Concerning the library aspect, I have faith that librarians will continue to be hard-nosed about privacy of book reading and refuse to cooperation or cooperate in lukewarm, half-heartedly approaches. Frankly, I would put my money on librarians more than U.S. intellegence agencies any day in the battle of wills and the defense of freedom and rights.
While the field of potential Republican presidential candidates certainly makes Obama look good, the nation may need a candidate from the left to keep Obama's feet to the fire concerning the promises he has already made. The promise to end the wars. The promise to close down Guantanamo Bay prison.
I believe that the person who wins the presidency for the future will do it with these stances on these issues:
- Supports Medicare and Social Security. (That means really supporting them and wanting them to exist and to be worthy for the citizens. It doesn't mean playing games with them, in hopes that a good social program vanishes. It doesn't mean shifting to privatization which just puts a lot of money into the pockets of a few and the social programs at great risk, depending up markets and bottom-line.)
- Has plans for job creation and employment expansion. That probably means spending money upfront in order to attain benefits in the long-term. (Chrysler recently paid back with interest a $7.6 billion bail-out loan from the U.S. and Canadian governments. And GM, also a bail-out recipient, announced recently that thousands of jobs would return for plants near Detroit and throughout the nation. That means that President Obama was wise in saving the auto industry--and thousands of good jobs for Americans--while Republican candidate Mitt Romney lacked vision in opposing the bail-out. Romney's op-ed piece was headlined something to the respects that the government should let Detroit and the car industry go bankrupt. Romney was horribly wrong and America would have been worse off right now under his early judgment.) There is a difference, I believe, between a bail-out for a high good-jobs industry or business which makes tangible products that Americans can use and a bail-out for Wall Street financiers who speculate over fears and fantasy and provide no real products of use. I remember a TV commercial many years ago where a company was joyful about producing reports by way of their copy center. I thought at the time, if American companies only produce paperwork and reports and not steel, shirts, toys, and cars, I can't imagine the companies flourishing or the nation prospering.
- Concretely plans for the end of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That means getting ground troops out of backward Third World countries with religiously conservative cultures. Let the social media networks play the role of freedom fighters, as citizens of those kind of countries will be able to see for themselves what the rest of the world has and what they don't. The Navy SEALs' action in finding Osama bin Laden shows how a small-scale mission can be surgically successful without putting platoons of the young people on foot or vehicle patrol--the so-called kid next door--into ridiculous and costly daily danger. Also, ending the wars is the best first real step in cutting a budget deficit. Less tanks and wars where soldiers are killed. Instead, more soldiers and advocates in peacekeeping, humanitarian, and educational missions that also make our soldiers more respected and safer around the world.
Those are the three campaign stands that I think will lead to victory for a presidential candidate in 2012. President Obama certainly has the edge for the victory, as he has stated his feelings before about everything from Medicare to the wars. Making it happen even before it is a campaign promise would assure victory.
