Tuesday - November 04, 2008

US elections: Danger lurks in Barack Obama’s comfort zone. (but, he’s been sent by god.)

And |I won’t even post the editorial cartoon illustration in todays paper.  Jeesh ... and for a conservative (?) paper. Well anyway,
Simon Heffer here at least is on the mark if nobody else is.

The remark re. O. sent by God. Yeah. And who says that? Stupid white folks and not the ones on the fringe right either. 

I need a coffee break. First of the morning.

Stay Tuned.

US elections: Danger lurks in Barack Obama’s comfort zone

By Simon Heffer in New York
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 04/11/2008

Two days ago, when the Sunday political talk shows of the US television networks were brimming with pundits announcing a landslide victory for Barack Obama, John McCain was jetting around America making five campaign stops. Yesterday, with the polls still showing him up to seven points behind his rival, he took in another seven. Most men would have wound down in the face of such apparently inevitable defeat. But John McCain, for whom life has never been so rewarding as when fighting against a seemingly intractable problem, is not most men.

What is regarded as the inevitability of defeat has given Mr McCain new energy. Being 72, it is certainly his last chance. He joked as much during Saturday Night Live last weekend, saying Mr Obama was young enough to have more opportunities, and now was his turn. The joke was only so funny because of its element of truth.

It is no reason to elect Mr McCain. His determination and his warrior-like quality never to admit defeat until it is obvious certainly are. There is an even more important point: he is laden with experience relevant to the job. He is not a rock star like his opponent, but no one has yet argued that this would make him a better chief executive of the world’s only superpower. This contest comes at a unique moment in modern American history and Mr McCain, despite the obliviousness of so much of America to the point, is the man for that moment.

The country is not merely at war in two theatres. It is not merely facing threats to its security. It is also trying to come to terms with the worst economic outlook since the 1930s. Add to that the constantly expressed concern about those scores of thousands of fellow Americans “in harm’s way” on foreign battlefields, and the fear of what challenge might be thrown up next, and you have a landscape of extreme uncertainty.

The choice faced by the electorate is clear. It can either vote for reality or for escapism: and John McCain has the greater appreciation of what reality might entail. I have been struck on several visits here this year just how much Americans, worn down by the failures and embarrassments of the Bush years, want something other than reality. That, though, is simply storing up troubles. The landscape of uncertainty requires someone tested in fire to lead people through it: not just for America’s sake but for the sake of that portion of the world that looks to America for leadership.

Mr Obama is a confection; he is an image, a brand, a lifestyle. He has the talents of the thespian, less obviously those of the executive. He has been branded a socialist by Sarah Palin and, because it was Sarah Palin doing the branding, the term was ridiculed by media here who are almost clinically biased against the Republicans. However, when one examines Mr Obama’s rhetoric about “spreading the wealth”, and looks at spending promises made in the past 21 months, socialism is a fair term. He plans, or at least has promised, expensive projects - such as healthcare reforms. Inflicting tax rises on a country where people are losing their jobs, having their homes foreclosed upon and having their businesses driven into bankruptcy is something whose consequences Mr Obama has yet to outline.

Neither candidate sees that the economic policies they have dealt in have been rendered anachronistic by recent events. Mr McCain was all at sea at the height of the crisis and it damaged him badly, perhaps terminally. Mr Obama knew no better: he just had the sense to keep quiet. As president, he would find he can’t keep quiet. At least Mr McCain, with his long?standing message of smaller government, less regulation and reduced spending, has a better chance of adapting to the new circumstances. An Obama presidency, given the dire straits of America’s economy, will quickly and inevitably disappoint once reality kicks in.

The clinching reason why America should vote for McCain over Obama rests, however, in the question of foreign policy and international security. It is to be hoped that America (and therefore the free world) faces no new security challenges in the years ahead and can extract itself from Iraq and assert control in Afghanistan. But these are only hopes. There are unscrupulous and fanatical elements who may take the election of President Obama as an invitation to see how far America can be pushed. One thinks of Iran, or the failure of Pakistan to rein in malevolent elements. Some argue that the advice of the State Department would be the same to President Obama as to President McCain, and that it would have to be followed. I am not so sure. Mr McCain, who understands well how foreign powers and military operations work, would have a much more informed discussion with his advisers. Mr Obama would be starting from a position of near total ignorance, and on a matter of life and death.

That question of international security is fundamental. It is the case for voting McCain. America is famed for its parochialism, even in time of war. That is why so many have found it easy to enter the Obama comfort zone. Whoever wins, being comfortable will not be part of the job of being president. A man with five-and-a-half years in the Hanoi Hilton under his belt would adapt better to that ultimate reality than would his rival.

http://tinyurl.com/5ex3cy

Posted by peiper     on 11/04/2008 at 03:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Politics •  
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