Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Do Not Send a Boy

By Alan Caruba

It is an old adage. Do not send a boy to do a man’s job.

That appears to be what a lot of Americans intend to do when they vote for Barrack Obama.

Perhaps it is from my vantage point of some seven decades on Earth, but when I listen to or see Obama on television, what I see is a very appealing young man who needs to put some time in, oh say, the U.S. Senate. Barely halfway through his first term, he has spent most of his time running for the highest office in the land. Talk about audacity!

Some might say that the experience he gained as an Illinois legislator counts for something but he mostly voted “present” during that term in office. The job of legislator requires taking a position on weighty issues. Just being “present” suggests a lack of any strong convictions except, perhaps, for wanting to be the President of the United States of America.

Previous “experience” appears to be something called “a community organizer” and he has certainly organized a heck of a campaign. He’s quite skilled at mass rallies and reading speeches from a teleprompter; speeches presumably written by someone else, full of rhetorical grandeur, but devoid of any substance, leaving us at a loss to know what he believes in other than wanting to be the next President.

When one of the leading liberal daily newspapers in the nation, the Washington Post, takes a candidate to task, that candidate should begin to worry. In its Wednesday, July 23 edition, an editorial called into question his assertion that those whom he met in his Iraq tour agreed with his view of a swift withdrawal of troops. They did not.

The Post then took him to task for his rather odd view that Afghanistan is “the central front” of combat in the Middle East when clearly the very oil-rich and centrally located Iraq is. The Post noted that al Qaeda is not in Afghanistan—the Taliban is—and that the U.S. cannot operate militarily in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden is presumably located.

Visiting a whole bunch of nations in a week’s time doesn’t quite strike me as “experience” in foreign affairs. I have a cousin who has traveled all over the world and can tell you what shots to take before going to Africa or India, but I don’t ask him for an opinion on how to resolve long-standing, often intransigent international issue.

Obama’s military “experience” doesn’t exist. All things considered, I have more military experience, having been drafted into the U.S. Army and being honorably discharged with a good conduct ribbon. By comparison, Sen. McCain, a graduate of Annapolis, a Vietnam War fighter pilot, and former prisoner of war leaves young Obama in the dust.

The policies of the Bush administration have resulted in what most people agree is a belated, but successful conclusion to the war in Iraq. The only debate about Iraq is how soon to leave and, as the Washington Post has noted, Obama is increasingly vague, saying he will be guided by our generals there. That’s been Bush’s policy for the last five years! When he fired Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and actually started to listen to them, we began to win.

What we do know about Obama is that he is possibly the most politically liberal candidate since Jimmy Carter to run for the office. If elected, he and the Democrats will introduce every tried and failed “solution” to America’s present problems, making them worse if that is possible. And it is.

These are, after all, the same people who have resisted any drilling or mining for America’s vast natural energy resources. They are the same people still talking about “global warming” a decade into a scientifically certified cooling cycle that began in 1998. They are the same people who see nothing wrong in letting millions of illegal aliens ignore our southern border. These are people who think banning the sale of the incandescent light bulb will save the Earth.

John McCain is always being called “old.” Ronald Reagan was called “old.” Reagan did a pretty good job as a result of having real governing experience and real convictions. Rejecting real experience and the often sage advice that comes with it is something that children do. Ask any parent.

Voting for Barrack Obama because he can sink a basketball and is skilled at contriving a variety of photo opportunities is just not good enough. Obama supporters need to grow up. So does their candidate.

4 comments:

concerned citizen said...

Very true! Obama is like a college kid who is good at debates and excellent at giving speeches but is this boy good enough for a man's job? Come on America, don't get carried away with the rhetoric,don't dwell on the past( Bush administration and his policies) and vote for Obama out of sheer "anti-Bush" sentiment.There are many issues at stake here and you are not that naive to fall for this kind of hype. Are you?
Just pause and think! This election is going to decide our future and if we don't make the right choice,we will pay very dearly with our very freedom and security.There's an old adage: "Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing".So let us not take this election lightly.Go beyond the rhetoric and look for substance.Then we will know that we are Americans and no one can take us for a ride!

Lee Hazel said...

Alan: These three articals are supurb. They should be must reading for John McCain.
Obama is extremely vulnerable in two areas (he is vulnerable in many others but I think these are where his armour is thinnest).
1. His monumental ego. He cannot get around it. It has manifested itself on so many occasions and in so many ways during this campaign that it is difficult to select the most telling.
However, the claims coming out of his trip to the middle east as regards, ending the war, "as he predicted" the real war is, and always has been, in Afganistan, his repeated "brushing aside" of any issue that he did not want to discuss, his desire to speak at the Brandenburg Gate (the germans shunting him to their local Homo-Park to speak in front of the city phalic symbol is not beyond the german. Their sense of humor, particularly with regard to poitics and politicians can be very, very "rough"), his shifting of the location of his acceptance speech to a stadium, his need of a "logo", his creation of an Obama presidential seal, the changes made to the interior and exterior of his plane, his fundemental attitude of the inevitability of his coronation, oops, ascention to the Presidency as a right. Enough said.
2. The Global Warming aka Climate Change Hoax, Scam, Religous Cult, or whatever. All John McCain needs to do is to separate himself from this ALGORIAN horrifically expensive circus, call it what it is, and then, get on with getting this incredible country moving on solving the problems we have been led into by our power crazy political leaders and charlatans posing as scientists.
Obama and the Democrats are way too far in-the-tank on this. They have bet the bank on this just as they have on ending the war in Iraq.
If McCain will just go after #2 he can be our next POTUS. He has to recognize this and distance himself as quickly as possible. He can really catch the Obama bandwagon with their collective pants down. I would love to be a fly on the wall when such an announcement would reach the Obama camp. Talk about a "Chinese Fire Drill". Chris Matthews would probably wet his leg rather than experience tingles.

The ego thing will in large measure take care of itself. All McCain and company need do is treat it with the disdane it so richly deserves. OBAMA is a highly intelligent spoiled child (brat) who could have benifited greatly from a few trips to the woodshed. Instead he has been coddled and continues to be coddled and diefied by a slobbering media.

It is insane to think that we would actually put someone with absolutly zero accomplishments and no experience whatsoever to recommend him into the most powerful office in the world. We will sober up before November.

I really enjoy reading your articals.

PC is Thought Control
LEE

Alan Caruba said...

Thank you, Lee. Now tell all your friends and family to come visit Warning Signs!

Cheers!

davefxx said...

"Chris Matthews would probably wet his leg rather than experience tingles."

That was actually Obama peeing down his leg. ;-)

(BTW, please use spell check.)