Posted on 10/20/2008 8:31:21 AM PDT by TAdams8591
Head Strong: McCain fails the big five tests His aim is untrue in too many areas, so a longtime Republican is voting for Obama. By Michael Smerconish - Inquirer
Inquirer Currents Columnist
I've decided. My conclusion comes after reading the candidates' memoirs and campaign platforms, attending both party conventions, interviewing both men multiple times, and watching all primary and general-election debates.
John McCain is an honorable man who has served his country well. But he will not get my vote. For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I'm voting for a Democrat for president. I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amid the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia.
Five considerations have moved me:
Terrorism. The candidates disagree as to where to prosecute the war against Islamic fundamentalists. Barack Obama is correct in saying the front line in that battle is not Iraq, it's the Afghan-Pakistan border. Osama bin Laden crossed that border from Tora Bora in December 2001, and we stopped pursuit. The Bush administration outsourced the hunt for bin Laden and instead invaded Iraq.
No one in Iraq caused the death of 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Our invasion was based on a false predicate, so we have no business being there, regardless of whether the surge is working. Our focus must be the tribal-ruled FATA region in Pakistan. Only recently has our military engaged al-Qaeda there in operations that mirror those Obama was ridiculed for recommending in August 2007.
Last spring, Obama told me: "It's not that I was opposed to war [in Iraq]. It's that I felt we had a war that we had not finished." Even Sen. Joe Lieberman conceded to me last Friday that "the headquarters of our opposition, our enemies today" is the FATA.
Note: he narcissisticly begins his column with "I've decided," as if we were all waiting with bated breath to see who HE would endorse.
Could you kindly ping your lists? : )
Smerconish is unread.
Hey, he forgot to say that he also 'voted for George Bush, twice,'.
Never heard of him. Is he trying to convince the other two republicans that reside in Philly to vote for Obama also?
We can also add TRAITOR to the Republican Party to the list. Michael wanted Tom Ridge for VP and uses McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin over Ridge as one of his reasons to support Obama. Does he believe Tom Ridge (also a Liberal Republican) and a good friend of McCain would EVER support Obama over his good friend Senator McCain?
I hope this idiot’s wealth is confiscated and given to an impoverished ‘Rat right after BO’s inauguration.
mental midget alert. These idiots are intellectual dishonest or were not awake for several years of the first term of this administration. This is a war on terror, not a war on Bin Ladin. A dead Osama does not change the threat.
There is a culture in the mideast that wants to KILL all of us. That region had a crazed dictator that took other lands and also had a habit of paying families to have their sons suicide bomb Israel. That is terrorism, leftist loons. The goal is to get rid of the culture that breads these militant Islamic terrorists.
Meanwhile Obama contemplates what WE did to bring this on ourselves.
Smerconish is such a talentless toilet bug....I’ve tried to listen to him, and even when he’s saying things that I agree with, he’s hard on the ears.
I suppose he’s just another sellout....I wonder how much Soros’ money did the trick....probably not much given his dubious skills.
He is a frequent commentator on the Clinton News Network.
Nuff said.
Well, Trotsky thought that backing Lenin would ingrate him and ensure his future. Instead, Lenin had him tracked to a Mexico City hotel room where his head was bashed in with a pick-axe.
What a moron. The war was in Iraq.
“Meanwhile Obama contemplates what WE did to bring this on ourselves. “
Obama would have always blamed us for 9/11...Remember the chickens came home to roost!!! It’s too bad that America is forgetting what happened to lead to Iraq War. We gave Osamma many chances to come clean...he taunted everyone and dared us to invade. He lost. We went there to fight the terrorist over there and not here. Has anyone noticed we have NOT been terrorized since?
Will never happen — the rats will take care of each other.
Wow — Some of Obama’s bit campaign money is starting to pay off. First Powell, now Smerconish. I wonder how much was offered to Mike.
the idiot himself
“Lifelong Republican” - Horsecrap!
“big” campaign money. Typo.
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