Guest Blogger: The Big Cat Weighs In

The single estrogen-challenged, human inhabitant of the Blicky homestead has been getting more hits in a single day writing comments on the NYT Web site than I've gotten ...ever. Aside from being a stud, he's very wise and knowledgeable about American history. Here's his latest post. It's a response to op-ed writer Frank Rich's latest piece Guess Who's Coming to Dinner:

Barring an unprecedented reversal over the next three days, Barack Obama will be elected as the next President of the United States.

McCain’s apologists and allies will decry a so-called “media bias” toward Obama. If they look honestly at the last three months, however, they will place the blame squarely on McCain and his handlers. Conceding that McCain is a good man and would have made an adequate president, he ran a campaign so tone deaf to the needs of the country that he blew his big chance when it finally came to him.

Americans have been worn out by divisive, sleazy, low-blow campaigning, and yearn for an articulation of common purpose that has been absent in the last eight years. George Bush missed an opportunity to provide this kind of leadership after his disputed election in 2000 and again after 9/11. He was either too small-minded or insecure or overwhelmed by ideologues to recognize it. The majority of people in the country apparently see that a McCain presidency would provide more of the same.

Obama played rough in this campaign, to be sure, but he also consistently staked out the higher ground when compared to his Republican opponents. It will now be his opportunity and responsibility to lead the country in a moment of crisis. What the United States needs right now is what it has received from great leaders like Lincoln and Roosevelt in other times of difficulty: a recognition of the need to inspire hope in all Americans – not just those who helped elect them – and to deal decisively with the nation’s problems in ways that foster the greater good.