There are a lot of things I take issue with when it comes to Barack Obama.  For instance, I don’t like the way he claims to be a Christian yet doesn’t stand for any of the things a Bible believing Christian should stand for.  I also don’t like the way he so easily lies about things he’s said in the past and goes on as if we have no way of ever knowing what he originally said or did.  He’s just too casual about it.  I don’t like it, but I guess it’s served him well so far.

In addition to those things, though, there’s always been something about him that just really bothers me and until today I could never really put my finger on it.  But a couple of new news reports just really made me realize what it is about Barack Obama that I really don’t like.

Barack Obama is a bully.

It’s not just the fact that he went back on his word and didn’t take public financing for his campaign so he could raise ungodly sums of money to drive his opponent into the ground.  I mean, sure, we could call that a bully tactic, and you’d get no argument from me, but he only has himself and the voters to answer to so if he can get away with it then I guess it’s fair enough.

But then you hear about Joe the Plumber.  Old Joe has made the rounds of the media circus and we’ve heard just about everything you can hear about Joe except for a few minor details that probably got skipped over in the mainstream newsfeeds.  You see, when everyone got interested in Joe the Plumber some folks in Ohio decided to start running background checks and credit checks and just about every other check you can imagine on Joe.  The Columbus Dispatch reports that the person who ordered all those checks is an Obama supporter and the Ohio Senate President (a Republican supporter of McCain) isn’t too happy with the flimsy excuses she’s been giving for running the checks.  Neither are a lot of other people.

Now, one can argue, as many of you are probably doing now, that Obama himself didn’t run these checks so it’s not really his fault and he’s not the bully in this situation.  But I argue that this sort of tactic is precisely the sort of thing we’ve seen and we’ll continue to see from the Obama camp (and/or administration). 

Just today we hear that the Obama campaign is reportedly cleansing his campaign plane of reporters in the mainstream news media that work for newspapers that endorsed his opponent John McCain.  He’s kicking out reporters from the New York Post, Washington Times, and Dallas Morning News — all papers that endorsed John McCain.  Gee, I wonder why…

And that’s really just the tip of the Bully iceberg.  Obama has already promised a 250,000 person “civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as our military…  What the heck could a bully want with something like that…Third Reich/SS Stormtroopers come to anyone’s mind?

Obama has also started “truth squads” to find and prosecute people responsible for negative ads he doesn’t like…his campaign has already black-listed media outlets who asked questions he didn’t like…bully…he sent the secret service (the secret service!) to investigate a Lufkin, Texas woman who answered an Obama phone survey in a way he didn’t appreciate…big bully…his followers have silenced Obama critics by flooding phone lines and email boxes and threatened lawsuits…

Heck, he’s already PROMISED to crush the 1st Amendment rights of talk radio stations and their hosts by reenacting the so-called “fairness doctrine.”

I’m sure there are plenty more examples of Obama’s bullying behavior.  These are just the examples I could think of off the top of my head.  But just imagine how empowered Obama will feel after an election win.  Imagine how a bully acts when he knows he can do whatever he wants and there’s no one to stop him.  If Obama wins he’ll have both houses of Congress and (soon) the Court behind him.  I shudder to think of what becomes of the bully in that scenario.

I just don’t like a bully…I never have.  I was taught to stick up for the little guy, the person being picked on.  I never could stand it when one person used size or power to bully another.  It’s one thing to have overwhelming support and to win in that way, but the things Obama are doing are just slimy and beneath the dignity of someone who would be our President.  Even if I agreed with his political positions I would never support his attitude or some of the measures he’s taken to win this race. 

He may win the election, but his supporters are dreaming if they really think he is the “chosen one” who will unify our nation once again.