(Note: I have asked a variety of people to submit an essay to me to be posted during the month of December, to be called "Looking Forward to 2008". This entry was written by Barbara Radnofsky.)

I look forward to the day that the executive branch of the US Government is presided over by an individual who believes in the rule of law, respecting the Constitution. The November election will end an administration so filled with corruption, hypocrisy and incompetence that even short term historians recognize the Bush Administration as a low water mark.

I look forward to November 2008, when the incoming executive branch no longer justifies as "free market" a regulatory scheme providing a massive tax break for the country's 25 richest hedge fund operators, instead of funding for education, health care and security. Then, we'll look expectantly towards Congress to have the courage to do the right thing with our increasingly skewed tax policies and to have the courage to understand the need for a system of health care analagous to the single risk pool planned for the Veterans Administration, but strangled by the current Administration.

When we have a Chief Executive who respects military service, we'll have a GI Bill of Rights for the 21st century.

When we have a Commander in Chief who will set a deadline and withdraw from our destabilizing occupation of Iraq, we'll have the resources for the needs of this country.

When we have a President of the US nominating judges of judicial temperment and common sense and not slaves to disproven theories of strangulation of government and privatization, we'll see a decline in boondoggling, incompetent privatized projects which increase costs to taxpayers and line only the pockets of greedy mercenaries and sweetheart deal holders.

When we have a leader of the free world who can handle herself in the rough and tumble world of diplomacy, abides by treaties we sign and observes the Geneva Accords, our service personnel, this nation and the world will be safer.

With the peaceful transition of power, we can work to regain the respect and leadership role once accorded the USA, its diplomats and armed forces. We've never lost the respect the rest of the world gives to our greatest ambassadors abroad: private US citizens. We can look forward to a healthy, educated citizenry to continue to be such ambassadors.

Barbara Radnofsky was the 2006 Democratic nominee for US Senate. She has since written two optimistic books on democratic prospects, "The Dancer's Dead" and "Stepping Forward". She is planning another run for statewide office in the future.