There is a lot about Barack Obama that I don't like. In fact there are not many issues with which I can agree with him. Here are where Obama stands on issues from a column by John Hawins:

#1) Weakening America's Military: Barack Obama has pledged, among other things, to make defense cuts during war time, to cut spending on national missile defense, that he won't weaponize space, to slow development of future combat systems, and to seek a "world without nuclear weapons." Is this a man who can be trusted as Commander-In-Chief?

#2) Losing the War in Iraq: Obama is promising to throw away the hard earned gains our troops have made in Iraq by immediately removing combat brigades each month, regardless of the situation on the ground, and by having all of our "combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months."

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff publicly warned Barack and, for that matter, Hillary that they could create a "chaotic situation" with their policy that could take the "gains we have achieved and struggled to achieve and turn them around overnight." Come on, Admiral, don't you know that Obama isn't going to listen to what the military has to say about a war when there's an election to be won?

#3) Gay Marriage: Although Barack Obama claims to oppose gay marriage, in 2004 he said that he opposed the Defense of Marriage Act, which is the only thing keeping the courts from imposing gay marriage on the whole country. If you want to see gay marriage become the law of the land in your state, no matter what the voters think, vote for Obama.

#4) Pro-Partial Birth Abortion: It's never a surprise to find a Democrat who's a big fan of abortion, but Obama goes above and beyond the call of duty. He had a perfect rating of 100% from NARAL in 2005, 2006, and 2007, opposes "notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions," and he even opposed banning partial birth abortions. If you want to see as many women as humanly possible in this country putting their own children to death via abortion, vote Obama.

#5) Legalizing Marijuana: Obama, a former (we hope) druggie, who has admitted to using marijuana and cocaine, has said that he favors "decriminalizing marijuana." Perhaps you can't blame him for wanting to make it easier for people to get drugs since, after all, he used them and look how he turned out. If Barack gets into the White House, one day mothers all over America can tell their children that they'll never be anything in life if they use hard drugs and those children can reply, "Well, at least I can be President!"

#6) Handing 845 billion dollars of your money to other nations: Obama's Global Poverty Act would commit the United States to spending, over the next 13 years, 845 billion dollars more than what we already do on global poverty. Obama followed that up with a release that said in part, "It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty..." If Obama actually believes that not only is the United States capable of "eliminating extreme poverty," but that we should actually make that utopian dream a "priority," then he's far too naive to be in the White House.

#7) If you think George Bush is a big spender, you haven't met Obama: Even though the United States is already running a deficit, Obama is planning to push a whole host of new big government programs including a "10-year, $150 billion program to establish a green energy sector," a "$60 billion National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank," and a "nearly universal health care plan (whose annual price tag he low-balls at $50 to $65 billion)." If you're all for tax and spend liberalism and watching the deficit spiral even further out of control, there's no one you should want in the White House more than Obama.

#8) Amnesty and your tax dollars for illegal aliens: Believe it or not, John McCain, the Republican who is most closely associated with catering to illegal aliens, is actually well to Barack Obama's right on the issue.

Obama favors drivers licenses for illegals, wants to give illegals welfare and Medicaid, wants to let them participate in Social Security, opposes making English our national language, and he favors a comprehensive approach to illegal immigration, AKA amnesty, that even John McCain now claims to oppose.

#9) Gun Control: Obama is a perfect example of the stereotypical, liberal gun grabber. Obama has pledged to "Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons," has "opined unequivocally that D.C.'s ban was 'constitutional'," and in 1996, Obama, in a survey, "supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns." If you're an opponent of the 2nd Amendment, who believes law abiding citizens shouldn't be allowed to defend themselves, Obama is your man.

There are a few other Issues that Hawkins didn't cite.

Socialized Medicine: I can't tell what the details are, but Obama, like all Democrats, wants the federal government to take control of health issues. And, like all Democrats, he would like to cover illegal aliens in some fashion. I suspect a lot of major corporations would like that also, so it will probably happpen eventually in some form, and I am certain that the change will be to my personal detriment.

Abortion: Hawkins failed to mention something that makes me dislike Obama. While in the Illinois legislature Obama voted against a law that would have forced physicians to take life saving measures for babies that were born alive despite attempts to abort them. In other words, he was in favor of allowing babies to die because there Mother didn't want them. There seems no difference in this than allowing the father to dispose of unwanted babies by "exposing" them as was the practice back in the days of Julius Ceasar.

College: Make college affordable for everyone. I don't see how the nation could afford to pay for the college education of everyone. Obviously, some people can afford to pay, so I assume Barack only would fund those who cannot paay. At present colleges take the wealth of the students parents into account in determining how much they have to pay. What if parents begin to resist, and tell their children to wait until they are 21 years old to start to college, at which time they are financially responsible for themselves, and probably have no money. The other aspect of this is the implication that everyone should go to college. It takes a minimum IQ of 106 to succeed in any college program, up to a minimum of 120 to succeed in law, medicine, physics, and engineering. The average IQ for the entire population of the nation is about 100, so it is obvious that less than half of the population can succeed in college, at least as colleges currently operate. It is not clear how Obama and other Democrats plan to effect a system of college education for everyone.

Corporate Profit: Obama plans to control the profits of corporations. He plans to reward companies that do good, like allowing the check-off so that unions can organize a company without a vote of the workers, and to punish those companies that do not do good (as defined by Democrats).

Taxes: Obama wants to increase profits on corporations and on the rich. He wants to give tax cuts to the poor, apparently including the roughly 50% of people who do not pay federal income tax. One way he would do this is by suspending or reducing the payroll tax on those people. At the same time he wants to extend the payroll tax on higher paid employees to their total pay rather than just the first $102,000 as at present.

Trade: Obama is opposed to free trade, claiming he is for "fair trade," whatever that means. No doubt, as in "Alice in Wonderland," it means whatever he wants it to. He is in favor of protectionism, and says he wants to renegotiate the NAFTA treaty to make it more favorable to the United States.

Israel: Obama says he supports Israel, however his past and his advisers do not suggest that he actually does. Until he ran for public office he appears to have been anti-Israel. His advisers such as Samatha Power, Susan Rice, Zbig Brzezinski, Anthony Lake, and Robert Malley are uniformly anti-Israel, and some are downright antagonistic to Israel. At least some of them appear to favor the dissolution of the Jewish state, turning it into an Arab state.

In fairness, most Democrats agree with most of Obama's positions, but he does seem to be more liberal than at least half of the Democrats.