Warning: Political content ahead

I was watching the news this morning as I drank my green tea, and the talking heads said that Obama won't be using his old buzzwords "hope" and "change" for his re-election campaign.  My first thought was that that could be because the conservatives are the ones using those words now, and he sure as hell doesn't want to be considered one of them!  I posted that on Facebook, giggling as I did so, because it reminded me of something Fred might say.  I wonder if he laughs to himself when he posts his zingers on Facebook...

But then the newspeople said that he's picked a new buzzword(Obama, not Fred): "compassion".  Wow.  It's like he's trying to make it easy for conservatives to defeat him.  Conservatives (especially Christian ones) are among the most compassionate, generous, charitable people in the world.  That is probably because we believe it's the responsibility of the individual to help others, rather than depending on the government to handle it.  My husband and I donate between 12 and 15% of our income to our church, which then sends that money out to help people around the world, and locally.  We also donate outgrown clothes and unused household items to a local non-profit thrift shop, which uses the money from sales to support a food bank.  I'm not saying that to brag; most of the conservative Christians I know do the same. 

I'd like to know what percentage of his $1million+ income Mr Obama donated to charity last year.  And I don't mean political campaigns, or fronts.  I mean real charities.  Since he doesn't go to church, I assume he doesn't tithe to a church.  But he could still donate other places: Wounded Warriors, Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.  I won't assume he doesn't make charitable contributions, but I would like to know where and what percentage.

And one of my friends pointed out that what he considers "compassionate" might not be the same things that we consider "compassionate".  He has said before that if one of his daughters "made a mistake", he wouldn't want them "punished with a baby", so he would probably consider it compassionate to abort his own grandchildren if they were conceived at an inconvenient time.  Is this the kind of "compassion" Americans want? 

An easy way for conservative candidates to counter this new buzzword/strategy would be to disclose the percent that they donate to charity(along with all the other documents they're required to disclose), and ask Mr Obama to do the same.  And they should also ask the question: what is his definition of compassion?  Lets not fall for this trick again.  He was elected on his platform of "hope and change", but he never really explained what those words meant to him.  Make him explain himself this time, candidates!  Don't just sit down and say "Darn, he picked a good word, and we can't do anything about it."  Don't let him get away with being vague.  Call him out on his record, on his words, and on his actions.