Obama and McCain

ARTICLE: Berlin Rally Is Off-Limits for Embassy Workers, By Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, July 24, 2008; Page A06

ARTICLE: McCain Still Waiting for His Turn at Good Luck, By Michael D. Shear, Washington Post, July 24, 2008; Page A06

Obama's biggest danger now is his own potential hubris ("not a man but a movement"), but that show in Berlin WAS stunning. He really does look not just presidential but like a world leader for a world desperately looking for one. By contrast, McCain seems like such a small, safe choice

Comments

[Tom Skypek]

Sen. Obama's lofty rhetoric is deceptive. There's nothing wrong with optimism as long as it's grounded in reality. David Brooks has a great column in today's NYT on this very issue. "Calling for global unity" means nothing to the leaders of despotic regimes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/opinion/25brooks.html?ref=opinion

[Michael]

Depends on what he tries to do to bring global unity about. Attacking despots who stir up disunity and hatred would not make their day. Nor would successful efforts to reduce disunity and hatred that other people take advantage of.

[VoteWithTroops.com]

Published 7/25/08 in the London Times Onlineby Gerard Baker

"And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

read the rest of it here and enjoy ...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece

For the record, we will support with our votes any flawed presidential candidate who the majority of our volunteer troops' will support with their votes ....

[VoteWithTroops.com]

We turned Afghanistan over to NATO a couple of years ago.

Why does Obama want a US troop surge in NATO controlled Afghanistan when he still claims his vote against the US troop surge in Iraq (2007) was "good judgement" because only better diplomacy should have be utilized in Iraq?

Things don't add up.

[hof1991]

McCain has a couple problems. The McCain of 2000 would not support the McCain of 2008. He supported what is a very unpopular war. He has no real economic plan. He is a Republican following a very unpopular president. He makes Grandpa Simpson look articulate. He does have the media on his side and they will try to keep this close for their own purposes.

Obama's main problem is he is Black. He will not perform as well as the polls indicate since a certain percentage will balk at voting for a Black despite what they tell pollsters - if history is any guide.

[C Norwood, Edinburgh]

I wish someone would explain this "reality" that Obama does not understand. Hasn't Mr Obama displayed his grasp of the so-called "facts on the ground," as demonstrated by PM al-Maliki's endorsement of his proposals for the future of the US-Iraq project. When Sen McCain does not know the difference between Sunni and Shi'a, when he confuses the chronology of events in Iraq that he is supposedly a master of, when his grasp of geography is displayed to be limited, and when his campaign is run on accusations of treason and the harping of one word -- Surge (tm) -- does this not show that he is the one who has lost his way? Insanity if America votes for McCain, pure insanity.

[Bruce Sterling]

Think of the irony: a man with the name of JFK's great grandfather and last child-who died two days after birth-barring Foreign Service personnel from the Berlin rally of an American politician desperately trying to appear like JFK to defeat an American hero ideologically closer to Kennedy and twice his moral size. Clearly Patrick Kennedy is an unmistakable sign that the public won't be buying into the media myth that Barack Obama is "the new JFK."