Before starting this column I checked out the final election results on The Eagle's Web site, www.explorecarroll.com, and saw that Sen. John McCain had won Carroll County -- which proved my vote wasn't alone.

My shocker was seeing that my column has an easy way to blast my writing with a link from the Web page. It's a good thing -- making it easy for comments is important. I've lived where this isn't allowed ... and that's no fun.

Back to politics: Since Barack Obama is my president-elect, it not my desire to re-run the election.

I will, however, be critical of those who advise him. On Veterans Day, his handlers obviously felt that they needed some television exposure, so Big O was trotted out to place flowers in front of a war memorial in Chicago.

Watching on TV, I was actually embarrassed for Obama. He had not been told how to place a memorial. After he placed the arrangement, he very awkwardly stepped back and, almost as an after thought, seemed to feel the need to do ... something. He tried to salute. It was pitiful.

In a flash, for me, it was Fort Lee, Va., September 1943, all over again. I'd been pressed into giving drill instructions to recruits.

"You don't salute like you're wiping your nose, or trying to flag down a taxi or waving good bye to a girl. If you are going to do a military salute, you do it like you mean it."

I would suggest Obama get to the nearest National Guard training center, post haste, for some basic training with no TV or press coverage allowed.

It's only practical. After his installation as president of the United States, and as our commander in chief, he will be saluted by armed forces personnel of lower rank -- that includes everybody in the military.

If he affects a return salute like the one he gave at that Chicago memorial, he'll be insulting all those who are saluting him.

On television, you can see that the Marine guard on "Marine 1" always salutes the president's arrival, so learning to salute is a must.

I could see how awkward Obama appeared on TV in front of combat soldiers in Iraq. Unease is a natural reaction if you have had no military or etiquette training. As a Harvard lawyer, it should take Obama all of about one hour to get it right.

The bigger lesson will be in learning how to march. He can skip all the complicated "to the rear" and "oblique" march orders. Just concentrate on what he'll need to be respected as our commander in chief.

Then again, perhaps learning his marching orders will be easy, too. After all, he is married.

I do not have the same respect for Sen. Joseph Bidden, who comes along as part of a package. On the campaign trail Bidden kept quoting his father telling him, "Champ you've got to understand ..." Every speech had one of these homilies.

But from Bidden's earlier outing for using another's work, I'm wondering whether it was really his dad doing the talking, or somebody else's!

Finally, I'd be remiss to not note my concern over the amount of gun sales and the baloney about fear of coming gun restrictions. That I can live with, but my worry is that an economic upheaval would become a wildcard in raising the possibility of trouble. Desperate people do desperate things.

Then again, I'm basically a worrier. My wife says that if I was given a beautifully cooked filet mignon, I'm the type that would spend time worrying if there was a really sharp knife or enough A1 sauce!

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