Posted on 08/17/2008 12:51:42 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Update: I linked to the msm item that characterized it as a "vote." There's also this - it doesn't use the word "vote." But frankly, decision seems a reach, too - unless you're simply calculating your way to the White House back in 2002. Obama didn't make any decisions of real consequence regarding Iraq. He may have had opinions. But not only has he had a pass on any real decision-making - it isn't like he's been an anti-war leader either. While he may skate on this one, if having an opinion on the Iraq War while you're presumably doing your job as some local legislator back in Illinois at the time was his "most gut-wrenching decision," the guy hasn't been tested at all. Either way, this is just political gamesmanship by Obama and nothing akin to getting to know the man. What a farcical response, looking to inject his opposition to the war into debate for whatever purpose, instead of taking the question on for real.
Asked first what was the most gut-wrenching decision he's ever had to make, Obama said it was that he "agonized" over his opposition to the Iraq war. He said that while he was "firmly convinced" there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq at the start of the war, it was also clear that Saddam Hussein "was a really bad person" who wanted to do the United States great harm. "You do everything you can to get that decision right," Obama said. "All those questions surrounding the war have been very difficult for me."
Tonight with Rick Warren, Obawon-calliope said this:
Obama said the most gut-wrenching decision of his life was to vote against the Iraq War. McCain said it was when he declined an offer to leave a prison camp in Vietnam.
Obama didn't vote against the Iraq War. He wasn't even in the Senate! Am I missing something here? Did he somehow qualify this to make it true? Or was it simply made up?
Obama was not in the Senate at the time of the vote but opposed the war from the start. He has proposed a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to be completed by the end of March 2008, and he told reporters he was uncertain how Clinton intended to end the conflict.
those bottom two links lead nowhere....
And what evidence was that thinking based on? All of the real evidence was to the contrary. When he's president, will he not believe virtually every intelligence agency in the world when they tell him something?
Was he taking Saddam's word for it?
The links to sbsun.com are dead. They’ve pulled the articles or moved them.
He had no access to the intelligence reports that were the basis of the votes in Congress - so on what basis was he forming his opinion? Couldn’t have been facts - must have just been an aversion to force, despite all the UN resolutions that Saddam defied. He is giving clear notice to the bad guys that if he is President they will have free reign and President Obama will do NOTHING about it.
He is a natural for Secretary General of the UN.
Related to last night, below is an excerpt from obama on the question of being evil...please just tell me, did he call the US evil when he said....
“...JUST BECAUSE WE THINK OUR
20 INTENTIONS ARE GOOD DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN THAT WE’RE
21 GOING TO BE DOING GOOD.”
“And what evidence was that thinking based on? All of the real evidence was to the contrary. When he’s president, will he not believe virtually every intelligence agency in the world when they tell him something?”
Probably the same “evidence” that a far left wacko used to reach that decision in a discussion group that I was in. She was a firm believer in multiple conspiracies, mostly about big corporations willingly killing lots of people because it increased their profit.
Her “evidence” was a firm conviction that the Iraq war was all about President Bush’ grab for oil in Iraq and his “revenge” because his father had been the target of an assassination plot. Therefore, weapons of mass destruction and the war on terror had nothing to do with going to war there. There were just “window dressing” for the gullible.
This is the sort of thing the hard core far left believe.
He again squeezed in the word torture to one of his answers.
Anything to make the U.S. look bad.
This clown in the presidential picture is real torture.
My husband mentioned the same thing - Obama wasn’t IN the Senate at the time. Where and when did he “vote” against the war in Iraq?
You're correct.
Here's a link to the transcript (first bad link). (Search the page on "Iraq" which is near the bottom).
The second bad link really doesn't need a replacement -- Obama had nothing to do with the decision to go to war in Iraq, since he didn't hold a seat in Congress. It's a matter of public record, is it not?
I also seriously doubt that anything about the Iraq war is his most "gut wrenching moment".
Saddam used chem weapons against Kurdish civilians. If that's not proof that he both had and was willing to use WMDs, then what more would Mr Obama ask for? I can't believe people can flaunt the "we never found any WMDs in Iraq" line and get away with it. Or are chemical weponse no longer considered WMDs in the new leftist political double-speak?
I GUESS THE OTHER EXAMPLE FROM -- I'M NOT SURE THIS WAS A MORE OF A PARTISAN ISSUE, BUT IT WAS SOMETHING THAT I FELT VERY DEEPLY WAS WHEN I OPPOSED THE INITIAL DECISION TO GO INTO WAR IN IRAQ. THAT WAS A NOT A POPULAR VIEW AT THE TIME AND I WAS JUST STARTING MY CAMPAIGN FOR THE UNITED STATES SENATE AND I THINK THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO ADVISED ME, YOU SHOULD BE CAUTIOUS. THIS IS GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL. THE PRESIDENT HAS A VERY HIGH APPROVAL RATING AND YOU COULD END UP LOSING THE ELECTION AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THIS.
Frankly, I believe it's must more likely he adopted his opposition only after the dems started yowling about what a collosal failure the whole thing was (about a month in, wasn't it?).
“My most gut wrenching moment? Uh, that would, uh, be right now, Rick.”
Obama didn't vote against the Iraq War. He wasn't even in the Senate! Am I missing something here? Did he somehow qualify this to make it true? Or was it simply made up?I may be wrong but I *think* the IL General Assembly took some meaningless vote on a useless Resolution against taking out Saddam militarily and letting the UN do its thing.
It would be like declaring the 3rd week in June - "Dill Pickle Week" - and just as important. That's the only way he could have "voted".
:-)
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