GRENELL: Not another sore loser

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By Richard Grenell

COMMENTARY:

Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States. Even though I was one of the 57 million people who voted for John McCain, I am an American first and I will give my support to President-elect Barack Obama. John McCain showed us he isn't a sore loser and so his supporters shouldn't be either.

In fact, Hillary Clinton led the way in showing us why America's political process is the best in the world, as did Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee when they lost their party's nomination.

After working as the Spokesman for the United States at the United Nations for eight years, I learned that America is not Zimbabwe and when we have hard-fought elections we don't show our disappointment with the outcome by rioting or starting a war.

I want to give the newly elected Democratic president my support because I know what it is like to win an election and have the other side try and undercut you every step of the way immediately after the oath of office is administered. I know what it is like to feel the pain of friends who say that my guy is "ruining America" or "making the economy tank" or that I "hate black people" because of whom I voted for.

I know what it is like to see sore losers work to ensure defeat. I know what it is like when people complain and gossip instead of work to make our Union better. We are all Americans and regardless of who wins the White House, he is everyone's president.

Of course we will face challenges ahead, but if only 52 percent of us work on solving those problems then we won't accomplish much.

One of the reasons I voted for Mr. McCain is that I didn't recognize Barack Obama's America. Mr. Obama seems to see an America full of people dying in the streets with no place to go - where no one owns homes and everyone is bankrupt because the government is out to get them. His America is not the one I live in or see today.

I see an America where a black man has every opportunity to be president of the United States on Nov. 3, 2008, not just on Nov. 4, 2008. America did not go from terrible to great in one day of voting. I see an America that is and will always be the greatest place to live and work in the world. I am not just an optimist when I win elections.

Mr. Obama spoke of hope but described nonstop despair; he spoke of Red and Blue States as one, but worked to divide us economically; he says he will be everyone's president but relentlessly ridiculed the current president.

I won't act the way the partisan Democrats did toward President Bush. The way the liberals treated the 43rd president of the United States was sickening. The ugly comments, ridiculous innuendos and rumors that President Bush had to deal with during his two terms in office may have scored political points but it tore America apart. The all-accepting "liberal" party showed us they weren't really all accepting and tolerant after all.

The last eight years were incredibly tough for this country: Sept. 11, 2001, two wars, natural disasters and a stock market crash. But there was President Bush in front of the White House after the election to welcome Barack Obama and promise a smooth transition.

As the current President stood in front of the cameras and committed to do everything he can to prepare Mr. Obama's team, I wondered if Mr. Obama regretted spending $100 million in television commercials to ridicule and second-guess the current commander in chief. And I wonder how Rahm Emmanuel would react if the current White House staff stole the "o's" from the computer keyboards the way his team stole the "w's" from ours in 2000.

As we decide to not be sore losers, I hope the 65 million people who voted for Mr. Obama will not be sore winners.

Richard Grenell has just left the Bush administration after serving eight years as the spokesman for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.