My left-leaning stomach churned as I read this morning that Barack Obama would actively expand Bush's faith-based programs, the same ones that bought off evangelicals and large swaths of voters, and promoted abstinence and anti-choice programs that have undeniably torn this country's social wounds.   This, and his timid stance on FISA and telecom immunity...

What is my candidate doing?

But Obama has a strange effect on me.  I can see that he's an intelligent, caring human being.  A politician, yes, and a smart one.  But he is also more of a statesman than Bush, and arguably even more than Clinton, with a built-in sense of responsibility that rivals the last four presidents. So his positions on issues I disagree with get my brain working... why, what, how could he possibly be thinking that these positions make sense?

And it doesn't take long for my brain to come up with beautiful, gray area solutions to these first-appearing black and white issues.  What's wrong with asking Christians to be actively charitable?  A few billion dollars to churches is much better spent than a few billion worth of bombs.  Plus, I feel engaged, and able to respond if Obama does something I dislike.   Is it delusion to think my government could listen to me?  It has been, in the hands of the current president, and the one before that, and so on.  But is it completely unrealistic? 

And I wonder if this is what Bush supporters did 8 years ago, overriding their gut, that this guy they liked might betray them?  But they gave him the benefit of their doubt, and the benefit of their vote, to be sorely disappointed about that a few years later....

I'm audacious enough to hope.  I was just hoping for a choice between the better of two goods than the lesser of two evils this time around.  Too soon?