by Scotty Mack

Created on: March 16, 2008   Last Updated: July 12, 2010

When it comes to deciding who the President of the United States should be, there are no more important factors than a candidate's integrity and what his or her core beliefs are. It is nice to know what candidates' positions on NAFTA are, what they would like to see done about the current economic crisis and whether or not they believe drilling in ANWR should be done. The fact is, the President's role in these matters is truly limited, as it is the responsibility of Congress to make changes that affect these issues. What one really needs to know is whether a President's words match his actions.

The one thing that a potential President (and every person on the planet, for that matter) does have control over, is their own integrity. They and they alone, are responsible for making decisions based upon their core beliefs and not veering away from those beliefs when under political pressure to do so.

Despite the many mistakes that George W. Bush may have made, one can never question the man for sticking to his core beliefs. He has never wavered on his positions, right or wrong. He has never bent to the will of the public or allowed political pressure to change things that he believes are truly right. I fear that Presidential candidate Barack Obama may be carrying an unvoiced agenda into the White House with him, however, if he were to be elected.

Bear in mind that we do not really know much about the man. We know he believes in change and hope. Don't we all hope for a better life for ourselves and our children? Aren't there always things in our lives that we would like to see changed? By running on these vague promises, he can appeal to every human on the planet. Like many in the Democratic Party, he is all-too-quick to point out what is wrong with this country and that things need to be changed.

Exactly what those changes would be, who specifically would benefit from those changes, who would be harmed by them and how he plans on implementing those changes in a fiscally responsible way are left for us to ponder, however. We can only hope to gain some insight by the limited information that we do know about him.

We know that in 1961, he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to American Ann Dunham and Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Kenyan. According to Senator Obama, his father was raised as a Muslim, but became an atheist by the time he had moved to Hawaii and married his mother. It is doubtful that his father had much of an influence on Senator Obama's life, however. The elder

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