LITTWIN: Surge might be working for Iraq, but not for McCain
By Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 25, 2008 at 9:22 p.m.
John McCain is unhappy. In fact, by presidential-campaigns-in-July standards, he's working on a Category 2 mood swing.
No wonder he went to Aspen to hang out with his pal, the Dalai Lama, Friday afternoon. This is a man in need of a spare mantra.
It wouldn't be such a problem if McCain weren't so easily caricatured as the grumpy old candidate. But there it is. And believe me - or just take Bob Dole's word for it - you don't win presidential campaigns that way, although you do tend to get some quality time with Jon Stewart's monologue.
I had seen the clips. I had watched McCain in a weeklong struggle as Barack Obama traveled on his we-are-the- world tour. This is how bad it got for McCain: While Obama was pulling off his Berlin love-fest, some PR genius convinced McCain to eat a brat sandwich while on a campaign swing in Ohio.
I went to see McCain for myself Friday as he came to town to speak to the American GI Forum, a Hispanic veterans group in which many of the veterans are actually Democrats. McCain got a short introduction. He offered a short thank you. He told no jokes. He barely smiled. I don't think it was the bratwurst. And then he began his Friday lunch-time slam.
Obama, he said, was a defeatist who promoted "the audacity of hopelessness."
Obama, he said, was an opportunist who "told the American people what he thought you wanted to hear. I told you the truth."
Obama, he said, "didn't just advocate defeat, he tried to legislate it."
McCain mentioned Obama's name a lucky 13 times in his brief speech, which he ended with a tribute to Hispanic-American veterans and medal of honor winner Roy Benavidez.
But all anyone was talking about was McCain's Obama attacks. I've seen McCain dozens of times. He's a guy who leavens his jabs with humor. It's one reason why the press likes him. He's usually accessible, and he usually lets you in on the joke. When he used the "audacity of hopelessness" line, you'd expect that sometimes strained McCain smile to appear. Not this time.
And, besides, there are rules in campaigns. You don't go this negative this consistently this early in a campaign - at least not in a race that, according to the polls, is nearly even.
If you slam Obama on Iraq once, that makes the news, and then you move on. In a week in which Obama was trying to show he's got the commander style down, McCain could have been at home showing that he's got something revealing to say about the economy.
I think I know McCain's problem. It's the surge. McCain loves the surge. McCain pushed for the surge. McCain prodded George Bush on the surge. He waited as Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani signed on to the surge. You'd guess he's got pictures of the surge in his wallet.
He likes to say now that it was a form of courage to support the surge - that he risked everything to get the surge working. But McCain's campaign didn't fall apart because of the surge. He didn't fire many of his top advisers because of the surge. It's a nice piece of revisionism, but McCain's problem, in those days, was the war itself, not the tactics. The problem McCain faced was that the Democrats were making him the face of an unpopular war.
But the real problem for McCain now is that, as Chuck Hagel said, it's time to move past the surge.
McCain would move, but where's he going to go? And what has him miffed is that if the surge is actually working - we'll leave the nuances of that debate for another time - and everyone is talking about the troops going home, why isn't he, McCain, getting the credit?
Why, for that matter, won't Obama even admit the surge is working?
You can see McCain's problem. And, if you can't, let's go to the tape.
Among the things that have gone wrong for McCain: His hug-a-friend George Bush had agreed to a "time horizon" with Iraq just as Obama was landing in country. The Iraqi prime minister, meanwhile, was seconding Obama's timetable for withdrawal. And even Gen. David Petraeus - McCain's favorite person in the world - was doing glam photo-ops with Obama.
All McCain wanted to talk about was the surge. But when he did talk about it - saying the surge had led to the "Anbar Awakening" - he seemed to get his timeline wrong, and it was put down as another gaffe.
Which leads us to the latest news. McCain goes on CNN late Friday with Wolf Blitzer, who gets McCain to say that Obama's 16-month timetable - the one sort of endorsed by Nouri al-Maliki - is "a pretty good timetable."
Yes, McCain, who doesn't talk about timetables, now says Obama's is a pretty good one, which isn't quite the same as saying that Obama wants to lead the country to defeat.
It begins as Blitzer asks McCain what he'd do if Maliki wants American troops out in 16 months. McCain says he wouldn't "because it has to be condition based."
Blitzer: How do you know?
McCain: Because I know him. And I know him very well . . .
Blitzer: So why do you think he said that 16 months is basically a pretty good timetable?
McCain: He said it's a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground. I think it's a pretty good timetable, as we should - or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions on the ground.
And so the campaign day ends with McCain sort of endorsing Obama on Iraq while showing just how hard it is to keep your time horizons straight.
Come on. You'd be upset, too.
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July 26, 2008
12:56 a.m.
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SL10 writes:
Just shows how McCain is slooowly losing it, mentally speaking. At 3 am a call comes in to the White House. McCain answers the phone. Mr. President what do we do? McCain says am I suppose to make a decision on something. I forgot, what about the surge? *America is doomed*
July 26, 2008
7:02 a.m.
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raysmom writes:
Oh, come on. You guys can't give it up even a little, can you, especially you, Mr. Littwin. Your column has become nothing less than an Obama-thon, and you don't even have the credentials for that. You can diss Hillary & McCain all you want, even though it is boring and I can't believe you get paid to wax poetic about and make excuses for Saint Obama ad nauseum. But it doesn't change the fact that Obama is an out of control, quasi-Socialist elitist rock star who will say anything he thinks you want to hear, except the truth about his "investments", i.e. redistribution of wealth agenda, which will be the death knell for small business in this country, and then where will the do-gooder's trough be filled? And remember, while you laugh at McCain eating brats, while Obama tells Europeans everything they want to hear, too- even though the illegal campaign contributions under $200 are flowing into O's coffers from Europe- they still don't VOTE here- it's those "common people" you love to sneer at that make the difference in these elections. BTW- Mr. Littwin- get a haircut- you look like an old fool. How does it feel to be called that?
July 26, 2008
7:06 a.m.
Suggest removal
raysmom writes:
Here- let me give you an interesting topic to discuss-
Democrats Against Drilling
July 24, 2008; Page A14
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and other liberal leaders on Capitol Hill are gripped by cold-sweat terror. If they permit a vote on offshore drilling, they know they will lose when Blue Dogs and oil-patch Democrats defect to the GOP position of increasing domestic energy production. So the last failsafe is to shut down Congress.
Majority Leader Reid has decided that deliberation is too taxing for "the world's greatest deliberative body." This week he cut off serious energy amendments to his antispeculation bill. Then Senate Appropriations baron Robert Byrd abruptly canceled a bill markup planned for today where Republicans intended to press the issue. Mr. Byrd's counterpart in the House, David Obey, is enforcing a similar lockdown. Speaker Pelosi says she won't allow even a debate before Congress's August recess begins in eight days.
She and Mr. Reid are cornered by substance. The upward pressure on oil prices is caused by rising world-wide consumption and limited growth in supplies. Yet at least 65% of America's undiscovered, recoverable oil, and 40% of its natural gas, is hostage to the Congressional drilling moratorium.
The Democratic leadership is trying to smother any awareness of their responsibility for high prices. They are also trying to quash a revolt among Democrats who realize that the country is still dependent on fossil fuels, no matter how loudly quasimystical environmentalists like Al Gore claim otherwise.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 26, 2008
8:49 a.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
The GOP sure is desparate for votes. Bush did it with fear and won an election. Now, it is with oil. Vote for us the GOP so we can get richer. If the oil companies where to drill on land they have leases to already and we need more oil then maybe open up offshore drilling. At least the Democrats got there crap together and the GOP is desparate. Hell, I will bet $50 right now that McCain loses.
July 26, 2008
9:41 a.m.
Suggest removal
GetReal writes:
Leave it to Littwin to spin McCain's early backing of the successful surge into a negative, while ridiculously claiming it is a positive for Obama, who opposed it and still wont admit its obvious effectiveness.
McCain was right and Obama was wrong, but in Mikey's Moonbat World that translates into an Obama advantage.
Mike proves once again he is the master at tortured reasoning, and will say anything to provide the needed cover for his beloved Barrack.
The scary part is most libs buy his nonsense.
July 26, 2008
11:18 a.m.
Suggest removal
T1anda writes:
Lets not mention the rock bands that Obama's staff hires and free drinks/booze to "get em" to come and listen to his socialist leaning BS.
Raysmom post 7:02 hit the nail on the head!!
Obama should be killing McCain in the polls!! Why isn't he???
July 26, 2008
12:03 p.m.
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raysmom writes:
Thanks, T1. Good question. I'm not sure, either, but selective listening, misleading propaganda, and sour grapes over the Bush elections is a lot of it, probably. The lie about the Bush tax cuts only being for the rich, for example. That's just dumb. EVERYONE got a cut- whether you agree with a cut or not, and not everyone who grosses over 250K a year is rich- small businesses make up almost half of this demographic, and end up with, on average, 1/3 of that after overhead, taxation & SS- these are the people who CREATE JOBS and work 70+ hours a week!
As far as McCain's memory skills, Here's a good Obama "misspeak"...
“Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee - which is my committee - a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon,” Obama said at a press conference in Sderot, Israel.
Good idea, except that B. Hussein isn’t the Chair of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He doesn't even SIT on the 21-member committee.
McCain is expected to remember every border, historical event, and person he's ever met, but B. Hussein gets a pass on forgetting which committees he sits on RIGHT NOW?
Wow. I mean, it's alright to hold politicians to a higher standard due to the nature of their responsibilities, but can you libs TRY to see things both ways?
July 26, 2008
12:15 p.m.
Suggest removal
raysmom writes:
OOPS- I wasn't wearing my specs- you said O should be killing McCain! Got it wrong! See, even regular people like ME can get old! LOL! I was answering why O is even matching McCain, when he has been proved over and and over to be a deceptive self-promoter extraordinaire! But yes, I think "the little" people aren't as stupid as the Obama people think they are, and they aren't fooled by "The Boy who played King".
July 26, 2008
1:08 p.m.
Suggest removal
jbowen43 writes:
The national press loves this guy. Why? Because he feeds them donuts in Washington and BBQ at his home and he strokes them on the bus. That's why they gladly cover up for his ignorance, his foul mouth and temper. I wish I had confidence this clown would lose but the republicans seem to be winning the war of slogans and that's what works in a country populated by folks with little time and short attention spans.
July 26, 2008
1:33 p.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
raysmom writes:
Here- let me give you an interesting topic to discuss-
Democrats Against Drilling
July 24, 2008; Page A14
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and other liberal leaders on Capitol Hill are gripped by cold-sweat terror. If they permit a vote on offshore drilling, they know they will lose when Blue Dogs and oil-patch Democrats defect to the GOP position of increasing domestic energy production. So the last failsafe is to shut down Congress.
Majority Leader Reid has decided that deliberation is too taxing for "the world's greatest deliberative body." This week he cut off serious energy amendments to his antispeculation bill.
(Editted to keep under 3000 characters)
Yes, let's discuss it....
Senate Republicans block heating aid bill
By MATT YANCEY, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jul 26, 12:14 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Republicans on Saturday blocked the Senate from considering a bill next week that would nearly double federal aid to help the poor pay heating and air-conditioning bills.
Although a dozen Senate Republicans support the measure, most voted with GOP leaders who would rather spend the time trumpeting their call to expand offshore oil drilling before Congress takes six weeks off for vacation and the presidential nominating conventions.
"The American resources on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts contain 14 billion barrels at a minimum ... more than we have imported from the Persian Gulf in the last 15 years," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
Democrats needed 60 votes to substitute the measure on heating and air-conditioning aid in place of the debate on an expansion of offshore drilling championed by President Bush and GOP presidential candidate John McCain. They got 50 votes Saturday, with 35 Republicans voting against changing the topic.
"Do we vote to keep the old, the sick and kids alive when the weather gets cold or very, very hot, or do we spend money on people who make huge campaign contributions? That is part of what this debate is about," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.
The government is devoting $2.6 billion in subsidies for helping people with low incomes pay heating and air-conditioning bills this year. Sanders' bill would nearly double that to $5.1 billion.
While Senate Democrats said they hoped to pass it next week, Democrats in the House were looking at the popular subsidies for anchoring a second economic aid bill they want to push in September, closer to the November election.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is vehemently against letting the House vote on offshore drilling. She and Democratic leaders in the Senate also have shut down normal summer work on spending bills to prevent offshore drilling from getting a legislative footing in the appropriations committees.
July 26, 2008
1:42 p.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
At least the Democrats are using wisdom to legislate off shore drilling. The GOP don't give a flying eff. Only one GOP Prez. cared about screwing up the earth by doing off shore drilling, guess who that was?!?!? If you say George Bush, Sr. then you are correct. GWB, Jr. recently lifted his daddy's order. Now, McCain is stepping to the GOP order of make us rich now, screw the country... Btw, I am not seeing the oil companies drilling with those leases they have on federal land.. Hmmmm, I wonder why?!?!?
July 26, 2008
1:52 p.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
Finally Congress wakes up, common sense comes into play...
Sen. Reed: no 'blank check' for war in Iraq
By ANDREW MIGA
Associated Press Writer
US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,124
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Jack Reed says America can't afford the Republican strategy of continuing to write blank checks for the Iraq war.
"At a time when the war in Iraq costs $10 billion each month, Americans are paying $4 a gallon for gasoline, and our economy is struggling, we cannot continue down the path that President Bush and Senator McCain propose: writing blank check after blank check," Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said Saturday in his party's weekly radio address.
Reed said Democrats have outlined a better plan to carefully redeploy combat troops out of Iraq and give them missions such as counterterrorism and training Iraq's military.
"Make no mistake: This is a plan that seizes on the progress and sacrifices our troops have made in Iraq, and it recognizes the desire of the Iraqi people to take control of their own destiny," he said.
Reed and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska accompanied presumed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on a six-day trip to Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait that ended this week.
Obama says he will pursue a 16-month timetable for withdrawing combat troops if he is elected. That idea won conditional support on Monday from Iraqi leaders during talks in Baghdad.
"Our proposal to responsibly redeploy American troops out of Iraq will send a message to the Iraqi government that it must do more," Reed said. "And it will encourage more progress toward Iraqi self-sufficiency."
A West Point graduate and former Army Ranger, Reed emerged as one of his party's leading anti-war voices after he voted against authorizing the war. Reed, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is a potential vice presidential pick for Obama.
"Some of the soldiers and Marines we met in the field are on their third and fourth tours of duty," Reed said. "And they deserve a policy that is worthy of their sacrifice."
July 26, 2008
6:47 p.m.
Suggest removal
GetReal writes:
SL10-
Do you think you could stay on topic for once?
If not, maybe you should try to find another thread where your comments might be more appropriate.
July 26, 2008
7:14 p.m.
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SL10 writes:
GetReal, I notice you doing the same thing in other threads. So, get real yourself. But, I should try to keep on the topic.
July 26, 2008
7:41 p.m.
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GetReal writes:
SL-
Where and when?
July 26, 2008
9:35 p.m.
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dakar writes:
The fact the surge helped to settle things down in Iraq seems to be of no importance, only the 2 candidates opinions of it. What are the Dems going to do - Iraq is getting better, oil drilling is more popular and the economy isn't helping either candidate.
July 26, 2008
10:35 p.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
Getreal, How about your post 4th one up for starters. Do I really need to draw you a map? For one thing is many users go off topic around here like user RaysMom to whom my post replied to hers. But, you are quick to point out my off topic posting but not hers? Like I said get real yourself okay?
July 27, 2008
9:38 a.m.
Suggest removal
GetReal writes:
SL-
Excactly how is my 9:41 post off topic?
I am commenting directly about Littwins article.
Unlike yourself.
July 27, 2008
11:16 a.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
Getreal, whatevers we are both off topic now with this issue. I am done with this issue. Going back on topic now.
July 27, 2008
12:28 p.m.
Suggest removal
BJG writes:
Mikey:
From what the reporters said on the news, Berlin was no love fest, just a polite crowd listening to a guy who thinks he has become King of the U S. McCain's big mistake was to suggest to BO to take a trip to Iraq, not a world tour like BO has decided to do. I constantly get letters from the BO people asking for cash, if this guy is going to spend his new found loot in europe struttin, he's not going to get a dime from me. The arrogance of this guy really astounds me and I'll bet a few million more people feel the same way. We are just now getting rid of one idiot who thinks he the king of the U S we don't need to coronate another.
July 27, 2008
3:09 p.m.
gary writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
July 27, 2008
5:56 p.m.
Suggest removal
jay writes:
lots of right wing myths here.....
where shall we start the debunking?
raysmom has posted several...shall we start with her
July 28, 2008
3:30 p.m.
Suggest removal
Cwillyrun1 writes:
Obama was ridiculed in Israel for praying at the wall with his campaign signs everywhere......... with taunts of "Our land is not for sale, Obama" coming from protestors.
In Berlin, a large part of the crowd cheering for Obama was muslim. Of course, the mainstream media in the United States won't let us know about it. What kind of lovefest is that? Who's he campaigning to anyway, Americans, or foreigners?
July 29, 2008
9:55 a.m.
Suggest removal
reality101 writes:
Truth about our efforts:
editorial board ask, 'What would happen if the U.S. won a war but the
media didn't tell the American public? Apparently, we have to rely on
a British newspaper for the news that we've defeated the last remnants
of al-Qaida in Iraq.'
London's Sunday Times called it 'the culmination of one of the most
spectacular victories of the war on terror.' A terrorist force that
once numbered more than 12,000, with strongholds in the west and
central regions of Iraq, has over two years been reduced to a mere
1,200 fighters, backed against the wall in the northern city of Mosul.
The destruction of al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) is one of the most unlikely
and unforeseen events in the long history of American warfare. We can
thank President Bush's surge strategy, in which he bucked both
Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington by increasing our
forces there instead of surrendering.
We can also thank the leadership of the new general he placed in
charge there, David Petraeus, who may be the foremost expert in the
world on counter-insurgency warfare. And we can thank those serving in
our military in Iraq who engaged local Iraqi tribal leaders and
convinced them America was their friend and AQI their enemy.
Al-Qaida's loss of the hearts and minds of ordinary Iraqis began in
Anbar Province, which had been written off as a basket case, and
spread out from there.
Now, in Operation Lion's Roar the Iraqi army and the U.S. 3rd Armored
Cavalry Regiment is destroying the fraction of terrorists who are
left. More than 1,000 AQI
----------------------------------------------------------------
July 29, 2008
4:40 p.m.
Suggest removal
HankRearden writes:
reality101,
Did Obama take credit for that yet? He was responsible for welfare reform, for increased drilling and for the right to own a hand guns in DC.
July 30, 2008
12:32 p.m.
Suggest removal
Dionysus writes:
So reality101 has a pretty short memory - apparently he forgot that Al Qaida was not even in Iraq until after we invaded. Why not examine the entire front - what is happening now in Afghanastan?
Then cwillyrun1 states that the people cheering for Obama in Germany were Muslim. It is amazing where that information might come from. Did he interview these folks and ask what their religion was? Why make an argument based on false or faulty information. To do that is to revoke your own argument.
Earlier getreal and sl10 break down into an online fist fight. Let's bring a little more reasonable discussion to this blog.
McCain should be worried about Obama's trip - it made Obama look pretty good. At the same time, McCain is running TV ads stating that it is Obama that is responsible for higher gas prices. Not good to go negative in July. Give us some good news and tell us about real plans to help the economy.
July 30, 2008
3:10 p.m.
Suggest removal
rjnova writes:
Littwin I have never read such a bald face effort to anoint Obama president on such a flimsy showing and rambling ambiguous verbiage to a foreign audience that means absolutely nothing to the issues in the race for the presidency. What do we care who EU socialists and Middle East closet terrorists think should be president?
In lieu of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem the way you guys write he should have gone to Bethlehem to visit his birth place and make a showing for his second coming.
I think you and the media publishing companies should register as campaign agents for Obama and have to recognize your published writings as contributions in kind to the campaign fund for this nauseous gushing that is published daily. Good Lord man it is reported the media is publishing Obamamania to the tune of 2 times the stories on McCain. If ever there was a doubt as to media bias for this jerk the tripe you are writing wipes away that doubt.
This may be the last propaganda piece of yours I will ever read.
July 31, 2008
7:08 a.m.
Suggest removal
Mike_In_Hartsel writes:
I suggest we limit SL10 and GetReal posts on these pages or give them their own blog.
July 31, 2008
8:38 a.m.
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kmaes writes:
Why in the world are we wasting time on off-shore drilling, especially in light of the fact that it will have no appreciable effect for at least a decade or--as our own government agency admits--until 2030 (see Raj Chohan's Reality Check in today's Rocky Mt. News)? I told my husband that that means when our now 1 year-old grandson steps up to the pump when he is 23 years for a fill up he might see a lower gas price! Sorry--but it will be too late then! We need to spend our time and energy on non-fossil fuel alternatives NOW as we do have the technology (even though the big oil companies and the auto industry kept it at bay for many years). This is precisely what Sentor Obama has been saying! Also to respond briefly to this "low-brained" Celeb ad by Senator McCain's team (which he says he endorces!): why is it such a bad thing to be respected and well-liked once again abroad? My husband and I just recently came back from a trip to Amsterdam and France and were frequently asked if we were Americans who support Senator Obama (to which we said YES!). It is not an issue with "Celeb" with those in Europe with whom we spoke, but rather, they believe in what he has to offer--as we do. Let's get over this "glandular-negative-irrational campaign" and take the high road for heaven's sake!
August 1, 2008
5:24 p.m.
Suggest removal
gary writes:
The RMN does not like anyone knocking NObama or Littwin..
So they remove your post!!
Nuff Said!
They will probably remove this one too!
August 2, 2008
2:12 p.m.
Suggest removal
dukeco1 writes:
I suppose, Sasquatch, you don't remember the reason the OCS drilling ban came into being. It was the Santa Barbara coast that recieved the majority of the 3,000,000 barrels of oil that spilled and fouled the beaches for years.
Please spare me the drivel about how safe and responsible the industry is. Exxon /Mobil still hasn't paid for the damage to the environment in Alaska from the Exxon Valdez disaster.
The push by Big Oil to get more leases is a crock. For them, it is money in the bank which they use to leverage their lenders to give them cheaper loans for development. Bigger profits for the oil companies is the only real result. If Americans want to see prices come down, just keep reducing demand and prosecute the thieves. Oil companies and giant financial institutions should not be allowed to manipulate the markets the way Dubyas' policies have allowed them to.
August 2, 2008
4:59 p.m.
Suggest removal
nobozons writes:
How bad do you feel now that the morphing obama has changed his position again.
He now says that withdrawal from Iraq should be condition based. McCain said that 16 months seems like a good time, but it depends upon conditions on the ground. He said this months ago.
Barry has also said that he isn't against drilling, that it is a state decision. Threw his colleagues, grandmother and many others under the bus.
Barry will soon find that tax increases won't get him elected so he will morph his tax increase policy into keeping the Bush tax cutswhen McCain points out that his plan will stifle growth and bring on decline and depression.
He will change his mind on dismantling our military might when McCain attacks his policy. Then he will have morphed into McCain. How will you feel then.
August 2, 2008
5:57 p.m.
Suggest removal
dukeco1 writes:
nobozons,
Senator Obama has offered to compromise in order to make progress on a very important issue. He is to be commended for his willingness to work for a solution. While I do not believe that opening up a small portion of the OCS is necessary or will have a noticable effect on gasoline prices, the non-stop propaganda campaign in the main stream media has mislead the American people into believing so.
Progress in this area will depend upon more than Sen. Obamas' willingness to compromise. Let's just wait and see what the other side is willing to do.
August 3, 2008
12:48 a.m.
Suggest removal
freethinker07 writes:
Littwin, you are being ridiculous.
Democrats have been negative on Bush and McCain for years. Complaining that Republicans are being negative about Obama is hypocritical. Your own track record of criticizing Bush demonstrates that you would rather attack the person than his positions and actions.
Obama's inexperience is a legitimate issue.
Obama doesn't know what his positions are. That is a legitimate issue.
His wife and his minister make anti patriotic public statements. His minister makes racist comments.
His wife gets interviewed and people don't like what she says. He then complains when people attack her positions.
These are legitimate issues which need discussion. There are others.
If the Democrats run the least experienced major party candidate in three generations, they can't expect the Republicans to not mention it.
August 3, 2008
9:36 a.m.
Suggest removal
dukeco1 writes:
Freethinker07,
You make a valid point. Obamas' inexperience is a legitimate issue. It is as legitimate as McCains age. But, I think neither issue is the key. A young black woman who is a TV reporter asked me, "why should I vote for Obama?". My answer is, just listen to him talk. He is extremely bright, articulate and thoughtful. Many folks will attack his speeches, but that isn't what I'm talking about. Listen to him in conversation with interviewers. He is very well balanced and I believe he has the judgement to be an excellent President. We have had other Presidents that had no more experience than Obama; Abraham Lincoln comes to mind.
This is really about judgement in my view. Judgement and honesty. It is sad to see Sen. McCain begin to rely on the money and influence machine that managed TCOOTWH. He is descending into that world of lies and greed that has gotten us where we are now. I fear he will allow that mindset to control DC and this country for another four years. That is not acceptable.
So please, just try to get past whatever partisan biases you may have and actually just listen carefully to both candidates. While both are honorable men, I believe Sen. Obama will be a better leader.