BARACK OBAMA: THE TRUE CONSERVATIVE

The United States was founded as a haven for disparate groups, and, in the words of Emma Lazarus, invites the world to:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

So, obviously, an ancient American value is to welcome immigrants, to welcome people of all creeds, colors and origins.

Our first President, George Washington, warned us of foreign entanglements. Surely he would approve of getting out of Iraq, although he would doubtlessly be disgusted that we ever went there in the first place. Of course, Barack Obama publicly opposed the invasion, and at a time when that was anathema.

That great Republican President, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., was the trust-buster, a man who began his political career in the New York Assembly with an assault on the price fixing of the operators of the elevated railways in New York. He was always an enemy of unbridled capitalist greed, and took on big oil in particular. He must be spinning in his grave at the thought of the Baby Bush bailout for Wall Street.

Another Republican President whose name is hallowed by that party is Dwight David Eisenhower, who warned us of the danger of the military-industrial complex. He could only approve a drastic reduction of military spending, and a reduction of forces to those necessary to protect our shores.

So surely, it is easy to see that in the conservation of the greatest traditions of our history, we can look to no better conservator than Barack Obama.