Finally, what we’ve been expecting for a while. Obama finally took the Democratic nomination. Of course we’re still waiting for the other shoe to fall and the announcement of the Obama Clinton 2008 ticket, but that’ll have to wait for a bit.

So now that Obama is the nominee, I have some questions for him.

1. Given the information we had at the time, what were the grounds for your opposition to invading Iraq? Granted, in hindsight invading was the wrong thing to do, but when Mr. Obama opposed the invasion he didn’t have the benefit of hindsight. How would President Obama make decisions to go to war based on this track record?

Added: I heard a piece on Obama on PRI’s The World. He was addressing a pro-Israeli PAC and affirmed three times that he would do whatever he could to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. This post immediately came to time. Since Obama has a history of not doing that when it came to Iraq, why on earth should we believe him now?

2. What change? It is not helpful to run based on what you’re not. McCain is not George W. Bush and has opposed him in the past. To say that you’re for change and to simply mean “I’m not them” will only play with the crowds for a little while. And when it comes to running against McCain, that will only work if it can be maintained that he is a Bush clone. He clearly is not. The other problem is that individuals will read their idea of “change” into such statements. For many blacks, “change” might mean the end of marginalization of African-Americans in American politics. For those opposed to the Iraq war it will mean a withdrawal. For those who are hitting hard economic times, ‘change’ will mean jobs. And so on. How many of these expectations can Obama really deliver on? Really?

3. Doug Wilson got me thinking more about this next question. Beyond the fact that abortion is murder of the most helpless of all people, how can Senator Obama continue to support the abortion industry and claim (even implicitly) to represent the interests of black Americans? Blacks in America receive a disproportionate number of abortions. Early advocates of abortion in America were racists and saw it as a way to purify the human race. Given these past and the present realities, how can our first viable black presidential candidate strongly support such a horrible institution?

4. This question is really a specific application of question 2 above. America is facing a “perfect storm” in our economy. The housing market is tanking and I believe that it will only get worse throughout the summer. Over the past 10 years, the credit market has been ravaged by foolish mortgage lending practices. People either started upside down on their homes or too out all-too-easy-to-get home equity loans that were based on a falsely inflated value of their homes. Oil is well over $100 a barrel and might be heading higher as China puts a greater demand on the market while America and the West are not easing their demands. Four dollars at the pump is pretty common and we can probably expect that to rise in the near future. Diesel is inching towards $5 per gallon. This is impacting a number of things including food prices as it costs more to transport the food and many fertilizers are based on petroleum. With many folks tapped out on their homes, spending more money on gas and food, the economy has got to slow down as there simply isn’t much credit left to fall back on. While we haven’t hit two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth yet, but I’m pretty sure it is coming. Obama speaks of McCain as more of Bush’s economics, but hasn’t explained what kind of change he has in mind. What will you do Barak?

5. This question is related to question 3 above but takes it in a different direction. Chuck Colson wrote a thought provoking editorial in Christianity Today a month or so ago about the silence of the candidates on the prison problem in America. A huge proportion of America’s population is behind bars. A disproportionate amount of that incarcerated population is black. The fact that America doesn’t know or care is bad enough, but our elected officials are supposed to be our leaders. That may mean bringing problems to our attention. Of all of the candidates, I would think that the one who has a background in Black Liberation Theology, or at least sat under that kind of preaching for a while, would be taking a leadership position on this issue instead of simply promising generic change. Mr. Obama, where are you on prison reform, legal reform, sentencing guidelines, etc? What can we do about such a large prison population?

All that to say that while I am glad that America has finally gotten around to the first viable black candidate, I’m not excited about Obama being that candidate. He seems to be running a pretty empty campaign. He’s banking on his youth and energy but I would like more than that. I want to know what he’s going to do. Personally, I’d be happier with Colin Powell or Tavis Smiley as candidates, but they’re both too smart to run. I’m not crazy about McCain and so I’m left wondering who to vote for. One of the things that we have to keep in mind is that we’re probably facing some retirements on the Supreme Court and a string of judicial appointments. Which candidate would make the best decisions for these appointments? Which will handle the situation in Iraq best? Who can lead us through rocky economic times? Who can heal the political rifts that have been widened under Bush’s heavy hand? We need to look beyond race and image to some concrete issues. I’m tossed if I can figure out who’ll be the best president at this point.