Thomas Friedman, "Hope and Change: Part Two": Sequels to Rotten Films Aren't Worth Watching

Do you like movies? I do. Ordinarily, sequels are not nearly as good as the original flicks. Sequels to rotten films are inevitably not worth watching.

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Hope and Change: Part Two" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/opinion/friedman-hope-and-change-part-two.html?_r=0), Thomas Friedman gloats:

"No one can know for sure what complex emotional chemistry tipped this election Obama’s way, but here’s my guess: In the end, it came down to a majority of Americans believing that whatever his faults, Obama was trying his hardest to fix what ails the country and that he had to do it with a Republican Party that, in its gut, did not want to meet him halfway but wanted him to fail — so that it could swoop in and pick up the pieces."

"Complex emotional chemistry tipped this election Obama's way"? No way. We're back to "Hope" and "Change"? I don't know about "Hope," but America is certainly changing.

As noted earlier this year in a New York Times article entitled "For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/us/for-women-under-30-most-births-occur-outside-marriage.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) by Jason DeParle and Sabrina Tavernise, "more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage." As further observed by this article:

"The shift is affecting children’s lives. Researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems."

These statistics concerning unwed births necessarily tie into unemployment, crime and America's national debt. Much akin to the trend in national debt, this trend involving unwed births is unsustainable.

When I have spoken with Obama supporters in the past, they have inevitably claimed that Obama has surely learned from mistakes during his first term as president. I have my doubts.

I can only "hope" that Obama continues to steer a relatively moderate path, and, freed of the constraints of re-election, does not return to his leftist roots, which could cripple a deeply divided America financially and emotionally.