Actually, even though we’ve never had a black “Prime Minister”, technically speaking the head of the Canadian government is the Lieutenant Governor, and we have had a black person in that role many years ago already.

Also, unlike the US, we have also had a female Prime Minister at one time too. :)

There is a good historical case against communism as it was instantiated. The exact opposite is true when it comes to socialism unless you have a really backwards understanding of ‘will never work’ which equates in normal speech to ‘works really well’. Either that or your definition of socialist is essentially the same as your definition of communist. In which case what you say is trivial and uninteresting.

Furthermore, it seems like you’re under the impression that there are actual libertarians in the Republican party (or the democrats for that matter). Ron Paul is perhaps the only such person, and of course Republicans didn’t want him. No matter who is elected, they’re going to take money and spend it. The last 8 years of republican governance were some of the worst for big invasive government I’ve ever seen.

Its amazing to see how many people bite right into the political sound bites around this issue when it is clearly far more complex than “socialist BAD!” “capitalist GOOD!”.

It does remain to be seen whether Obama’s policies will be effective – whatever they may be. He is facing two enormous problems in the economy and the War in Iraq (and on terror generally). Whether he can actually make some tangible progress on these issues that he can sell to the public will largely determine whether he is a 1 or 2 term president. 4 years isn’t necessarily a lot of time. The underlying problem with government is that its always in election mode which means its always short sighted.