Obama: Soon to be the most powerful man in the world

Its been a little week or so since Barack Obama won the election and although dust from the election coverage has settled, there's still much to to talk about.

Like most people, the US election was on my mind for the past "I can't even recall how long the coverage of the election has been going on for times" (that was supposed to be a substitute for an amount of time I couldn't put together). To be an honest even I have an interest in politics, because I'm an avid fan of Saturday Night Live, it was their spoofs that really turned me (and my family) on to the election.

But besides that, I began to notice a few things from my peers. One was that many of my religious friends (both American and Canadian) were heavily in favourite of McCain. No surprise there since George W. Bush has been one of those most supportive Presidents of Israel in history. To many people who are devoted to the Holy Land, foreign policy with Israel is without question the most important issue of any election campaign. You want proof? Take a look @ this past Canadian election: Prior to Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party taking office in 2006, most ridings with a significant Jewish population voted Liberal, such as my riding of Thornhill, which is home to one of the largest observant Jewish populations in Canada. Yet after Paul Martin's government broke down and Harper came into power, his party began to display a staunch supporting of Israel and the Jewish community certainly took notice. During this past election, Peter Kent of the Conservative Party convincingly defeated Liberal incumbent Susan Kadis - who is Jewish herself.

However... with the exception of support for Israel, Bush didn't do so well in anywhere else (that's an understatement).

Enter Obama: Personally I can't really find much not to like about him. He's definitely got great appeal (dancing on the Ellen DeGeneres show, playing 3-on-3 with Indiana high school students). Things like that are good for brownie points but running against the person succeeding George W. Bush, he'd be hard-pressed to lose.

So my question is, would it be hypocritical to say I'm Conservative in Canada, yet Liberal in America?

I'm not sure really. Guess I should brush up on my American politics.

And my appreciation of Obama, well let's just say I've had to ask myself a few questions after reading a very interesting email my friend sent me. (I was going to include it here, but Shabbat is coming so there's no time for that...). On Sunday, maybe Saturday night I'll post my thoughts on this email in relation to the election...

But for now, Have a good shabbos y'all (or as I like to say: Sabbatical Salutations and Benedictions!!)

Also!! Stay tuned for some announcement on some new features I'll be adding to the blog in the near future.