Below you will find an email I received on November 27th from a non-Jewish friend who is one of the most impressive renaissance men I've met in my entire career as a business journalist and entrepreneur.  He is a gifted artist, a best-selling author, a medical doctor and innovator, a savvy businessman, a prolific blogger, a doting granddad, a loyal husband and, so he says, a decent golfer.

He and I met in a business context and never actually discussed politics or religion.  So my November 12th article in the Jewish Journal was the first time he learned exactly where I stand.  Because his note was intended solely as a private email to me, I've withheld his name.

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Hey Dean--

I just read your blog and your piece in the Jewish Journal.  And I read the hateful comments you got as a result.  There sure are a lot of people out there who can't have a civil debate.  I've noticed that most of the most vicious commenters in situations like this are liberals - I think they are just constitutionally nasty people.

Great minds think alike.  I have a friend in the UK who, although not an American citizen (in fact, she's never been here), takes a keen interest in American politics and is conservative.  We've been writing back and forth about the election and the aftermath.  I told her that, although I was devastated at first, I had come around and thought of a number of reasons that I was actually glad Obama got elected.  She pestered me for my list, so I finally sent it a few weeks ago.  Here it is.  Pay close attention to reason # 5.

  Hi Susan--

  Here is my list, for what it's worth.

  1) We (the US) can finally shake off this notion that we're a racist
  society.  From here on out, we can ask the Brits, the Spanish, the
  French, the Italians, the Germans, the Swedes, etc., where is your
  black President/Prime Minister? Our national sins from the era of
  slavery have finally been washed away.

  2) With the state of the economy being what it is, Obama's hands are
  tied.  All of his ideas of wealth redistribution will have to be put
  on hold because if he tries to raise taxes, the economy will
  completely implode. He is pretty much forced by events to maintain
  the status quo. Or even cut taxes. And how do you think that will
  sit with his devotees?

  3) The Democrats will be forced to do the right thing.  The two
  party system is an interesting beast, at least as it breathes here.   
  Most politicians in both parties are smart because it requires a
  fair amount of smarts to rise to the top in this system.  Early on a
  budding politician has to pick a horse to ride - either a Democratic
  or Republican one.  That choice decides for the politician which
  group of constituents must be pandered to.  If a Democrat, then the
  'little guy' is the panderee.  Democrats know that the economy would
  be devastated if they raised the capital gains tax substantially (or
  even a little right now), but they blather on about doing it because
  that's what their constituents want to hear: let's get money from
  the evil rich.  In past times the Dems could float bills to raise
  taxes (capital gain taxes and others) and depend upon the
  Republicans to provide cover for them and defeat the bills.  No
  longer.  And, as I say, the Democrats (most of whom are themselves
  rich) are smart enough to know what will happen if the idiotic
  notions they use to pander to their voters are made a reality.  So,
  they will be forced to do the right thing.  It will be fun to watch
  them twist in the wind, trying to explain to their constituents why
  they can't pass all these give-away programs they've been promising
  to pass.

  4) Obama - as I knew he would - is turning to all the old party
  hacks to fill his administration.  The grumbling has already
  started.  Where is all the change we've been promised?  His feet are
  starting slowly to turn to clay.

  5) I think the Obama presidency may well switch the voting block of
  Jewish people from solidly Democratic to Republican.  People in the
  South for a hundred years were what are called Yellow Dog Democrats,
  meaning that they would vote for a yellow dog if it were a Democrat.
  When I lived in the South, the big local elections were always the
  primaries because those decided which Democrat was going to run in
  the general election, and said Democrat would always defeat the
  token Republican, so the important elections were the primaries.   
  Why did people in the South vote this way?  A holdover from
  Reconstruction after the Civil War.  Post Civil War it was the
  Republicans who foisted Reconstruction on the South, and it took
  Southerners a long time to forget.  Finally, Southerners have gotten
  over it and realized that the Republican party now has their best
  interests at heart, and so now the South pretty much votes
  Republican.  It's the same with the Jews.  I don't know why Jews are
  Democrats because most Jewish people are successful and socially
  conservative, the very group that one would think would be solidly
  in the Republican camp.  But they're not - they almost always vote
  Democrat.  Obama is no friend of Israel, that's for sure.  He is
  pro-Palestinian and pro-Muslim in general.  And people living in
  Israel know it.  Absentee ballots from US Jews living in Israel who
  know the score went 3-1 for McCain.  Yet here there was a huge
  Jewish push to elect Obama.  When Obama sells Israel down the river,
  which I'm pretty certain he will do, the Democratic scales may fall
  from the eyes of Jews here and drive them whole scale to the
  Republican party, which has always been the strongest party in
  support of Israel. It will be nice to have that large, wealthy
  demographic make the move to our side.

  6) Obama will certainly try to pull out of Iraq ASAP - it was one of
  his major promises.  If he does, it won't take long for the Bathists
  (Saddam's old party) to take over.  They have the smarts and the
  wealth and they are secularists.  If they do take over, a couple of
  good things will happen.  First, they will savage the Shiites, whom
  they despise and blame for everything. (I hate to see any group get
  savaged, but if any deserve it, it is the Shiites.  They can never
  be made happy unless they are living under Sharia and cause constant
  problems wherever they are.) This will, of course, make the news,
  and people over here will start asking why we undid all the efforts
  so many people died for over the past five years.  Obama won't look
  good.  Second, a country in control by the Bathists right next door
  will refocus Iran's attention away from us and Israel and back on to
  Iraq where it belongs.

  7) When we pull out of Iraq, it will save the US a ton of money.   
  But, the immediate results will be bad for Obama.  Most of the
  military over there now are from the National Guard, not regular
  military.  When these people come home, they will try to go back
  into the labor force, which is already laying off people left and
  right.  Unemployment will skyrocket - and Obama will get the blame.

  If the economy continues to crumble, as it will, Obama and the
  Democrats will get the blame for it.  They all got elected to get us
  out of this mess, but the mess is way beyond their control.  In
  today's times (or any time, for that matter) Obama can't possibly
  live up to his soaring rhetoric, which will lead to mass
  disappointment.  The Messiah is supposed to perform miracles, after
  all.  I predict a huge Republican gain in the next election in two
  years just as there was after Clinton's first two years.  Clinton
  ruined the Democratic party for a generation - I suspect Obama will
  do the same.

  This is my list that keeps me from being suicidal over the Obama
  election.  It will be interesting to see how closely I predicted.

So, as you can see, you and I see eye to eye on political issues.  We've never talked politics in all the discussions we've had, but somehow I knew your heart was in the right place.  It's good to have an ally in the sea of liberaldom called California.