My wife and I are never simply hungry at mealtime. We are "starving." We are never tired and ready to go to bed, but instead are "exhausted." Like most men I can play touch football with the guys, break my leg, splint it, suck it up, and keep playing. However, if I bang my shin on the coffee table at 2:30 in the morning, my wife has a two-year old screaming toddler on her hands.

"Oh, Honey! Help me, I think my leg is broken! It hurts so baaaad! I need a massage! I need loving!"

One of our favorite pet names for each other is occasionally used but so apropo. If one of us tells the other he or she is acting like a "Drama Queen," it will usually snap us out of our self-aggrandizing hyper-dramatics, especially when the partner sometimes even offers an Oscar nomination for the whiner.

Such is the state of many of my republican brothers and sisters ever since Barack Obama won his bid for the White House. We are all so driven by passion, most forget that we all had to, and indeed did, survive four years of Jimmy Carter, 21% interest rates, miles-long gas lines, a wimpish American reputation worldwide, and a very failed economy; before we were rewarded with Ronald Reagan, new hope, renewed patriotism, and a quickly-repaired and soon-thriving economy, let alone an end to the decades old Cold War.

So many are quick to proclaim that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, a Muslim jihadist, a Karl Marx-reincarnation, and our nation is headed for immediate ruin. We can sometimes be a nation of "drama queens." It is not a time to panic. It is a time to stand watch but also let the liberal philosophy take its course. Like a used Mission Impossible CD, it is self-destructing. I predict in two years, our idealistic fellow citizens who; once again, foolishly-believed that you can "get something for nothing" will wise up and toss out democratic congressmen in droves. Now is not a time to act but to react for our system of checks and balances has become unbalanced. All the weights have been placed on the left side of the scale, and we will have to cleverly recalibrate at times. Sometimes that may take stalwartly standing at the scales and refusing to give way until a true measure is evenly-balanced.

By the same regard, I believe by the end of Barack Obama's first term, people will have learned about well-intentioned tax breaks for all, and we will have collectively "hit our bottoms." He and his team will cleverly somehow turn the problems around to blame conservatives and the media will help, but by then more of the public will see past the words and tire of the broken oaths. Then, maybe even a few of those who will see the light, might even be those who are now the most vociferous hypocrites who cry for gender equality and equal rights for women, yet eagerly trash a courageous, self-assured, beautiful, principled, tough-minded, conservative, down-to-earth Sarah Palin and call her everything but the "town whore."  

With a solid organization and plan, the proper training and grooming, and some republicans learning how to actually be republicans as a supporting cast and base, and hopefully Newt Gingrich as the new head of the RNC, Sarah Palin can become our next Ronald Reagan in four years. In the meantime, we are at war and must always present a united front to our enemies. We must show total unanimous support for our new Commander-In-Chief. We cannot make ludicrous comments like so many democrats did and say, "I support our troops but not the Commander-In-Chief." You cannot have it both ways, and our fighting men and women need and deserve total unconditional support up and down the chain of command and on the home-front.

We who are conservatives need to prepare now for 2010 and 2012, but not by publicly-trashing and thrashing our new President like so many democrats did to George W. Bush for the past two years.  It starts with republicans in the public trust who go home at night to their wives and kids and not to a DC call girl. We need legislators to make laws and not break them for self-enrichment. We desperately need a much shorter Presidential election season, and public financing-only for each candidate, which will deter graft, corruption, special favors-owed, and foreign credit card $200 contributors. More than anything, we must follow the example of Bill O'Reilly, who with a smile on his face, teased the liberals of THE VIEW  with their anger and obvious vitriol towards John and Cindy McCain, yet fawning and sucking up to Barack and Michelle Obama. His humorous chiding of Barbara Walters looking at the floor and refusing to even look at John McCain and Joy Behar for not living up to her first name, solidified the evidence, and strengthened the argument about network television liberal bias. Angrily though, network news and print media need to be called down when they show obvious bias, and if need be, their advertisers and sponsors need to be boycotted and buried with letters. That will straighten things out in short order. During this election, NBC and MSNBC became an elaborate campaign headquarters for the Obama campaign. That can never happen again.

Now, all of us who pride ourselves on being true Americans, need to reflect what our nation is all about. We must zealously watch our new leaders to make sure they do, too. We must rally behind our new President-elect Barack Obama and present a unified front to our enemies, and we must not believe something simply because it comes by email. John and Cindy McCain did not begin their relationship with an affair, and in fact his first wife is a good friend of theirs and worked tirelessly on his campaign. Barack Obama never said he would side with the Muslims if push came to shove. The Internet gossip machine makes Peyton Place look like Shangri-La by comparison. We must also never vote for someone because they are black, female, or for any reason other than their record not their rhetoric, their promise not their promises.

We are all facing the deep dark abyss of economic depression, the lunatic fringe of a major world religion which would have us disappear under curved blades of oppression and hatred, a media gone wild with power lust and self-importance, and an unpopular liberal congress thinking they have now been given the key to the candy store.  We must stand behind our new leader, but keep a vigilant eye on the candy shelves. We must not act like "Drama Queens" but stay focused, steadfast, and strong.  We can and will prevail against these trials and fears, for we are not just the United States, but also the United Citizens of America.

 Don Bendell, 61, is an author of 26 books including his newest novel, DETACHMENT DELTA, about modern day Delta Force, which will be released worldwide in December, 2008 by Berkley Books (Penguin-USA), with over 1,500,000 copies of his books in print worldwide and is a popular editorialist who has appeared on FOX NEWS LIVE, and many national radio shows. A 60% disabled vet, Don served as an officer in 4 Special Forces (Green Beret) Groups, including a 1968-1969 tour on an A-team in Vietnam, as well as in the Top Secret Phoenix Program and has two Special Forces sons serving in Iraq right now.  A 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame and a Grandmaster in 5 martial arts, he and his black belt master wife, Shirley, also own karate schools in southern Colorado. Don lives in Florence, Colorado. Write him at don@donbendell.com.