Obama: Hitting them where it hurts!!!
Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 04:58:41 PM PDT
Disclosure: I am an unapologetic Obama Supporter and I believe that he will be the next President of the United States.
Alright guys...I haven't written a diary in a while, but I thought that this needed to be discussed. Everyone knows that Hillary Clinton is the front-runner. She is leading in many of the polls, everyone knows her, she has a lot of money, yada yada yada. Everyone also knows that John Edwards is trying to be the anti-Hillary candidate but is not getting much traction because of Obama, which is a reason Edwards made the ridiculous remark comparing Obama's withdrawal plan to Bush's "withdrawal plan":
"Senator Obama would withdraw only 1-2 combat brigades a month between now and the end of next year, which for the next several months could essentially mimic the president's own plans to withdraw 30,000 troops by next summer."
However, I believe that the biggest issue that exists in America today (other than global warming of course) is going to be the one issue that brings them down, and Obama is taking rightful aim at that vulnerable spot in their campaigns.
Jump with me below the fold!!!
No matter what anyone says, Obama has the biggest advantage when it comes to the Iraq War. He was against it from the beginning because he knew what would happen. Just in case you forgot, here's a snippet of his 2002 Iraq Speech:
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income – to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.
Now, if that isn't clear enough that he was opposed to the war from the beginning, and if that is not clear enough that he had the right judgment and foresight in that going into Iraq was a bad idea, then I don't know what is. Unfortunately, not everyone had that same judgment and foresight in 2002. Every other presidential candidate who was in Congress back then (except Dennis Kucinich) authorized the war. Now, we get a lot of excuses: we were fed lies, the administration cherry-picked intelligence, Tenet said it was a "slam dunk," etc....Well, you know what I have to say...that is their own fault. How can a no-name State Senator from Illinois have better judgment and more foresight than U.S. Senators who actually had the ability to question what was in front of them. U.S. Senators who had "years of experience in foreign policy." U.S. Senators who could have been cautious and deliberate instead of agreeing with what was politically beneficial. I take whatever the candidates say about Iraq now with a grain of salt, because everyone knows what has happened since it started. However, only one candidate for president (again, other than Kucinich) knew that invading Iraq was wrong...and that person is Barack Obama.
Now, Barack Obama made a speech today in Clinton, Iowa, about Iraq, and in my opinion, he is doing exactly what he is supposed to do. While promoting his agenda in regards to Iraq, he is letting everyone know that the other leading Democratic nominees were wrong when it mattered most:
"Conventional thinking in Washington lined up for war," he told supporters in Iowa. "The pundits judged the political winds to be blowing in the direction of the president. Despite—or perhaps because of—how much experience they had in Washington, too many politicians feared looking weak and failed to ask hard questions. Too many took the president at his word instead of reading the intelligence for themselves. Congress gave the president the authority to go to war. Our only opportunity to stop the war was lost."
Obama was right from the beginning and he continues to be right today. No matter what anybody says, no one can change that. I am glad that Barack Obama is running for president and I will proudly vote for him in the primary and the general. President Obama...I can't wait until the day I can finally utter those words ; )
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