right, as Bush has done. Bush's policies and politics are exclusionary, not inclusionary. Obama's are the opposite.

Many are upset that Obama has "abandoned the left", but has he? Are not his policies on gay rights, women's rights, civil rights, the Iraq war, the economy, the environment, alternative energies, etc., that we commended him for during the primary, still the "progressive" policies he still advocates? I've certainly seen nothing to suggest any different.

His positions on gun rights, the death penalty, and now his "faith-based initiative" (I freaking hate that phrase) are ones that include, rather than exclude. They are not the policies and positions of the extreme far left, nor are they the policies of the dead center, and certainly not those of the right. Obama has confounded us because he seems not to follow one strict political ideology or doctrine.

And that's what America is. We encompass so much diversity in our opinions, thoughts and actions, that trying to be a part of that whole is a daunting and difficult task. Watch some of Obama's speeches. Listen to him, and his vocabulary. "We", "Us", "Together". Not "I", and not "Me", not "She" nor "He", but "Us" and "We". And we must remember that this is not simply about ourselves, and our own individual goals. This is so much about "us" and our combined goals.

Tankard, in his post, called Obama, "...one of the most honest politicians at his level that I have seen in my lifetime" and said, "I am not aware of any evidence so far that he will take a position that violates his principles for purely political reasons."

Obama's positions are not about expediency, nor are they about convenience. Obama is trying to tell us something. Jason was right when he said, "The American Left is not enough to save the ship on their own.  We also
need moderate republicans and right-leaning independents who understand
the severity of our plight to jump in and help."

This is the time for "All Hands on Deck." We can't do this on our own, and Obama knows it.