First the personal. 

His mother's nomadic lifestyle meant that he was often the only black kid in school - I have been an only white kid in class - and in Indonesia, he may have been the only American to boot.

Obama resisted the temptations of youth - OK, he has admitted to some drug abuse while at Columbia - to graduate from an Ivy League school and to later acquire a law degree from Harvard, where he was elected class president.

He is another example of any boy growing up to be president.

Many are the presidents who were born in log cabins and many had stepfathers, most recently Bill Clinton and Jerry Ford, both of whom had their names changed to that of their stepfathers'.

Being the one in a million who makes it to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. may not have been unprecedented, but that does not make the climb easier.

Ask those who followed Edmund Hillary up Mount Everest.

Running for president as a black man took courage. While I believe charges of white racism are overblown in the country, the fear is there.

But I have political reasons to thank him.

Obama keeps proving conservatives right.

His denunciation on the campaign trail of President Bush's foreign policies - particularly the war in Iraq - and subsequent adoption of them proved just how wise President Bush was in the prosecution of the war on terrorism.

Obama's breaking of his promise to close Guantanamo Bay's prison also shows that Bush was right.

Obama's sudden embrace of the very military tribunals he once scorned does my heart good and our nation proud - and proves Bush right again.

For all his rhetoric about tax cuts for the rich, the Bush tax cuts stayed in place throughout his one - and I think only - term.

Sadly, Obama has also adopted Bush's failed policies.

The failed $150 billion stimulus of 2008 was followed by a $787 billion disaster the next year under Obama.

On his watch, the nation has lost 2.1 million jobs so far.

Between the bank bailouts and the auto bailouts - and Bush gets a big share of the blame for that catastrophe as well - the American middle class rose up against Washington.

As Rick Santelli of CNBC asked, why are we rewarding failure?

The rise of the tea party at first put off celebrity conservatives, just as the Boston Tea Party repulsed Ben Franklin.

Franklin, however, had a meeting a month later with the Privy Council, which then ran the British government.

So condescending were council members that Franklin would observe later that he walked into the meeting an Englishman and walked out an American.

Obama's reaction would do Lord North proud.

(North was the prime minister at the time, a man remembered by current Prime Minister David Cameron, who told U.S. troops in Afghanistan on July 4: "Maybe if one of my predecessors hadn't screwed up so badly, we'd all be one army.")

Nothing rallied the people as much as President Obama's tin ear on health care.

Obamacare made Republican John Boehner the speaker of the House. The 63 seats gained by Republicans last November was their biggest gain in 64 years.

In summary, I thank Barack Obama for giving young men an inspiration to rise above their station at a time when so many boys grow up fatherless and discouraged, and work their way into prison.

His life has been a conservative one of hard work and a belief in God. I am not comfortable with the church he chose, but his attendance was faithful.

Mostly, though, I thank him for proving conservatives right.

Surber may be reached at donsur...@dailymail.com. His blog is at http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber.