Crunch Time

Well, here we are. The big day has arrived and the world holds it breath. Will America vote in its first black president?

We are, without a doubt at a historic time and not one of us can deny it. The presidential race that has us hooked to our TVs and radios, balancing on the edge of our seats, gasping for breath - is within a hair-breadth of the finish line. It is crunch time.

I don't want Barack Obama to win. I have nothing whatsoever against the man and wish him the very best, but I don't want him to win. I don't like his stance on the Middle East. I'm not enamoured by the people he chooses to get advice from and I'm afraid that, although I do sense the sheer wright of the moment, the world needs a leader with experience and most importantly clout.

I fear that Obama is too wishy-washy, for want of a better word, for that role. Hate Bush as you might but he stood up to the Arab world and terrorism. He stood up to Iran and Hamas. He stood up to Hezbollah and Syria. He stood up to Al Queda and he made it clear that America would not compromise their values to suit these regimes. Bush's commitment to protecting the world from terrorists, showed those of us who cared that for once, Israel wasn't the only one actively fighting terror.

Obama has said that he wants to "understand" Iran and Hamas and that frightens the living daylights out of me because I and many of my ilk, understand these terrorists and don't feel the need to get them to re-explain themselves in a genteel discourse over tea and biscuits. We know exactly what their agenda is.

I fully comprehend why Obama seems so attractive a candidate. He speaks about Change as though it heralded the birth pangs of a new religion. He's young, handsome, dynamic. He is the shining knight in the morass of filth that the world finds herself in. To many of my fellow human beings, he is the last hope.

Maybe I'll be wrong. I'll probably rue these words and eat them as though they were the finest delicacy on the planet but at this moment, at 05:06 on Tuesday 4th November 2008, in the intimacy of my kitchen, sat next to the darkened window, I'm scared. I'm frightened that America will go for Obama and the next four/eight years will bring about a shift in world power, where America the feared, the despised but respected, will become America, the liberal pushover. America the pathetic. America the sucker.

I'm also scared that some supremacist fruitcake will decide that America's first black president should also be the first to die in office in the 21st Century and that would be a tragedy beyond compare.

As I said, I like Obama. I really do - but not as President of the United States of America.