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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.
His biggest political pal is Arlen Specter. ‘Nuff said. : )
Smerconish has been in the bag for Obama since last winter. It has nothing to do with any of the “five tests”, he has been in love with the One since reading Bill Ayers’ “Dreams of my Father” on the air.
Smerconish also proves to be a man of no principles, as Obama violates everything Smerconish has always claimed to support, like strict constructionist judges, common sense education, strict immigration laws, etc. Smerconish has done a lot of work against Mumia Abu Jamal and for the widow of Officer Faulkner, killed by Jamal, but Obama shares beliefs, office space, and more with Ayers, who has a picture of Jamal on the wall of his office.
What will Smerconish do for work when Obama shuts down talk radio? Maybe he’ll be one of the new “balanced” hosts with whom we will be stuck?
That was Stalin. Lenin died in 1924 and Trotsky was killed in 1940.
You mean Stalin.
Michael was a Michael Schiavo supporter, and has a liberal position on abortion. He doesn't seem at all bothered by O's position, does he? Good for Mike Gallagher for calling him on it.
You will be corrected on that error you corrected, for the remainder of this thread. : )
It’s like I always say, it’s not “The War to Avenge 911” or even “The War on Al-Qaeda”. It’s “The War on Terror,” wherever it is.
We had reason to go into Iraq based solely on the fact they failed to abide by the Gulf War peace treaty....for ten long years, btw.
The place to avenge the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor was not Normandy, either.
The concept of a vital strategic interest and vitally strategic region does not seem to exist in the minds of these dangerously naive fools.
The stupidity of abandoning the military hegemony of the Persian Gulf region to anti-American thugs, whether they be secular Saddam Hussein or Islamic fundamentalist Iran, so that we can go chasing Osama bin Ladin completely ignores the strategic disaster that would befall Western Civilization if, one day, the 70% of the World's know oil reserves that are in the Persian Gulf are controlled by a nuclear armed, anti-American rogue state, be it secular or Islamist.
In strategic terms, Osama bin Ladin is of nothing but a Pancho Villa and you do not abandon 70% of the World's known oil reserves to go chasing after Pancho Villa.
I wish Hannity would stop mentioning Smerconish and promoting him. Smerconish rose to prominence on the backs of conservatives, pretending to be one of us, when he wasn’t.
Excellent post! : )
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Colin Powell wannabee?
His columns are some of the most shallow columns I have ever read, no doubt.
You got it!!! Mike Gallagher put Smerc on the same list with Kathleen Parker, Colin Powell and others. I’m sure Smerc loves it!
I immediately understood this as McCain being most Presidential in the most forthright way. Senator MCcCain's first impulse was to calm the fear and panic of some by reminding us that our most valuable economic engine, our people, were still strong and viable.
Obama's response was more alarmism for his own political gain.
Michael Smerconish you are a grand fool of a thing.
Very much agreed!
Barack Hussein Obama could care less where to prosecute the War on Terror.
Truth is, the elephant in the room is that to pay for all his social engineering Obama is going to cut huge money from the military budget. There will be nothing left to spend on fuel let alone operations in Afghanistan.
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