Over the past day, McCain and Obama have engaged the debate about Iraq, Iran, and, by extension, America’s national defense and role in the world. Good.
I don’t want the 2008 election determined by Rev. Wright or Rev. Hagee, by Obama’s skin color or McCain’s age, by this quote or that photo-op. I don’t even want it decided by economic, social, or other domestic issues. These are distractions from the big questions.
I changed parties last year because I was convinced that the misadventure in Iraq was a colossal blunder and very dangerous to America’s security and our future. What are we going to do about Iraq? What kind of role should we play in the world? How should we approach our national security? To me, this year, those are the key issues.
Now Obama and McCain are going at it. Good. Excellent. “Reckless?” Who’s reckless? What policies are “reckless?” Yes, let’s talk about “reckless!”
Obviously I think this line of argument favors my man. But, even if it turns out not to, even if John McCain is elected, then there will be some satisfaction in knowing that the voters saw and heard these arguments and made an informed, undistracted, decision. (And then I’ll move to Canada, but that’s another matter.)
McCAIN: “They’re the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it’s a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that.”
Well, I agree, … at least one of the candidates who favors talking to Hamas is unfit to defend America.
I could mention that another candidate indicated he would talk to the government of Iran without preconditions, but since candidates aren’t expected to know Sunnis from Shiites, nor Hamas from Iran, we’ll let that one go.
Bonus Round: I disagree with many Bush-ite commenters on this site. IMHO, they advocate policies that are violent, dangerous, authoritarian, bad for America, and bad for the world. Do their comments here, the discussions we have, do these constitute my “appeasement” of them? Am I “appeasing” these dangerous right-wingers, these extremists and radicals, by talking to them?
You have got to read Michael Medved’s latest foray into pseudoscience: he has declared American superiority to be genetic, encoded in our good old American DNA. Because our ancestors were immigrants, who were risk-takers, who were selected for their energy and aggressiveness. Oh, except for those who are descended from slaves.
I trust that in the comments, Canuckistani will expand upon the Medved thesis, proving that Canadians are even better than us. … Hmmm. Maybe, since there were few, if any slaves, in Canada, their superior immigrant DNA has not been “leavened” with any of that inferior slave stuff that perniciously wove its way into most American family trees.
“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”
An Omaha man struggling to breathe used a steak knife to perform an at-home tracheotomy. Steve Wilder said he thought he was going to die when he awoke one night last week and couldn’t breath.
Wilder said he didn’t call 911 because he didn’t think help would arrive in time. So, the 55-year-old says, he got a steak knife from the kitchen and made a small hole in his throat, allowing air to gush in.
The Democratic nomination battle is over. John looks forward.
And don’t get me wrong- I am not for Obama because of what I am against. I am for Obama because he is a decent man, a break from the past, and really a once in a lifetime opportunity. He has treated us like adults throughout this primary, and it is time to act like adults. There will be times we feel he lets us all down, but we are not electing a diety. We are electing a leader, and Obama is that leader. It is time to get past the bullshit of the last 20 years, the battles I am really tired of fighting, and time to turn our attention to the really important issues of the day- the economy, the budget, our international presence, our crumbling infrastructure, our military, medicare and medicaid and social security, and on and on and on.
Tragedy struck the first filly in the Kentucky Derby since 1999, as Eight Belles went down on the track after her second-place finish today, broke two ankles, and was euthanized.
Showing a sisterhood with the female horse, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., during a trip to Louisville this week had said she was going to bet on Eight Belles to win, place, and show.
ABC News’ Karen Travers reports that Clinton told supporters in Jeffersonville, Ind., earlier this week, “I hope that everybody will go to the derby on Saturday and place just a little money on the filly for me. I won’t be able to be there this year — my daughter is going to be there and so she has strict instructions to bet on Eight Belles.”
The horse Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., picked to show — Big Brown — won the Derby.
Mark Penn, in a phone call with sports reporters, said that Eight Belles had been leading for 3 lengths of the race, “you know, the really important lengths,” and that she wasn’t really dead anyway, and that he believed that the horse he called “The Comeback Filly” would be declared the winner.
David C. noted that he had “questions about Obama’s judgment.”
Two thunderous blasts set off by suicide bombers ripped through a crowded shopping street in the town of Balad Ruz in Diyala Province on Thursday, killing at least 35 people and wounding at least 62 others, many of them seriously. An American soldier secured an area of Baghdad on Thursday after a car bombing killed a soldier and nine Iraqis. An American patrol seemed to be the target. The first bomb was aimed at a wedding caravan that was driving through the neighborhood, said a security official in Balad Ruz, known for its restaurants and stores. The second bomb went off after the police and medical teams arrived.
Most of us accepted uncritically Bush’s statements about WMDs and how easy it would be, etc, etc.
Some had the “judgment” not to fall for it.
No question that it is going to be difficult to extract ourselves from Iraq. I’d rather have someone in charge who had the “judgment” to make the call correctly at the beginning.
by Jonathan Singer, Thu May 01, 2008 at 12:39:28 PM EST
This may be the first time that I’ve seen the race phrased this way, but Marc Ambinder puts the race in these terms following Barack Obama’s endorsement by a Texas superdelegate and news that Obama will pick up three more add-on superdelegates from Illinois on Monday:
Texas DNC Member John Patrick, vice president of the Texas AFL-CIO. That’s 12 for Obama since Pennsylvania. He needs 283 to clinch the nomination.
While technically there isn’t a whole lot of difference between adding from the bottom up rather than subtracting from the top down, rhetorically there is a difference. Talking about the magic number — the remaining number of delegates a particular candidate needs to receive in order to secure the Democratic nomination — suggests an end game in sight.
Why the Jeremiah Wright story deserves more attention
I think the most important thing to note about the Jeremiah Wright Story is that we’re a Nation plagued by exceedingly few significant problems; blessed with a quite healthy political culture and very trusted political and media institutions; composed of a citizenry that is peacefully content with its Government and secure and confident about their future; endowed with a supremely sturdy economic foundation free of debt and other grave economic afflictions; …
