Now I know this may be somewhat unpopular and many of you are rightly focused on just winning the election more so than winning every point. But after watching the debate, I've gotta say...some of Obama's positions are entirely too nuanced for my taste....I think he can do better and I wish he would because Americans are ready for this...they are ready now and the more he puts it off or waters down these issues, the weaker they ultimately become and the worse off we will all be....follow me over the jump FOR EXAMPLES:
With respect to Iraq, while McCain continuously calls Obama WRONG on Iraq....Obama only slightly distinguishes the surge from the original invasion decision, which he characterizes by saying "we got distracted" from the war against Al-Qaida .....DISTRACTED? Give me a fucking break. Why can't Obama just say WE WERE MISLED BY OUR GOVERNMENT TO INVADE IRAQ UNDER FALSE PRETENSES, I GUARANTEE THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN UNDER AN OBAMA ADMINISTRATION. He should explain how invading an Arab/Muslim country under false pretenses at that time in history played into Bin Laden's rhetoric (a strategic blunder) and conveniently presented our military as an ambush target in a foreign land (a tactical blunder) tasked with a mission developed on the fly and for which ultimately, they were not trained beforehand (democracy building).
With respect to Iran....both yahoos debate the "Iran threat" to Israel as if it has any substance at all...like tripping over themselves to court the American jew vote by acknowledging this "threat" and puffing up against it is more important than debunking the notion that Iran poses any imminent threat to Israel, at all. It does not and it will not, if at all, for MANY years to come. So why play into the false premise? Why can't he say: IRAN DOES NOT POSE THE THREAT YOU THINK IT DOES. ISRAEL IS IN NO DANGER AND IT IS FOOLISH TO THREATEN IRAN WHEN WE NEED TO ENCOURAGE THAT COUNTRY TO EMBRACE DEMOCRACY.
Granted, that is politically unpopular, but it happens to be true. Both candidates fear that if they don't accept as true the false premise of Israel's imminent danger and then propose all manner of battle plans to attack Iran, including the use of nuclear weapons, they will lose favor with the jewish vote and, somehow, the election.
C'mon, I love me some Israel as much as the next guy, but this is bullshit. First, the argument assumes Israel lovers are stupid and monolithic on this issue. They are not. This is a hypothetical and most folks are smart enough to realize that, especially if someone had the political cajones to acknowledge it. Secondly, this hypothetical based rhetoric just inflames anti-U.S. passions in the region and again plays into Bin Laden's hands, further undermining our "hearts and minds" efforts, which are the key to true and lasting success in the GWOT.
Obama needs to realize (maybe he does, I don't know) that everything he says is listened to by the rest of the world. He will be the first President of a truly global age and he needs to articulate a truly global vision...one that reclaims our moral authority and one that extends the promises and guarantees that make our Country great to the rest of the world, longing for the same. WHY can't he say he'll use our economic and diplomatic tools to encourage the creation of new democracies and will simply refuse to do business with and thereby subsidize lesser systems of government? Iran is not an imminent threat. We need not hypothesize how we would immediately crush it. Rather, we should be discussing how to defuse the radical theocracy that presently controls that country and which is the "meme" at the heart of Al-Qaida and similar fundamentalist terror organizations.
I want so much for Obama to be the one.....and I think he is....but last night's debate demonstrates to me at least, that he is thinking more like a politician today than a global leader....hopefully that changes after Nov. 4.
So there, sue me...I'm just hoping for a little better.