There is no joy in Mudville; mighty Casey has struck out. The American people have decided to elect the most liberal, least qualified candidate in our history to the most challenging position in the world.

I am not going to dwell on the myriad lost opportunities committed by an honorable and heroic Sen. John McCain. Suffice to say he unilaterally disarmed himself by his unwillingness to engage in the bare-knuckle trench warfare needed to fight Sen., now President-elect, Obama and the entire media of the United States.

The Illinois senator conducted a brilliant campaign, flawed as it was by lies, omissions, exaggerations, and "nuanced" obfuscations. McCain chose not to attack Obama for his predilection to somehow always find himself in the same room with racist pastors, terrorists, and the man Obama said was his mentor, communist Frank Marshall Davis.

That my Pilot colleagues would endorse Obama was a foregone conclusion. To praise him for his steadfastness despite the alleged "slime and smear and slander" he supposedly tolerated flies in the face of reality. Somehow editors missed the vicious obscene sexist attacks directed at Gov. Sarah Palin.

At one point, I was prohibited from labeling Obama a Marxist, and although Obama defenders angrily rejected that label, his detractors found little difference between Obama's commitment to "redistribute the wealth" and the Karl Marx philosophy "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

On Election Day, Democratic congressman Jim Moran of Virginia attacked what he called "the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it and their antipathy toward giving it away to others." Is he not aware that conservatives continually donate more to charity than liberals?

Liberals have an interesting concept of liberalism. A President Obama wants to take away from union members the secret ballot, and to destroy talk radio. He has brought legal action against nonprofit groups who criticized him; he and running mate Joe Biden publicly ridiculed "Joe the Plumber," and he was investigated for daring to ask a reasonable question. Bereft of his ubiquitous teleprompter, Obama admitted his plan is to redistribute the wealth, a philosophy which will restore the welfare state.

Obama advocates "a civilian national security force that is just as strong, just as powerful, just as well financed as the military." As we already have local and state police forces and a National Guard, is Obama speaking of creating the type of private police force Gov. Huey "Kingfish" Long surrounded himself with in Louisiana? To what end? For what purpose?

Pennsylvanians whom Congressman John Murtha called "racists" and "rednecks" have re-elected the former Marine who called today's Marines "murderers."

In what I hope is not a forerunner of his presidential actions, Obama exiled to Coventry the Florida station whose intrepid reporter asked running mate Biden several pointed but not unreasonable questions, which the biased media refused to ask. Obama also removed from his press plane reporters from three newspapers and replaced them with representatives of two black features magazines. He denied that he removed the reporters because their newspapers had endorsed McCain.

The troika of President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid have little or no encumbrances which will hinder their efforts to ride roughshod over the Republican minority. Nothing can prevent them from opening the borders, granting amnesty to illegal aliens, and legislating higher taxes.

Obama's intent to add 50 million new patients, including illegal aliens, to the health-care system will lead inexorably to rationed health care. Many of the senior citizens who elected Obama may find themselves denied care they may desperately need. He also promised to bankrupt the coal industry.

Endorsers of Obama could not have been overly impressed with his background and achievements. I cannot help wondering to what extent some endorsers may have been more impressed with the historical significance of the election of a black man.

I commend to my Pilot colleagues the words of USA Today founder Al Neuharth: "Now most newspapers try to be fair and objective in news columns. But editorial endorsements make readers suspicious." Editor Jim Sartori of The Mankato Free Press, in declining to endorse a presidential candidate said, "Newspapers should not be in the position of kingmaker. ... An endorsement appears to give a seal of approval and taint the perception of readers of our true intent."

I wish President Obama well, and I pray that the man who ran a campaign with socialist tendencies will govern as a centrist. God help America if he does not.

Dr. Walter Schoen is a former college and university professor, dean and president who may be reached at wtsbbs11@embarqmail.com.i