For those who might object that these are cherry-picked incidents, consider this: according to National Journal Barack Obama is the number one most liberal member of the U.S. Senate. National Journal is hardly a conservative mouthpiece. Its ratings are well accepted as an objective benchmark, and Mr. Obama’s record puts him to the left of Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer.

Trusting the People:
In the American system, we trust the people to make self-interest and informed decisions, according to their own wants and needs. That is freedom. This is opposed to collectivist decision-making from a central government.

But, central government planning is what Mr. Obama’s policies require. He would rather tax you and spend your own money for your own good than trust you to decide how to spend your money.

More good is accomplished for more people by private organizations and citizens freely giving as they see fit than a bureaucratic national government amassing and redistributing billions of dollars according to some political formulation.

High taxes, but low personal giving, also is consistent with this emerging picture of Mr. Obama. Someone who thinks that government carries the primary burden for caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, and housing the homeless, is likely not to give much money to charities, but require all citizens to give hundreds of billions of dollars to the inefficient central government to address these issues.

I wonder if we can afford Mr. Obama’s generosity.

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Part II of this series will deal with what has been revealed in the past couple of weeks about Senator Obama’s cultural and social values through his 1996 questionnaire, and recent unscripted comments.